Multidimensional Poverty Analysis

The essay question is affiliated with a topic which has fuelled much debate—which measurement approach or index is characterised by the most efficacy in defining and comprehending poverty, and the extent to which it is existent in different regions of the world. The multidimensional approach is one of many which attempt to most efficiently measure poverty. This essay will explore the concept of multidimensional poverty and assess its strengths and limitations in comparison to other methods of measurements which employ income and consumption as their main tools in determining poverty levels. Firstly, a comprehension of the term—poverty, must be established in order to thoroughly investigate the essay topic.

As a whole, poverty is generally

Therefore, the well-being of a population—and its deprivation—are contingent on both monetary and non-monetary variables. High income levels may enhance the monetary and non-monetary elements of a person or household, however, the markets for a number of non-monetary elements are non-existent, hence implying that higher income may not necessarily result in improved well-being. Consequently, it can be inferred that it would be inadequate to attribute income as the sole indicator of well-being and/or poverty. Rather, it should be supplemented with other variables and indicative components, such as literacy, life expectancy and access to public amenities; to mention but a

The UNDP’s Human Poverty Indicator (HPI) was feasibly the pioneering influential multidimensional approach. It was calculated at national level with the use of three indicators: rates of mortality, illiteracy and economic deprivation (measured by access to healthcare, clean water and the prevalence of child malnourishment). However, the HPI failed to encapsulate the incidence or nature of multidimensional poverty at an individual level. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) replaced the HPI in 2010. The Alkire-Foster (AF) counting approach was employed to develop the global MPI (Un.org, 2015). The MPI provides a productive complement to income-based poverty measures with information on the overlapping deprivations experienced simultaneously by individuals. Its ten indices relate to the HPI’s three dimensions, and depict the number of people who are multidimensionally poor as well as the number of divergent deprivations which they encounter. This indicates the incidence and intensity of poverty in a given region at certain time periods. It can be broken down by dimension or by groupings (such as region or ethnicity), with beneficial implications for policy stratagems. Thus it can distinguish between, for instance, a group of poor people who suffer a single deprivations on average, and a group of poor people who suffer three deprivations