A Multidimensional Approach: Poverty Measurement & Beyond

Abstract

Poverty has probably always been understood as a multidimensional problem, yet traditionally it has been measured with one dimension: income. The assumption was that the income level could capture fairly well whether people were able to achieve certain minimum thresholds in a variety of dimensions such as nutrition, clothing and housing. In recent years there has been a growing consensus regarding the insufficiency of income poverty measures. The recognition of these limitations has led to the development of methodologies to measure poverty in a multidimensional way and to an increasing demand from governments to design official poverty measures of this kind which can complement the income poverty measures.