Wednesday, July 14, 2010

[EQ] Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries

Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries

Sabina Alkire,  Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Queen Elizabeth House (QEH), Department of International Development

Maria Emma Santos, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, UK and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina.

Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) - Oxford Department of International Development - Queen Elizabeth House (QEH), University of Oxford - July 2010

Available online PDF [133p.] at: http://bit.ly/9Ds9wt

“…..This paper presents a new Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for 104 developing countries. It is the first time multidimensional poverty is estimated using micro datasets (household surveys) for such a large number of countries which cover about 78 percent of the world´s population. The MPI has the mathematical structure of one of the Alkire and Foster poverty multidimensional measures and it is composed of ten indicators corresponding to same three dimensions as the Human Development Index: Education, Health and Standard of Living.

 

Our results indicate that 1,700 million people in the world live in acute poverty, a figure that is between the $1.25/day and $2/day poverty rates. Yet it is no $1.5/day measure. The MPI captures direct failures in functionings that Amartya Sen argues should form the focal space for describing and reducing poverty. It constitutes a tool with an extraordinary potential to target the poorest, track the Millennium Development Goals, and design policies that directly address the interlocking deprivations poor people experience. This paper presents the methodology and components in the MPI and describes main results, and shares basic robustness tests…..”

Multidimensional Poverty Index  MPI at: http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/

 “….OPHI and the UNDP Human Development Report launch the Multidimensional Poverty Index or MPI – an innovative new measure that gives a vivid “multidimensional” picture of people living in poverty. The MPI will be featured in the 20th Anniversary edition of the UNDP Human Development Report and goes beyond income by reflecting a range of deprivations that afflict a person’s life at the same time.

The measure assesses the nature and intensity of poverty at the individual level in education, health outcomes, and standard of living.  OPHI has just concluded a first ever estimate and analysis of global multidimensional poverty across 104 developing countries, and is releasing these results in advance of the Report’s October publication…”

Short country-specific summaries on the results of the MPI analyses in 104 developing nations
http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/mpi-country-briefings/

 

 

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