[1] James Foster and Sabina Alkire developed the Alkire Foster Method for Multidimensional Poverty Measurement,[2] a measurement that allows for a more holistic approach to identifying poverty globally, taking into account dimensions like health or education, in a departure from traditional income methods.

[4] In August 2015, multidimensional poverty was written into the United Nations Agenda for its Sustainable Development Goals, which was ratified in September of the same year.

[10] Foster is also an affiliate faculty member of the Institute for International Economic Policy, previously serving as Director.

[12] He has been a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, Cornell, Essex, Oxford, Harvard, and the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico.

He received the Unilever Fellowship and the Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award in Health Policy, and holds a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo (Mexico).