Free Access | 2024-04-12

An Elusive Consensus: Definitions, measurement and analysis of Poverty

Authors/Editors: Julian May

Abstract:

The analytical work funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under its Poverty Strategies Initiative (PSI) offers an insight into the views and methodologies of researchers and policy analysts from countries in which poverty is the dominant concern. Researchers have frequently had to adapt conventional approaches to suit the data available and the policy questions that are being addressed. By looking at how poverty is defined, which type of information is gathered and how it is analysed, we shall be in a position to gauge the contributions made by the PSI to applied poverty analysis in countries characterised by substantial capacity shortfalls. This may be especially helpful at a time when the governments of poor countries are responding to renewed international attention to the issue of poverty reduction. This chapter, which reviews 24 studies sponsored by the UNDP in 11 countries, shows that there is great variation in the manner in which poverty is being defined and measured in developing countries.