Multidimensional Poverty Index

This figure considers both the proportion of the population that is deemed poor and the 'breadth' of poverty experienced by these 'poor' households, following the Alkire & Foster 'counting method'.

[1] The method was developed following increased criticism of monetary and consumption-based poverty measures, seeking to capture the deprivations in non-monetary factors that contribute towards well-being.

While there is a standard set of indicators, dimensions, cutoffs and thresholds used for a 'Global MPI',[2] the method is flexible and there are many examples of poverty studies that modify it to best suit their environment.

MPIs are useful as an analytical tool to identify the most vulnerable people – the poorest among the poor, revealing poverty patterns within countries and over time, enabling policymakers to target resources and design policies more effectively.

[12][13] The indicators selected for other MPI-oriented studies vary according to the availability of data and the context,[15] as well as the theoretical considerations of the researchers.

[16] The Alkire-Foster (AF) method[17] is a way of measuring multidimensional poverty developed by OPHI's Sabina Alkire and James Foster.

Building on the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measures, it involves counting the different types of deprivation that individuals experience at the same time, such as a lack of education or employment, or poor health or living standards.

Having identified who is poor, the AF methodology generates a unique class of poverty measures (Mα) that goes beyond the simple headcount ratio.

It is calculated as the geometric mean of the normalized indices of the three dimensions of human development; it takes into account: health, education and standard of living.

Both the HDI and the MPI have been criticized by economists such as Ratan Lal Basu for not taking the "moral/emotional/spiritual dimensions" of poverty into consideration.

According to reports, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted education, employment and social protection of people in countries which have higher levels of multidimensional poverty such as Zambia.