Page 13 - Revista del Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo del INEI - Economía, Sociedad y Estadística N° 9

Thirdly, largely inspired by the “voices” of people in the examination of data requirements needed in order
poverty, academics and experts, global leaders and to generate poverty estimates.
policymakers have incorporated the recognition of
the multidimensional nature of poverty into the global The “map of challenges” includes a series of “critical
development discourse and agenda. The “voice” of decision nodes” which correspond to fundamental
leaders and policymakers has been clearly reflected in normative and technical interrogations that need to be
the establishment of the first SDG, which aims to end answered in order to move on to the following stages of
poverty “in all its forms”. Even more, the SGD agenda the discussion process. The advantage of this approach
regarding this subject is very specific, as the SDG goal is that it identifies, discusses and makes explicit each
1.2 establishes the need to, by 2030, “reduce at least of the decisions to be made during the deliberation
by half the proportion of men, women and children of process that underlies the potential design of an official
all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according multidimensional poverty system.
to national definitions” (UN 2015: 17)
Stage 1 corresponds to the critical nodes related to the
The “voices” of people in poverty, academics and experts, recognition of poverty’s multidimensional nature, the
global leaders and policymakers give an account of the relevance of generating an official multidimensional
solid consensus on the multidimensionality of poverty. poverty measurement system, the purposes of such
However, such consensus corresponds to a particularly system, the identification of the unit of ultimate moral
general level that is necessary but not sufficient for concern in poverty measures and the definition of
2
defining specific metrics and related policy actions. multidimensional poverty associated to the purpose
Thus, the SDG goal 1.2 poses a challenge as it leaves and the unit. Stage 2 corresponds to challenges related
it up to each country to recognize the “forms” and to the selection of prioritized dimensions, relevant
“dimensions” of poverty that correspond to their own units of identification and anyliss, and the selection
reality. The challenge is not limited to the identification of identification and aggregation methods. As it was
of such dimensions, as it also involves the need to mentioned before, these nodes do not presuppose the
make decisions in order to give dimensions operational design of a poverty index or the use of the AF method
definitions and generate measures that allow monitoring for its estimation, as it aims to have the selection of
the deprivations related to them, in order to design measure types and methods used for the estimation
specific policies focused on their eradication. as a subject of discussion.

1. MAP OF CHALLENGES PROPOSAL AND
IDENTIFICATION OF CRITICAL DECISION NODES

The set of normative and technical decisions to be
made in order to measure multidimensional poverty
make it into a significant challenge for which there is
no simple action route. Thus, this document proposes a
“map of challenges” that includes establishing the type
of measure and the method used for its estimation as
part of the set of normative and technical decisions
to be discussed. It is worth mentioning that this study
does not propose following already existing routes
that call for designing an index based on the Alkire
and Foster (AF) method. Instead, it provides a general
perspective on the subject and follows a sequential logic;
it starts with a question about the explicit recognition
of poverty’s multidimensional nature and finishes with

2 In the context of multidimensional poverty measures, the concept of unit of ultimate moral concern is understood as “who or what
should count in our evaluative exercises and decisions” (Robeyns 2017: 57).

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