National Policy

Read more about the Alkire Foster method for multidimensional measurement here.

OPHI’s method (the Alkire Foster method) for measuring multidimensional poverty, devised by Sabina Alkire and James Foster, can be used to create national measures of poverty and wellbeing. The method goes beyond one-dimensional approaches, such as income alone, to incorporate several different ‘dimensions’ of poverty and wellbeing. These might include education, health, standard of living, access to food, access to social security, and others.

The Alkire Foster method is flexible. Different dimensions and indicators can be selected to create a measure specific to the society and situation. In this way, the method can be used to create national measures specific to a country’s context. Mexico used a form of this method to create their current national poverty measure and Bhutan used the method to calculate their national wellbeing measure, the ‘Gross National Happiness’ Index.

More about Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index