Publication: October 2022 Update to the Multidimensional Poverty Measure: What’s New
Date
2022-10
ISSN
Published
2022-10
Author(s)
Diaz-Bonilla, Carolina
Sabatino, Carlos
Wu, Haoyu
Nguyen, Minh Cong
Abstract
The World Bank’s Multidimensional
Poverty Measure (MPM) presents a broader understanding of
poverty beyond just the monetary dimension by incorporating
access to education and basic infrastructure as additional
dimension of well-being. It aims to thus highlight
additional deprivations experienced by poor households
beyond the monetary headcount ratio at the 2.15 dollars
international poverty line. To estimate the MPM in a
standard way for as many countries as possible, data
limitations result in a trade-off between the number of
dimensions that can be included and the number of countries
that have the required harmonized indicators. Both education
and access to basic infrastructure are generally available
in household surveys across the world. The World Bank’s
measure takes inspiration and guidance from other prominent
multidimensional measures, particularly the Multidimensional
Poverty Index (MPI) developed by UNDP and Oxford University.
The MPM and MPI differ in one important aspect: the MPM
includes the monetary poverty dimension, measured as having
household income or consumption per capita that is less than
2.15 dollars per day, the new International Poverty Line at
2017 PPPs published by the World Bank in 2022. A focus on
non-monetary deprivations for the income-poor highlights to
policymakers the importance of improving other aspects of
human welfare that may not be well-captured by the monetary
measure alone. For example, households that are income poor
as well as deprived in non-monetary dimensions face worse
levels of well-being than households that are only income
poor but have good access to services and education. It is
also useful to measure deprivations in basic services faced
by non-income-poor households, including households that
leave extreme poverty but continue to experience nonmonetary
deprivations, as these households face different constraints
to well-being. A poverty measure that includes nonmonetary
aspects thus highlights deprivations that may otherwise
remain hidden. Securing higher living standards for a
population becomes more challenging when poverty in all its
forms is considered, but it can provide policymakers a
roadmap for and a means of monitoring improvements in welfare.
Citation
“Diaz-Bonilla, Carolina; Sabatino, Carlos; Wu, Haoyu; Nguyen, Minh Cong. 2022. October 2022 Update to the Multidimensional Poverty Measure : What’s New. Global Poverty Monitoring Technical Note;26. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/38203 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”