One year ago, the UN Development Program (UNDP) asked this question to various people on the street.
Poverty is not just about money. To achieve a complete view of a population’s well-being, you must consider that poverty can manifest itself in many different forms, as the World Bank has explained. A new multidimensional measurement framework developed by this body does not just focus on income but also on access to education and other basic services, such as electricity, water and sanitation.
This new way of measuring shows that “poverty can be more widespread and deeper rooted than we thought.” The World Bank also points out that, when measuring poverty, we need to think about how resources are distributed among family members. From this perspective, data reveal that this problem disproportionately affects women and children in numerous countries.
Consequently, in order to end poverty, the Bank warns that “it is necessary to apply a wider focus, to analyze deprivations across multiple dimensions and recognize the complexity inherent to the concept of world-wide poverty.”