Often, when experts talk about poverty, they use the measure of people who live on less than 1 US dollar a day. However, this measure has often been criticised. First of all, because currency exchange rates fluctuate continuously, it becomes difficult for individual countries to talk about poverty using the US dollar as a measure. But more importantly, when poverty is defined only by looking at the income an individual or a household receives (whatever currency is used), then a number of other factors are ignored.

Recently, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), in collaboration with the UNDP Human Development Report, announced the release of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). According to OPHI, the new measure recognises that people’s lives are affected by more than just their income, and so the MPI looks at individuals’ poverty as a combination of their education, health, and standard of living. The developers of the new index believe that this more complex measure will help policy-makers and development practitioners better understand the causes of poverty and then tailor their interventions accordingly. Go to the latest Wahenga Reporter for more.