Measuring Global Poverty

Dr Sabina Alkire, Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) gives a talk for the Oxford Alumni Weekend 2013. What does 'being poor' really mean? The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, or MPI, is an international measure of acute poverty covering more than 100 developing countries. Assessing poverty at the individual level, it complements traditional income-based poverty measures by capturing the severe deprivations that each person faces at the same time with regard to education, health and living standards. It also reveals how poverty is falling: whether there is a smaller number of people experiencing poverty, or whether the share of deprivations faced by poor people has dropped. Join Sabina Alkire to hear how the method that underlies the index, developed at Oxford University, is being applied by governments.