1. Multidimensional Poverty Measurement
Dr David Gordon
Director
Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research
University of Bristol
Simposio: Probreza, disigualdad y exclusion social
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
30th November – 1st December 2010

2. Web Site http://www.bristol.ac.uk/povertyx
Web Site

3. Cartogram of the World Population

4. Number of people with incomes over $200 per day

5. Number of people with incomes less than $10 per day

8. The Need to Eradicate Child Poverty

9. Age at death by age group, 1990-1995
Source: The State of the World Population 1998

10. Death Toll of 20th Century Atrocities http://users. erols
Death toll of young children from poverty, 1990 to 1995 10

12. Absolute Poverty
After the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, 117 countries adopted a declaration and programme of action which included commitments to eradicate “absolute” and reduce “overall” poverty.
Absolute poverty was defined as "a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services." (UN, 1995)

13. The Minimum Core Obligations
Human Rights
The Minimum Core Obligations
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights “is of the view that a minimum core obligation to ensure the satisfaction of, at least, minimum essential levels of each of the rights is incumbent upon every member state party. Thus, for example, a state party in which any significant number of individuals is deprived of essential foodstuffs, of essential primary health care, of basic shelter and housing, or of the most basic form of education is, prima facie, failing to discharge its obligations under the convention”

14. Continuum of deprivation
Deprivation can be conceptualised as a continuum which ranges from no deprivation through mild, moderate and severe deprivation to extreme deprivation.
Continuum of deprivation
In order to measure absolute poverty amongst children, it is necessary to define the threshold measures of severe deprivation of basic human need for:
food
safe drinking water
sanitation facilities
health
shelter
education
information
access to service

15. Child Poverty in the World
Over one billion children – half the children in the world- suffer from severe deprivation of basic human need and 30% (650 million) suffer from absolute poverty (two or more severe deprivations).
‘severe deprivation of basic human need’ are those circumstances that are highly likely to have serious adverse consequences for the health, well-being and development of children. Severe deprivations are causally related to ‘poor’ developmental outcomes both long and short term.

16. Severe Deprivation of Basic Human Need for Children
Almost a third of the world’s children live in dwellings with more than five people per room or which have a mud floor.
Over half a billion children (27%) have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
Over 400 million children (19%) are using unsafe (open) water sources or have more than a 15-minute walk to water.
About one child in five, aged 3 to 18, lacks access to radio, television, telephone or newspapers at home.
Sixteen percent of children under five years in the world are severely malnourished, almost half of whom are in South Asia.
275 million children (13%) have not been immunised against any diseases or have had a recent illness causing diarrhoea and have not received any medical advice or treatment.
One child in nine aged between 7 and 18 (over 140 million) are severely educationally deprived - they have never been to school.

17. Policy Definitions and the Measurement of Poverty

18. European Union legal definition of poverty
On the 19 December 1984, the European Commission extended the definition of poverty as:
“the poor shall be taken to mean persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the Member State in which they live.” (EEC, 1985).
This is clearly relative definitions of poverty in that it refers poverty not as some ‘absolute basket of goods’ but in terms of the minimum acceptable standard of living applicable to a certain Member State and within a person’s own society.

19. Mexican Law on Poverty Measurement
General Law of Social Development (LGDS): Article 36 – An official Multidimensional Poverty Measure must be produce which includes at least the following eight dimensions;
Per capita current income
Average gap between compulsory education and actual education at the household level (educational gap)
Access to Health Services
Access to Social Security
Dwelling characteristics, space and quality
Access to basic dwelling related services (water, sewerage, electricity, etc)
Access to food
Level of social cohesion

20. Low Income in Britain

21. Mexican Uni-dimensional Income Poverty Measures
There are a large number of these, for example;
Sedesol alimentary threshold (ie basic food costs) – $1.5 to $2.0 person/day
Sedesol capacities threshold (i.e. alimentary plus education & health costs) - $1.8 to $2.4 person/day
Sedesol patrimony threshold (ie capacities plus dwelling, transport and clothing) - $2.8 to $4.1 person/day

22. Vulnerable people by social deprivations Vulnerable people by income
Total population 2008 (106,680,526)
Population without deprivations and with an adequate level of economic wellbeing
Vulnerable people by social deprivations
33.0%
35.2 millions
2.0 deprivations on average
18.3%
19.5 millions
Wellbeing
Income
MODERATE POVERTY
MULTIDIMENSIONAL
POVERTY
Vulnerable people by income
EXTREME POVERTY
44.2%
47.2 millions
2.7 deprivations on average
Deprivations
4.5 %
4.8 millions 3 2 1 4 5 6
Social Rights
Source: estimates of the CONEVAL based on the MCS-ENIGH 2008.

23. Human Rights and the Cause of Poverty
Human rights open up for analysis the structural causes of poverty, rather than only its symptoms, and the impact of government action or inaction on people living in poverty. In this sense, the goal of human rights is to ‘render power accountable … to reconnect power and obligations’ (Gready & Phillips, 2009,p 3).
Using human rights entails a shift in perspective from needs and charity to socially and legally guaranteed entitlements and duty: states have legal obligations for which they can be held accountable.
Seen through a human rights lens, poverty is ‘neither natural nor inevitable but becomes something done to people, for whom certain actors bear responsibility’ (Gready, 2008, p. 742)
Source: Donald and Mottershaw (2009) Poverty, Inequality and Human Rights

24. Human Rights and Multidimensional Poverty
The full package of human rights provides a lens through which poverty is seen as multi-dimensional, encompassing not only a low income, but also other forms of deprivation and loss of dignity.
Donald and Mottershaw (2009) Poverty, Inequality and Human Rights

25. The Problem with Capability Theory for Poverty Measurement
There is no agreed list of capabilities – the work of Nussabaum is highly contested e.g. the capability of interacting with ‘other species’
There is no agreed methodology for drawing up a list of capabilities
Sen has argued for over 20 years that poverty is absolute in “the space of the capabilities themselves – the direct constituent of the standard of living – escape from poverty has an absolute requirement, to wit, avoidance of this type of shame. Not so much having equal shame as others, but just not being ashamed, absolutely.”
A fundamental problem with this argument is that it is non-sociological, it assumes that a person’s capabilities can be determined and interpreted independently of the society in which they live i.e. that ‘shame’ has some ‘absolute’ meaning independent of society
Townsend consistently argued for over 50 years that all conceivable workable definitions of poverty – even those that purport to be absolute definitions – only have meaning relative to the society in which a person lives. If Townsend is correct then it is literally impossible to define or measure poverty in absolute terms in capability or any other space i.e. Sen’s argument is meaningless semantics

26. The Importance of Social Right & Services

27. The Average Value of Services to UK Households in 2008
Poorest 10%
Richest 10%
Market income (earnings, investments, etc)
4,620
103,501
Direct taxes
1,165
25,937
Indirect taxes
3,138
8,654
Post tax market income
317
68,910
Total cash benefits
4,917
1,343
Value of in kind services
Education
4,494
1,319
National health service
2,231
2,040
Housing subsidy 45 2
Rail travel subsidy 30
164
Bus travel subsidy 49 86
School meals and welfare milk 90 1
Total Services (in-kind benefits)
6,938
3,611
Final income
12,172
73,864

29. Economic Cost of Child Poverty in the UK
Child poverty costs the UK at least £25 billion a year, (equivalent to 2% of GDP) including £17 billion that could accrue to the Exchequer if child poverty were eradicated.
Public spending to deal with the fallout of child poverty is about £12 billion a year, about 60 per cent of which goes on personal social services, school education and police and criminal justice.
- The annual cost of below-average employment rates and earnings levels among adults who grew up in poverty is about £13 billion, of which £5 billion represents extra benefit payments and lower tax revenues; the remaining £8 billion is lost earnings to individuals, affecting gross domestic product (GDP).

30. Bramley, G. and Watkins, D. (2008) The public service costs of child poverty. York: JRF

32. The Effects of the Global Economic Crisis

34. The Scale of the Financial Rescue in the USA & UK
The bank’s profits were private but the losses belong to the public!

35. Paying for the US Financial Rescue

36. The Global Financial Crisis: the Effects on Children & Young People
It seems inevitable that the global financial crisis will increase child and youth poverty in both the ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ countries.
The global recession will lead to cuts in social expenditures on health, education and other services which are crucial to children’s well being.
Unemployment will increase and the worst affected are likely to be young workers (16-24), those with poor educational qualifications, those living in already impoverished areas/regions and some minority groups.
The value of remittances will decline as will economic migration opportunities.
Foreign Direct Investment will decline
Global demand for exports will decline
Child labour may increase in response to failing household incomes and reduced education budgets
Domestic violence and crime may increase due to financial stress

37. Scientific Definition and Measurement of Poverty

38. Scientific Definitions of Poverty
Poverty can be defined as;
Command over insufficient resources over time
The result of poverty is deprivation

39. Peter Townsend’s concept of relative deprivation
Argues that poverty can only be measured:
“objectively and applied consistently only in terms of the concept of relative deprivation.…. The term is understood objectively rather than subjectively. Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or at least widely encouraged or approved, in the society to which they belong” (1979, p 31)

40. Peter Townsend’s concept of dynamic poverty
“poverty is a dynamic, not a static concept…Our general theory, then, should be that individuals and families whose resources over time fall seriously short of the resources commanded by the average individual or family in the community in which they live are in poverty.”
Townsend (1962, p 219)

41. Modal Deprivation by Logarithm of Income as a Percentage
of Supplementary Benefit Scale Rates (Townsend, 1979)

42. Definition of poverty

43. Dynamics of poverty

44. Poverty Groups

45. Vulnerable people by social deprivations Vulnerable people by income
Total population 2008 (106,680,526)
Population without deprivations and with an adequate level of economic wellbeing
Vulnerable people by social deprivations
33.0%
35.2 millions
2.0 deprivations on average
18.3%
19.5 millions
Wellbeing
Income
MODERATE POVERTY
MULTIDIMENSIONAL
POVERTY
Vulnerable people by income
EXTREME POVERTY
44.2%
47.2 millions
2.7 deprivations on average
Deprivations
4.5 %
4.8 millions 3 2 1 4 5 6
Social Rights
Source: estimates of the CONEVAL based on the MCS-ENIGH 2008.

47. The research aims
To improve the measurement of poverty, deprivation, social exclusion and standard of living.
To measure the change in the nature and extent of poverty and social exclusion over the past ten years.
To produce policy-relevant results about the causes and outcomes of poverty and social exclusion.

48. International Advisory Board
1) Dr Aya Abe (National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan)
2) Professor Julio Boltvinik (El Colegio de México, Mexico)
3) Dr Petra Böhnke (WZB, Germany)
4) Madior Fall (Afristat, Mali & INSEE, France)
5) Professor Bjorn Hallerod (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
6) Dr Daniel He-chiun Liou (Asia University, Taiwan)
7) Professor Brian Nolan (University College Dublin, Ireland)
8) Bryan Perry (Research Manager, Ministry of Social Development, New Zealand)
9) Professor Veli-Matti Ritakallio (University of Turku, Finland)
10) Pedro Sáinz - Secretary of the UN Expert Group on Poverty Statistics (Rio Group, Brazil)
11) Professor Peter Saunders (University of New South Wales, Australia)
12) Dr Gemma Wright (University of Oxford) – work in South Africa

49. The Bristol Social Exclusion Matrix (B-SEM)