A review of the use of multidimensional poverty measures
Informing advocacy, policy and accountability to address child poverty
Highlights
This comprehensive review aims to unpack and understand the ways that multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis can impact on national policies, programmes and accountability mechanisms and ultimately lead to the reduction of multidimensional child poverty. The focus of the review is on actual country examples of the policy use of multidimensional poverty measures. It is based on an extensive review of the literature (over 90 reports and papers were reviewed), complimented by qualitative interviews with 24 key stakeholdersinvolved in both the measurement and the use of multidimensional poverty measures, including academics, researchers, and policymakers in government and international organizations. The review provides documentation of 33 country examples, featuring diverse political and economic contexts.
The typology of impact pathways emerging from the review and the key conclusions are:
Impact pathway 1: Child poverty advocacy – raising awareness and changing the language and concept of poverty
Impact pathway 2: Using multidimensional poverty measures to identify policies and programmes to reduce child poverty. Four most common key policy recommendations emerging from multidimensional poverty analysis are:
1.The broad targeting of geographic areas and groups in poverty based on a multidimensional poverty measure.
2.The importance of multidimensional poverty measures in guiding multisectoral investment and coordination.
3.The use of multidimensional poverty measures to guide and influence national and sub-national budgets.
4.Social protection is commonly included as a policy recommendation for addressing multidimensional poverty.
Impact pathway 3: Embedding multidimensional poverty in government agendas and strengthening accountability.
The review also highlights important foundations in the processes of developing and using multidimensional poverty and child poverty measures to ensure impact, and outlines important avenues for future work in the field of multidimensional poverty measurement and policy design.
