OPHIOxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative
Oxford Department of International Development
Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford
Latest News
Meaningful Measures of Poverty in 2010: Mexico and Beyond
A new multidimensional poverty measure co-developed by OPHI researchers was adopted by the Mexican government last month. It is the first national model to reflect the full breadth of poverty at the household level, including social factors such as health, housing, education and access to food, as well as income. OPHI Director Sabina Alkire and OPHI Research Associate James Foster created the technique, which Mexico has drawn on and adapted to their own context.
Traditionally, measures of poverty and well-being have relied on monetary indicators, such as income or Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But such narrow metrics only capture part of the picture. “Poverty and wellbeing are multidimensional concepts that involve all aspects of a person’s experience of life,” said Sabina Alkire. “To combat poverty effectively, we need to understand its causes. Our measure not only identifies who is poor and how poor they are, it tells us what the major drivers of poverty are among different groups of people. For example, access to drinking water may rank as the major contributor to poverty in rural areas of a country, whereas poverty in urban areas may be driven by education. This information is highly valuable for policy makers in deciding where to focus resources.”
Mexico’s new measure was launched on Thursday 10 December 2009 in Mexico City by Mexico’s National Council for the Evaluation of Social Policy (CONEVAL). “Mexico is proud to be the first country in the world to measure poverty, not narrowly on economic grounds alone, but to take full account of crucial social components of poverty such as quality of housing and access to healthcare and food, which are all too often neglected by established poverty measures,” said Dr Gonzalo Hernández Licona, Executive Secretary of CONEVAL.
The Mexican government is one of several high-profile institutions to recognise the need for wider measures to provide more relevant information for policy makers. Last September French president Nicolas Sarkozy commissioned a report by an expert panel, including Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, to look at how governments can take full account of citizen’s wellbeing, not just national economic growth. Bhutan employed Alkire and Foster’s multidimensional method to create the country’s aptly named ‘Gross National Happiness’ Index. The index incorporates nine dimensions, as diverse as health, culture, time use and environmental diversity, and demonstrates the versatility of Alkire and Foster’s measure: because it allows you to choose which dimensions and indicators are used it can be adapted to a huge variety of situations.
Interest in this multidimensional approach in 2010 looks set to grow. Chile will hold an international conference on ‘Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in Latin America’ during March; closed by the Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet. OPHI, the Chilean Government’s Ministry of Planning and the Foundation for Overcoming Poverty are partnering with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean to organise the meeting. Internationally, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has commissioned OPHI to use the Alkire Foster measure to evaluate multidimensional poverty across more than 100 countries for its 2010 Human Development Report.
For more information:
The Alkire Foster Measure
Read
-a policy oriented summary on the AF measure
-the original method, Alkire and Foster 2007
-the updated and revised paper, Alkire and Foster 2009
Read OPHI’s background paper to the Sarkozy Commission Report ‘The Capability Approach and Quality of Life Measures’.
Launch of Mexico’s New Poverty Measure
Read
-CONEVAL’s press release (English Spanish)
-glossary of terms in English
-presentation given by Sabina Alkire and James Foster at the launch in Mexico City
-presentation given by CONEVAL Executive Secretary, Dr Gonzalo Hernández Licona in Spanish or English
News Coverage of Mexico’s New Poverty Measure
La Jornada - Anuncia el Coneval un nuevo método multidimensional para medir pobreza - 09 Diciembre
La Journada - Viven en pobreza 43% de adultos mayores, informa el Coneval - 21 Dic
El Informador - Viven en pobreza extrema 11.2 millones de mexicanos: Coneval - 21 Dic
El Universal - Pobres, 4 de cada 10 en México - 11 de Dic
La Crónica de Hoy - La pobreza en el país aumentó 1% el primer semestre: Sedesol - 11 Dic
La Jornada -Niños, los que padecen más carencias - 11 Dic
El Economista - Rumbo a la pobreza, 40 millones de mexicanos - 11 Dic
Milenio - 33.2 millones de mexicanos enfrentan situaciones de pobreza - 10 Dic
EFE - Pobreza crece en México en 1,5 millones de personas en primer semestre de año- 10 Dic
About OPHI (Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative)
OPHI is a research centre within the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. OPHI is led by Sabina Alkire, and works to develop and apply new ways to measure and analyse poverty, human development and welfare, drawing on the work of Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen. James Foster is a Research Associate at OPHI and a Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. OPHI gratefully acknowledges support for its research and activities from the Government of Canada through the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and private benefactors.
About CONEVAL (National Council for the Evaluation of Social Policy)
The General Law of Social Development establishes the creation of CONEVAL as a decentralized agency from the Federal Government with technical and administrative autonomy. On one hand, it regulates and coordinates the evaluation of social development policies and programs; on the other, it establishes the guidelines and criteria for the definition, identification and measurement of poverty in Mexico. To carry out these tasks, CONEVAL is headed by an executive secretary and six academic counsellors, elected by the National Commission of Social Development from the Deputies Chamber through a national call.
Background
Measures of poverty have traditionally relied on income or consumption as the indicator of a person or nation’s well-being. However, measures based on income alone miss out important social dimensions of poverty and well-being, such as education and health. For example, a measure based on income alone would not differentiate between a person with access to free State-provided healthcare and education and a person on the same income who does not have access to these services, though clearly the person without these services would be worse-off overall.
More recently, there has been widespread agreement that well-being is a multidimensional concept that encompasses all aspects of human life. A multidimensional approach considers several different factors or ‘dimensions’ (e.g. education, health, nutrition, housing, as well as income) that contribute towards a person or nation’s welfare. The choice of dimensions (e.g. education), indicators (e.g. how many years of education a person has) and cutoffs (e.g. a person with fewer than five years of education is considered deprived) depends on the society and situation.
Missing Dimensions Resources Available in French
OPHI’s colourful poster introducing the theme ‘Missing Dimensions of Poverty’ is now available in French. OPHI is collaborating with the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) Network and Institut National de la Statistique, des Etudes Economiques et Démographiques (INSEED) in Chad to test OPHI’s missing dimensions survey modules. The data collected through the project will also provide information on the missing dimensions - employment quality, empowerment, physical safety, the absence of shame and humiliation, and psychological/subjective wellbeing – in the field sites in Chad. The full questionnaire implemented in Chad by INSEED illustrates how the missing dimensions modules can be integrated into a multi-topic survey. More information on the missing dimensions research programme is available on our research pages.
New E-Chapter on Measuring Poverty Available ~ Free
A non-technical, policy oriented summary of the Alkire and Foster method for measuring multidimensional poverty is now available to download as an e-chapter. The chapter, entitled ‘Counting and Multidimensional Poverty’ forms part of a new book ‘The Poorest and The Hungry’ published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, aimed at practitioners and researchers. The chapter explains why multidimensional measures are needed, the problem of complex poverty measures and goes on to describe the Alkire Foster measure, how to apply it, its properties and uses.
OPHI in Action
How do we measure development? Watch OPHI's Director Sabina Alkire talking about our work on multidimensional poverty measurement in an interview at the 11th Annual Global Development Conference in Prague on 17 January. Alkire and a group of distinguished panellists including François Bourguignon, Andrew Clark and Jeni Klugman, chaired by Jean-Philippe Platteau, discussed measurement of welfare and social progress in light of the Sarkozy Commission’s final report. OPHI prepared a background paper for the Sarkozy Commission on the 'The Capability Approach to Quality of Life Measures'.
Re-phrasing Human Development for the 2010 UNDP Human Development Report Listen to Sabina Alkire's lecture at the Institute of Development Studies, Brighton on 28 January. Since 1990, many have described human development as 'enlarging people's choices'. But that leaves out people's voice and agency; it ignores the environment and it is blind to inequality (whose choices matter most?). The twentieth anniversary edition of the HDR will propose a new concept of human development, which includes capabilities, processes, and agency as integral parts of development, and observes that we share the same planet. Alkire will discuss how this new concept is being formulated. To read about how you can contribute, click here. A podcast of the lecture is available on the IDS website.
Measuring Chronic Poverty OPHI’s Maria Emma Santos presented this paper on a new class of chronic poverty measures (co-authored with James E. Foster) at the 31st Meeting of the Brazilian Econometric Society New Frontiers in Poverty Analysis held in Foz do Igazu on 9-11 December 2009.
Ethics of Human Development and Global Justice: Responsibilities of Institutions and Citizens for Action on Poverty Sabina Alkire was a plenary speaker at the 8th Conference of the International Development Ethics Association in Valencia, Spain, held on 2-4 December 2009.
International Conference on Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in Latin America
OPHI is teaming up with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Chilean Government’s Ministry of Planning (MIDEPLAN) and the Foundation for Overcoming Poverty (FSP) to organise an international conference ‘Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in Latin America’.
The conference will take place in ECLAC’s prestigious Raúl Prebisch Conference Hall in Santiago, Chile on 4-5 March 2010, and will be closed by the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet. Participants will include international and national academics and practitioners, as well as government ministers.
The meeting is being convened in response to growing interest in multidimensional poverty analysis in Latin America. It will contribute to national debate on whether Chile should build on their strong record in social policy by moving to a multidimensional measure of poverty.
Mexico recently adopted a new multidimensional standard for poverty measurement, which draws on a method developed by OPHI’s Sabina Alkire and James Foster (the Alkire Foster measure). Dr Gonzalo Hernández Licona, Executive Secretary of CONEVAL - the Mexican Government Office that released the measure - will speak on their experience at the conference. Sabina Alkire, OPHI Director, will present on multidimensional poverty in Bhutan, India and the USA. The full conference programme is available here.
In addition, the conference will include a session dedicated to missing dimensions of poverty data. OPHI has identified five ‘missing dimensions’ of poverty that appear to matter to poor people but are not currently collected in international survey instruments. OPHI has designed survey modules that can be integrated into national questionnaires and is fielding these in collaboration with teams around the world; including a national-level survey of these indicators in Chile. The first results of this national survey will be released at the conference. View our poster to read more about this work, which ultimately aims to inform national and international surveys to enable richer measures of poverty.
About OPHI (Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative)
OPHI is a research centre within the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. OPHI is led by Sabina Alkire, and works to develop and apply new ways to measure and analyse poverty, human development and welfare, drawing on the work of Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen. OPHI gratefully acknowledges support for its research and activities from the Government of Canada through the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and private benefactors.
Conference poster Conference programme Register to attend
Multidimensional Poverty Measurement Resources
Overview of OPHI’s work on multidimensional poverty measurement (English) (Spanish coming soon)
Summary of the Alkire Foster (2007) multidimensional poverty measure
Full academic paper, Alkire and Foster 2007 (English Spanish)
Missing Dimensions of Poverty Resources
Overview of OPHI’s work on missing dimensions of poverty (English) (Spanish coming soon)
OPHI’s short-listed questions for each module can be downloaded in English and Spanish:
Employment (English Spanish)
Empowerment (English Spanish)
Physical safety and security (English Spanish)
The ability to go about without shame (English Spanish)
Psychological and subjective wellbeing (English Spanish)
In Chile, OPHI has been working with MICRODATOS on a national-level survey of these indicators to create the first nationally representative dataset of its kind. Analysis of this dataset on the missing dimensions of poverty in Chile is underway following OPHI’s public call earlier this year. Over 20 proposals from researchers around the world were accepted, and the Universidad Alberto Hurtado, the Universidad de Chile and the Universidad del Desarrollo will present some preliminary results at the conference.
Original full questionnaire used in Chile (English Spanish)
Original fieldwork handbook (Spanish)
Full report from MICRODATOS on fielding of surveys
Piloting of Missing Dimensions Modules in the Philippines
OPHI’s collaboration with Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) in the Philippines has continued with the piloting of OPHI’s Missing Dimensions modules among 500 households in one rural and one urban community in and around Manila. The questionnaire that was administered, in Tagalog, is available here. CBMS seeks to present the preliminary results of this exercise at its annual conference in December. OPHI and CBMS will then design an integrated questionnaire that combines OPHI indicators and the CBMS core questionnaire for a larger data collection exercise in Philippines.
Missing Dimensions of Poverty Survey in Chile
Analysis of OPHI’s dataset on the missing dimensions of poverty in Chile is underway, following OPHI’s public call for proposals earlier this year. Over 20 proposals from researchers around the world were accepted, and these teams are currently working on their analyses. Some preliminary results have been presented at a series of seminars. This week Lea Cassar from ETH and the University of Zurich presented a preview of her work on Quality of Employment and Job Satisfaction, as part of OPHI’s Lunchtime Seminar Series. Earlier in November, Gaston Yalonetzky, from OPHI, presented his work-in-progress on gender inequality over the missing dimensions of wellbeing at the IDB Seminar Series, Washington D.C. and the HDRO Seminar Series, New York.
To find out more about the missing dimensions of poverty survey in Chile, including a list of the analyses that are underway, the survey documentation and how to download a small sample of the dataset, please click here.
For an overview of OPHI’s missing dimensions research programme, please download the colourful poster that introduces this work at a glance, and for more information see our Research Pages.
Sen Event Calls for New Economic Policy Rethink
A panel of policy makers, academics and senior MPs James Purnell and Peter Lilley took advantage of Professor Amartya Sen’s visit to the University of Oxford this week to discuss with the Nobel prize winner how economics should change in light of his new book The Idea of Justice.
The roundtable event was organised by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), a research centre within the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development. This initiative draws on Professor Sen’s work to define and apply new ways to measure poverty, human development and welfare.
Amartya Sen urged politicians and citizens to unite against the injustices they can all agree upon, rather than obsessing about the ways in which their ultimate ideals of justice may differ.
MP James Purnell felt that the capability approach outlined by Sen is a very good starting point for this new ideological framework and went onto outline the role of the state in maximising capabilities: ‘Governments should empower people and protect them. That is their core mission. At a time of fiscal tightening, everything else is a lower priority. That is where the cuts should fall. But that’s not the end of the story. To have capable individuals, we need a capable society. As Amartya Sen argues in The Theory of Justice, there is nothing inherently atomistic about liberalism.’
MP Peter Lilley largely endorsed this approach but warned against ideological distortions of Sen’s message: ‘Development economics is the last remaining playground on which ideologues of both the left and right can play.’ He was concerned that these might distract from the key role of the West, from ‘doing the one thing we can do – offering the poorest people opportunities to trade out of poverty’.
Dr Sabina Alkire, who leads OPHI called for a new economic framework: ‘Economics is poised to change – within the decade it will be different. Economists working in public economics and policy have a moment of opportunity to draw into our analysis behavioural economics and game theory, institutional economics, theories of justice and political economy.’ She ended by saying that economists should consider coordinating research, like scientists work together on gene mapping, to put Sen’s proposals into practise.
Professor Sen went on to deliver a distinguished public lecture entitled ‘The Pursuit of Justice’ at the invitation of the Faculty of Philosophy to an overflowing Sheldonian Theatre, where the Chancellor, the Rt. Hon. Lord Patten of Barnes presided.
Click here for more photos and to listen to the podcast .
Amartya Sen Calls for Action for Justice
Amartya Sen delivered a distinguished public lecture to a packed Sheldonian Theatre this week. The lecture was chaired by the Chancellor, the Rt. Hon. Lord Patten of Barnes. Speaking about the subject of his book The Idea of Justice, Professor Sen explored the philosophical and historical concepts of justice, and in applying it to today's global context challenged that 'there are things to do'. Hilary Putnam has said: 'I believe that Amartya Sen’s The Idea of Justice is the most important contribution to the subject since John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice appeared in 1971.' The video podcast of the lecture will be released next Wednesday.
OPHI Research Featured in UNICEF's Child Poverty Insights
The Alkire Foster approach to multidimensional poverty is featured in the latest issue of UNICEF’s Child Poverty Insights, available to download in English, French and Spanish. OPHI also presented the Alkire Foster measure to Policy, Advocacy and Knowledge Management Section UNICEF staff in New York and discussed its application to multidimensional child poverty.
OPHI Events at 3rd OECD World Forum, Busan, South Korea
OPHI presented during the parallel sessions, ‘Measuring Multidimensional Poverty and Prosperity’, ‘From Poverty to Power’ and ‘National Initiatives to Measure Well-Being, Societal Progress and Sustainable Development in non-OECD countries’ at the 3rd Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development World Forum, 27-30 October in Busan, South Korea. They also held a two hour workshop on the ‘Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data’. OPHI has produced a CD-Rom that includes background papers, survey modules and manuals on ‘Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data’ for this conference. Limited copies are also available on request.
New Textbook Launched: An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach
OPHI has supported the development of a new textbook aimed at students in the social sciences and development practitioners.
20% DISCOUNT – New Earthscan book – To get your discount enter code ‘AF20’ when you order online here.
NEW: E-textbook now available to download from IDRC – Free
An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach
Freedom and Agency
Edited by Séverine Deneulin with Lila Shahani
‘This book is essential reading for all those who wish to understand the human development and capability approach to development. It both explains and advances thought on this important and increasingly influential perspective.’ Frances Stewart, President, Human Development and Capability Association
Since 1990, the message in the UNDP’s Human Development Reports has been clear: development is about giving people the opportunities to live lives they value, and about enabling them to become actors in their own destinies. This approach, the ‘capability approach’ of economist and Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen, is now widely adopted by development practitioners.
Aimed at students and development practitioners, this textbook provides an introduction to Amartya Sen’s human development and capability approach. It also clarifies key concepts and fosters debate on a number of critical issues. The book offers new perspectives on a wide range of topics, which include the conceptualisation and measurement of well-being and inequality; the role of markets and economic growth in promoting development; the importance of democracy and public debate; culture and religion; health; equality and justice; and the connections between social and economic policy in addressing poverty and inequality.
E-textbook available from the International Development Research Centre. To order a copy of the book or download the e-textbook click here.
Earthscan is pleased to offer a 20% discount. To get your discount enter code ‘AF20’ when you order online from Earthscan here.
Lecturers – request your inspection copy here.
Reviewers – please email gudrun.freese@earthscan.co.uk for a review copy.
- Published August 2009
- RRP £24.95 Discount price: £19.99
- Paperback 9781844078066
- 336 pages • 234 x 156mm
OPHI Presentations in Washington DC
Gaston Yalonetzky will present his paper on ‘A dissimilarity index of multidimensional inequality of opportunity’ at the LCR Economics Seminar Series, at the World Bank, on Tuesday 3 November at 12.30-2pm. He is also presenting "Measuring gender inequality over the missing dimensions of poverty: the case of Chile", first at the Inter-American Development Bank on Wednesday 4 November at 12-1.30pm, and then at the United Nations Development Programme, on Thursday, 5 November at 12.30-2pm.
James Foster and Maria Emma Santos presented the OPHI methodology for poverty measurement at the XI Hemispheric Meeting of the Poverty and Social Protection Network of the Inter-American Development Bank, held in Washington DC, on 29-30 October 2009. The topic of this meeting was 'Effective Social Protection Policies and Systems in Crisis Contexts and in Urban Areas'. The methodology was presented not only as a tool for poverty measurement but also as a tool for identifying the beneficiaries of social programs and for measurement in other contexts beyond poverty that are also inherently multidimensional. The meeting was attended by ministers, vice-ministers and secretaries of Social Development Ministries from 23 Latin American countries.
The Pusuit of Justice: Oxford Events with Amartya Sen
A series of events with Professor Amartya Sen is being held in Oxford on 19-20 November. More information is available on our associated page.
Seminar: Social Guarantees for the Eradication of Poverty in Chile
Rodrigo Jordan and Leonardo Moreno from Fundación para la Superación de la Pobreza will present on Tuesday 17 November, 1pm, Seminar Room 3, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. More information will be posted on our Events page soon.
OPHI to Exhibit at 3rd OECD World Forum, Busan, South Korea
OPHI will exhibit at the 3rd Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development World Forum on 27-30 October in Busan, South Korea. The Forum will focus on Charting Progress, Building Visions and Improving Life and further information is available from the OECD website. OPHI has produced a CD-Rom that includes background papers, survey modules and manuals on ‘Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data’, which will be available for free from the OPHI stand at the Forum. Limited copies are also available on request.
Sarkozy Commission appeals for better data and stronger measures
The final report of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress called for better information and richer measures to guide economic policy. Chaired by Joe Stiglitz, and advised by Amartya Sen, the Commission was set up by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to examine the limits of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an indicator of economic performance and social progress and to consider what other measures should be used to assess quality of life. The final report draws on many background papers, among them one prepared for the Commission by OPHI.
Read OPHI’s background paper ‘The Capability Approach to Quality of Life Measures’.
Read the final report and watch videos of the final meeting.
HDCA Conference in Lima Peru: Proceedings on Poverty, Participation & Power
The 2009 Conference of the Human Development and Capability Association, held in Lima last month, explored the relationships between participation, poverty and power from a human development and capability perspective. Sabina Alkire, OPHI’s Director and Secretary of the HDCA, and Javier Iguíñiz, President of the Conference Committee, discuss key issues in the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru’s newspaper.
Read and view the conference papers and videos.
Read the newspaper article.
Early Annoucement: Lecture in Oxford by Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen will give a public lecture on 'The Pursuit of Justice' 19 November, 2009, in the Sheldonian Theatre. More information on this lecture will be posted on this website and on our associated page
OPHI-CBMS collaboration underway in the Philippines
OPHI has begun collaborating with the Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) research network in the Philippines on an 18-month project funded by AusAID that will collect census data on OPHI’s ‘Missing’ Dimensions of poverty and propose new indicators to inform future CBMS work. CBMS seeks to gather extensive local-level data in order to drive local government actions, and to empower communities to participate in the process. Currently work is underway to design an integrated questionnaire; it will then be piloted in two communities in the Philippines in early October. The census will cover about 1000 households and will be accompanied by qualitative interviews and participatory focus groups. CBMS will then explore uses of the OPHI indicators in program formulation and implementation at the local level. CBMS already routinely collects data on 11 indicators of poverty in the communities in which it works; this research aims both to validate OPHI’s new survey modules and to provide CBMS with new indicators they might adopt in future work.
Call for Proposals for Analysis of Chilean data on Missing Dimensions
OPHI is pleased to announce a call for proposals for researchers interested in analyzing a brand new dataset on ‘Missing Dimensions of Poverty’ in Chile, the first nationally representative dataset of its kind. Using the five modules devised by OPHI, the data contains indicators of employment quality, empowerment, physical safety, dignity and subjective/psychological wellbeing – in addition to standard household survey data on income, health, education, housing quality, standard employment conditions. Please see the detailed Call for Proposals, the questionnaire that was administered ( English, Spanish) and a 5 percent sample of the data in STATA ( Spanish, English).
The Inter-American Development Bank Adapts the Alkire Foster Measure for Targeting Beneficiaries by Oportunidades in Mexico
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has adapted and promoted the Alkire Foster measurement methodology to help governments in Latin America target beneficiaries of Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes (CCT). With IDB supervision, the methodology has been adopted in Mexico in 2008 and has just been designed for the Honduras Urban CCT. It is currently being considered by Nicaragua, and was initially presented in Panama in June of 2009.
In 2008 Viviane Azevedo and Marcos Robles of the IDB were concerned that poverty was known to be multidimensional but all methods being used on the ground to identify the poor were unidimensional-often just income or comparing a composite index with an unique cutoff. They searched for a practical, easy-to-use alternative and discovered the Alkire Foster poverty measure. [See Sabina Alkire and James Foster, ‘Counting and Multidimensional Poverty’, OPHI Working Paper No. 7.] While the measure was developed for a more effective way to measure poverty, they decided it could be used for a practical policy and programmatic alternative.
Mexico proved to be the experimental pilot to test whether or not the Alkire Foster method worked in the field. The Mexican Government in 2004 had passed a social development law that defined development as having a multitude of dimensions. It charged the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL) with the task of implementing a multidimensional approach to the measurement of poverty. In turn, programmes of the National Government were charged to broaden their definitions of poverty and development. This was the impetus that led Oportunidades, a national governmental social development programme, to be open to a new approach. The IDB staff members presented the Alkire Foster measurement approach to the Oportunidades team as an alternative way to select poor households that under-invest in their children’s human capital, and in follow-up. Oportunidades’ decided to implement the Alkire Foster approach-and use it not just for the measurement of results but also for operational purposes-such as targeting beneficiaries. To quote a paper written by the two IDB innovators: ‘This follows the multidimensional poverty measurement approach developed by Alkire and Foster, i.e., an identification method with two cutoff points (identification of the "dual cutoff lines"), which in turn suggests an aggregation approach sensitive to the number of deprivations experienced by a poor household ("dimension-adjusted" measurement).’
The rapid success of this programme in Mexico, based on the ease of use and the much more accurate targeting of beneficiaries, led the IDB team to propose its expansion to other countries; supporting the design of the multidimensional targeting in Honduras and soon to follow in Nicaragua. Recently the proposal was presented in Panama, and will be discussed at the II Sub-regional Caribbean Meeting of the Poverty and Social Protection Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue (Jamaica).
The IDB news release, 15 June 2009 ‘Mexico receives $600 million to fight poverty through the Human Development Program Oportunidades’ can be found at: http://www.iadb.org/news/detail.cfm?id=5464
OPHI Measure Used in Creating the Bhutan Gross National Happiness Index
‘We must always remember that as our country, in these changing times, finds immense new challenges and opportunities, whatever work we do, whatever goals we have – and no matter how these may change in this changing world – ultimately without peace, security and happiness we have nothing. That is the essence of the philosophy of Gross National Happiness.’ –His Majesty King Khesar, The 5th Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan, 2008.
‘I wish to pay special gratitude to Sabina Alkire [Director of OPHI] for her visit to Bhutan, which led to substitution of the methodology for construction of GNH index I adopted earlier by her innovative aggregation method.’ –Karma Ura, Director of Centre for Bhutan Studies, 2008. For more information on the GNH see this website.
The term ‘Gross National Happiness’ (GNH) was first coined by Bhutan’s King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972 when he declared that ‘Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product [GDP]’. As Karma Ura of the Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) explained: ‘[the] dominant, conventional indicators, generally related to GDP, reflect the quantity of physical output of a society. Yet GDP is heavily biased towards increased production and consumption, regardless of the necessity or desirability of such outputs, at the expense of other more holistic criterion’. This view is consistent with the growing consensus among scholars and practitioners that well-being or poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon that cannot be adequately measured by income alone.
GDP and other conventional indexes of growth and income are, however, relatively simple to calculate. In order for GNH to be of practical use it needed a theoretically sound method of measurement. Only with concrete GNH indicators would it be possible to construct reliable development policies and programmes in Bhutan that were consistent with the GNH philosophy. These were needed to measure progress towards meeting the goals of GNH and therefore in 2005 the government of Bhutan instructed the CBS to create a GNH Index. The CBS conducted a pilot survey and later ran a full survey to gather the primary data necessary to develop the Index. The CBS surveys covered the dimensions of GNH, psychological well-being, health, time use, education, culture, good governance, ecology, community vitality, and living standards. Each of these dimensions was subdivided into several indicators.
Once the data were gathered it was necessary to process it into useful information for policymaking and resource allocation. To accomplish this, the CBS worked with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) to apply the Alkire-Foster methodology for creating the Gross National Happiness Index of Bhutan. It was the first use by a national government of the Alkire-Foster measure. For more on this methodology see OPHI Working Paper No. 7 [pdf].
Recent New York Times coverage of the Bhutan National Happiness Index can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/world/asia/07bhutan.html?_r=1
OPHI Training for PEP survey teams from Nigeria, Chad and Sri Lanka
Between 4 and 25 March 2009, OPHI staff in Oxford will conduct a training course on survey design, implementation and analysis for representatives of three successful teams that were awarded grants by OPHI and the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) network at the PEP annual meeting in Manila, December 2008. The three teams will use these grants to implement OPHI's survey modules in parts of Chad, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, respectively, both to generate data on the Missing Dimensions and also to investigate the validity of the survey instruments in their particular countries. The course aims to familiarize the participants with academic research on survey design. It will also provide support to the participants' design of an integrated questionnaire, guidelines for implementation, Access database, as well as the identification of key research questions and strategies for data tabulation and analysis - all of which they can draw upon when implementing the survey in their own countries.
Online Questionnaire about the HDR
The Human Development Report Office has launched a reader survey to elicit useful and critical feedback about the HDR and how it is used by its different audiences. It is part of HDRO's ongoing efforts to improve the quality, relevance and visibility of the global HDR and UNDP's work to advocate for human development worldwide.
Please complete this survey at the link below. The questionnaire is very short and user friendly, with seven multiple choice questions about the report. It should take you about five minutes to complete (or longer if you would like to elaborate upon your responses). All answers are anonymous and in full confidence.
You can access the survey at http://hdr.undp.org/readersurvey. It will be open until Friday 20 March 2009, and HDRO would be very grateful if you can find five minutes to complete the survey before then.
Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data: First National Survey
OPHI began the first-ever large scale survey of the Missing Dimensions in Chile in November 2008. Working with the Centro de Microdatos of the University of Chile, this nationally-representative survey will draw on 2,000 households interviewed in the 2006 round of Chile’s national household survey, the CASEN, to permit combining the new OPHI indicators with those that are collected conventionally.
Analyzing these data together should enable researchers to validate the OPHI questionnaire and to generate a detailed profile of employment quality, empowerment, physical safety, the absence of shame and humiliation, and psychological/subjective wellbeing in the Chilean population. Researchers will be able to compare these dimensions with income poverty and standard measures such as nutrition, health, education and housing quality.
To see the survey that is being fielded, click here.
OPHI’s new work on Urban Poverty
OPHI is working on a project financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to develop a new methodology to measure and further the understanding of urban poverty. The pilot project revolves around creating a framework for urban poverty analysis based on concepts of multidimensional poverty and vulnerability and involves qualitative and quantitative work in four pilot cities in Latin America – Santiago, La Paz, Managua and Kingston.
The final product will be indicators to measure urban poverty that will include several of the indicators on missing dimensions for poverty analysis developed by OPHI.
OPHI’s Uruguay Round
OPHI held its first workshop with high-level policymakers from Latin America on 14/ 15 October in Montevideo, Uruguay. The aim was to assess the policy implications of OPHI's work on the “missing dimensions” of human development. Participants from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Inter American Development Bank engaged in dynamic discussions over the usefulness of data on the missing dimensions and how they might translate into policy. The Montevideo workshop highlighted interest within the Latin American region in OPHI’s approach to poverty analysis. It also proposed concrete ways in which the data might inform policy, exposing a need for tools such as planning instruments to package the data and revealing possibilities for OPHI to deepen its engagement with regional bodies and other relevant actors. OPHI is grateful for this input which reinforces the drive to translate academic research into the policy arena.
Distinguished OPHI Visiting Fellows
OPHI is fortunate in having the following distinguished Visiting Fellows and Research Associates this year:
James Foster: Visiting Fellow and Research Associate: Dr. Foster is Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University. His research with OPHI concerns measurement of poverty and well-being. Specific projects include papers on: measurement of multidimensional poverty, the notion of “external capabilities”, robustness of weights for multidimensional measures; measurement of chronic poverty; growth and inequality, and an overarching view of inequality as ratio of living standard. With Sabina Alkire he has co-authored a number of OPHI working papers.
Prasanta Pattanaik, Visiting Fellow and Research Associate: Dr. Pattanaik is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of California, Riverside. His current research interests lie mainly in the areas of welfare economics and the theory of social choice, decision theory and the measurement of deprivation and the standard of living. He is also interested in development economics and the methodology of economics.
Yele Batana, Visiting Fellow: Dr. Batana holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Laval University in Canada. His three month stint at OPHI centered on analyzing OPHI's multidimensional poverty measure in Sub-Saharan Africa. This led to the working paper on Multidimensional Measurement of Poverty in Sub- Saharan Africa.
Jiantuo Yu, Visiting Fellow: Mr. Yu, who holds an MA degree in Economics from Nanjing University, is a Research Fellow and Assistant Director of the Center for Human and Economic Development Studies (CHEDS) at Peking University. His two month research at OPHI focused on multidimensional poverty in China.
Xiaolin Wang, Visiting Fellow: Dr. Xiaolin Wang has a D.Phil in Agricultural Economics and Management from China Agricultural University. He is currently an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Rural and Regional Development, China Academy of Science and Technology for Development (CASTED), Ministry of Science and Technology in China. During his three month visiting fellowship at OPHI, he will take stock of the existing state of knowledge on multidimensional poverty in rural China and consider its possible policy implications for China.
Henar Diez Sanchez, Visiting Fellow: Professor Diez Sanchez teaches economics at the Universidad del Pais Vasco in Bilbao, Spain and is finishing her doctorate on inequality and poverty measurement. During her three month fellowship at OPHI ending in January, 2009 Diez Sanchez worked on her thesis and on revising “ The Bourguignon and Chakravarty Multidimensional Poverty Family: A Characterisation”, which she had presented in the 9th International Meeting of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare (Montreal, 2008).
Masood Sarwar Awan, Visiting Fellow: Dr. Awan has a Ph.D. in economics from University of Sargodha (Pakistan). He completed his Ph.D. course work at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Islamabad. He is working as an Assistant Professor of Economics at University of Sargodha (Pakistan). At OPHI he is applying the Alkire and Foster (2007) methodology of multidimensional poverty to Pakistan, a first attempt toward multidimensional poverty analysis in Pakistan.
OPHI in the news
New centre to measure missing aspects of poverty
31 May 2007, Oxford Blueprint Vol. 7 No. 11
A new breed of economists at the new Oxford Poverty and Human Development Institute (OPHI), which launches on 30 May, has rejected the idea that increasing national income is sufficient indicator of its population’s overall prospects. read more...
Launch of new centre to measure missing aspects of poverty
30 May 2007, Oxford University Website
A new breed of economists at the new Oxford Poverty and Human Development Institute (OPHI), which launches on 30 May, has rejected the idea that increasing national income is sufficient indicator of its population’s overall prospects. read more...
Sen Lecture at Oxford
31 May 2007, Colin Farrelly, Blog: In Search of Enlightenment
Last night Amartya Sen gave an excellent public lecture at the magnificent Sheldonian Theatre here in Oxford. His talk launched OPHI, Oxford’s Poverty and Human Development Initiative. Below, I summarize the central arguments he advanced in his 60 minute talk. read more...
OPHI Director Sabina Alkire corrects articles reporting the supposed creation of a "general well-being index" or "happiness index"
30 May 2007, Letter to the Editor, Times of India
Dear Editor, I must correct the reference in your article of May 30, 2007 "GMI -The New Economic Measure of Happiness" to the development of a Gross Wellbeing Index at Oxford University. This is seriously misleading. There is no GWI. We have launched the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) as an energetic research centre which has proposed indicators on employment, empowerment, physical safety and so on - and which is developing a multidimensional poverty index. But it is early days. Nothing so grand as a gross wellbeing index ever entered our discussions.
Sabina Alkire
Director, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative
Dept of international Development, Queen Elizabeth House
University of Oxford
Money is not the simple antidote to poverty says OPHI's director
June 2007, Developments Magazine Issue 38
If we can measure what makes poor people happy, then we can improve pro-poor policies. That's the view of the director of Oxford University’s new economics research centre, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Institute (OPHI),... rejects the idea that income is the most significant contributor to human wellbeing. Instead attention is being turned to yardsticks that seem to have little to do with economists' traditional concerns about production and consumption of goods and services. read more...
Events
Monday 8th March OPHI Lunchtime Seminar Series.
Sabina Alkire (OPHI), ‘Measuring Multidimensional Poverty for the 2010 HDR: Preliminary Results’. Meeting Room A, QEH, 13:00-14:00.
Monday 1st March OPHI Lunchtime Seminar Series.
José Manuel Roche (OPHI), ‘Understanding the Structure of Group Inequalities: Examining the Capability Approach from a Sociological Perspective’. Meeting Room A, QEH, 13:00-14:00.
Monday 22nd February OPHI Lunchtime Seminar Series.
Laurence Roope (School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester), 'A New Class of Inter-temporal Poverty Measures'. Meeting Room A, QEH, 13:00-14:00.
Monday 15th February OPHI Lunchtime Seminar Series.
Yishai Mishor (Oxford Faculty of Law), ‘On Chronic Poverty, Time and Human Rights’. Meeting Room A, QEH, 13:00-14:00.
Monday 8th February OPHI Lunchtime Seminar Series.
Karin Eli (OPHI), ‘The Road Not Taken: Why Some Indicators Were Excluded from OPHI's Multidimensional Poverty Index’. Meeting Room A, QEH, 13:00-14:00.
Re-phrasing Human Development for the 2010 HDR: Lecture at IDS, Sussex.
Sabina Alkire will deliver a lecture at the Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, on 28 January at 5pm. She will discuss how a new concept of human development is being formulated for the 2010 Human Development Report (HDR). To read more, click here.
Oxford Events with Amartya Sen on 19 & 20 November.
OPHI organised several events with Amartya Sen, Harvard University Professor and Advisor to OPHI, in Oxford on 19-20 November. Sen spoke at a Roundtable on Economics with politicians, academics and policy makers, and delivered a lecture on The Pursuit of Justice which was chaired by the Chancellor of the University on 19 November. These events were followed by a Philosophy Seminar with Sen and several distinguished speakers on 20 November. You can read more about both events and watch podcasts online on our dedicated page.
19 May 2009 - Book launch 'Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up', by Deepa Narayan
Seminar Room 1, 4pm Queen Elizabeth House [directions]
Poverty studies typically focus on people who live below the poverty line. Few studies have examined how people not only move out of poverty but also stay out of poverty. A follow-up to the Voices of the Poor, the second volume of the Moving Out of Poverty project, Success from the Bottom Up represents one of the few large-scale comparative research attempts to address these questions. The book is coauthored by Deepa Narayan, Lant Pritchett and Soumya Kapoor and it is based on life stories, interviews, and questionnaires with more than 60,000 people in Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Latin America.
“This book...is an important resource for everyone who's working to alleviate poverty”.–Former President Bill Clinton.
Speaker: Deepa Narayan
Chair: Sabina Alkire
Please register to attend
7 May 2009 – Gordon Anderson presents Distinguished Visitor Lecture on Development
Professor Anderson will present ‘Poor Country-Rich Country Convergence or Polarization in Lifetime Wellbeing: Africa and the Rest’, at 12–1.30pm, Queen Elizabeth House, Seminar Room 2. This is part of the Oxford Department of International Development lecture series.
Gordon Anderson is a Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics University of Toronto. He holds a PhD from London School of Economics; awarded both the Bowley Prize for work in applied statistics by the LSE, and the Sayers Prize for work in money and macroeconomics by the University of London. Initially trained as an applied time series econometrician his interest in recent years has turned to issues in empirical welfare analysis in the form of making inferences about well-being, poverty, inequality, mobility, and polarization. He will be participating in the OPHI workshop on Robustness Methods for Multidimensional Welfare Analysis, 5–6 May 2009.
‘Distribution and Development’ – course with James Foster, May–June 2009
James Foster, a Research Associate who will be at OPHI in Trinity Term 2009, will present a course comprising eight classes on ‘Distribution and Development’. The course is aimed at PPE or postgraduate economics students with an interest in poverty, inequality, and economic development, but is open to all. For further information, click here.
HDCA Summer School on Capability and Multidimensional Poverty
Organized by HDCP-IRC (University of Pavia) and OPHI (University of Oxford)at the Catholic University, Lima Peru
27 August - 8 September 2009
The purpose of this intensive summer school is to provide a thorough conceptual and technical introduction to current quantitative literature and techniques of measuring and comparing capabilities, drawing on various techniques of multidimensional measurement and of statistical analysis.
Application deadline: 15 April.
OPHI Contributes to the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, 25-27 March 2009
OPHI Open Dialogue day 16 June 2008
OPHI Workshop on Weighting, 26-27 May 2008
OPHI Workshop on Measuring Freedoms, 28-30 May
Course on human development for masters' students at QEH: Hilary 2009
Course Description: This course examines human development, which views the aim of development as expanding capabilties, or intrinsically valued freedoms, and scrutinizes the instrumental interrelationships between dimensions of poverty. It covers key topics and debates such as: ethical foundations of human development; the interconnections between dimensions of poverty; multidimensional measures of poverty and inequality; and agency, empowerment and democratic practice. Students engage in two interactive case studies: one on growth and nutrition, and one on realizing human rights; and two policy-focused sessions: one on data requirements for human development and another on the spread of ideas. See coverage on the linked human development module on the MSc in Contemporary Indian studies here.
Summer School on Capability and Multidimensional Poverty
OPHI and HDCP-IRC co-organised the HDCA Summer School in New Delhi, India 28 August - 9 September 2008. The intensive summer school provided a thorough conceptual and technical introduction to current literature and techniques of measuring and comparing capabilities. The course materials include powerpoints, problem sets (both conceptual and in stata), problem solutions, and videos of lectures. For further information click here.
2008 Conference of the HDCA: "Equality, Inclusion and Human Development"
OPHI researchers organised a panel on multidimensional poverty in the 2008 HDCA Annual Conference held on 11-13 September in New Delhi, India. The event, hosted by the Institute of Human Development, featured keynote speakers such as Jean Dreze, Frances Stewart, Martha Nussbaum, James Foster, and Niraja Gopal Jayal. learn more...
June 2008. Summer Presentations
Sabina Alkire presented at the North American Econometric Society meetings, the International Economic Association (IEA), and the 12th European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) General Conference; James Foster presented at the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth (IARIW). The EADI conference blog can be found here. The full paper is available here.
17 June 2008. Seminar. Francisco Ferreira (World Bank) "Inequality of economic opportunity in Latin America"
1-2.15pm Seminar Room C, Manor Road Building - paper
17 June 2008. Seminar. Francisco Ferreira (World Bank) "Inequality of economic opportunity in Latin America"
1-2.15pm Seminar Room C, Manor Road Building
12 June 2008. Seminar. Julio Boltvinik and Araceli Damian (Colegio de Mexico) "Multidimensional Poverty Measurement Methods. The Latin American tradition and the Mexican Experience"
1-2.15pm Seminar Room 1, Department of International Development (QEH)
15 May 2008 Seminar. James Foster "Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measures"
5-6.30 pm, Queen Elizabeth House, Seminar Room 1. Prof Foster will present his paper with Sabina Alkire (2008): "Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measures," OPHI Working Paper 7
Classes with James Foster, Trinity Term
James Foster, a Visiting Fellow at OPHI in May-June 2008, will present several classes in QEH Seminar Room 1 from 2:00-3:30 pm, unless otherwise indicated. For further information, click here.
OECD features OPHI's work in Measuring Progress of Societies newsletter
The first issue of the new OECD newsletter on Measuring the Progress of Societies features an article by OPHI Director Sabina Alkire on What is Missing? New Data, New Measures, which gives an overview of OPHI's work on Missing Dimensions and on Multidimensional Comparison. To read the newsletter, click here.
ODS December issue focuses on Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data
The December issue of Oxford Development Studies is a special issue based on the proceedings of OPHI's launch in May. It presents an introduction to the research theme; revised versions of the papers focusing on aspects of missing poverty data, with proposed indicators and questions to measure each; and the comments of discussants Grace Bediako, François Bourguignon and Stephan Klasen.
OPHI and CHEDS in China
The OPHI team recently had the opportunity to take its ‘Missing Dimensions’ workshop to China through the generous hospitality of our sister organization, the Centre for Human and Economic Development Studies (CHEDS) at Peking University. Full Story
OPHI researcher presents paper at ISQOLS conference in December 07
Emma Samman, OPHI Research Officer, presented a paper, The 'Missing Dimensions' of wellbeing: Results of a pilot survey, at the 2007 International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) Conference, held 6-8 December in San Diego, California. To learn more about the conference, click here.
OPHI team to launch Missing Dimensions research theme in Beijing
The Center for Human and Economic Development (CHEDS) of Peking University is hosting an international workshop on “Dimensions and Indicators of Human Development” on 3-4 November 2007. OPHI team members will present revised versions of papers on missing dimensions of poverty data, originally delivered at OPHI’s Launch in May, and solicit the input of Chinese researchers and policymakers. To see the program of the event, click here. For a list of participants, click here.
Call for proposals on multidimensional poverty analysis
Jointly with the Poverty and Economic Policy PEP Network, OPHI is offering up to five grants of $CAN 20,000 for research on analyzing poverty in the multidimensional context of the capabilities approach. Proposals are welcome for the two themes: 1. Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data and 2. Identification and Multidimensional Poverty. To see the call for proposals, click here. For further particulars for these two themes, click here.
2007 Conference of the HDCA: "Ideas Changing History"
OPHI staff participated in the 2007 HDCA Annual Conference "Ideas Changing History" held on the 17th-20th of September in New York. The event, hosted by the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School in New York City and supported by Frederick S. Pardee and the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University, featured keynote speakers such as Martha Nussbaum, Amartya Sen, Hilary Putnam, Anthony Appiah and Sir Richard Jolly. Over 320 persons attended, and 170 papers were presented. learn more...
OPHI was launched in a series of events, including three public seminars on 30-31 May 2007, and by a Lecture in the Sheldonian Theatre by Amartya Sen on 30 May at 5pm. The research papers, power point presentations, and the report of the workshops are freely available on the website, and some presentations are available in video.
The high level research workshops and public events addressed two themes:
I. Missing Data for Poverty & Human Development Research: This workshop explored a limited set of indicators for inclusion in national household surveys to generate internationally comparable data. The papers proposed a small set of indicators in each of five dimensions: work (including informal work), physical safety, empowerment, relationships , and significance . Indicators were proposed on the basis of transparent characteristics including comparability, robustness, explanatory power, and potential value. More info...
II. Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons: This research workshop explored the issue of interpersonal comparisons of well-being, when these are assessed in more than one dimension. More info ...
For photos of the launch events, click here.
Workshop on Teaching Human Development, Oxford, 28-31 March 2007
OPHI convened a four-day workshop in March 2007 on educational material for human development, to discuss course design and curriculum, pedagogical approaches to teaching human development, virtual learning spaces, textbooks and other teaching materials. The meeting took place in Oxford. This was the first OPHI meeting of academics teaching or wishing to start teaching in human development. The workshop included participants from universities and research centres in Brazil, China, Mexico, Uganda, Turkey, Japan, Papua New Guinea/Australia, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Slovakia/Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Peru, Afghanistan, US and UK. It was an enriching opportunity to establish in a participatory way educational materials on human development as well as an ongoing learning community.
For the official program click
here
For photos of the event click here