New Study Proposes Individual Poverty Measurement

Dubbed as “Ano nga ba ang mukha ng kahirapan mula sa tinig ng mamamayan: The 15 Dimensions of Poverty”, the forum introduced the concept of Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) where poverty is evaluated at the individual level – making it possible to assess how poverty varies by gender, age, geography, disability, ethnicity and self-identified minority status, which cannot be done through the more common approach of assessing poverty at the household level. The new study is the result of a four-year multi-country, interdisciplinary research project funded by the Australian Research Council and partner organizations including International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA), Oxfam Great Britain (Southern Africa), the Philippine Health Social Science Association, the University of Colorado at Boulder and Oxfam America, and administered by the Australian National University. Researchers worked in 18 sites across the countries of Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Fiji, Indonesia and the Philippines interacting with thousands of men and women of different ages living in poverty at rural and urban settings who were asked to identify certain deprivations which they think needed to be addressed in order for them to no longer be poor. The speakers at the UP forum were members of the team that undertook the research in the Philippines, namely – Professor Cora Añonuevo of the UP College of Nursing who is the principal field investigator, and Professor Fatima Castillo of the UP College of Arts and Sciences, the overall coordinator. Surveys were conducted in March 2013 covering 750 households in the National Capital Region, North & Central Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao with 1,806 respondents aged 18 years and older or an average of 2.4 respondents per household. “According to a 2013 World Bank report, poverty in the Philippines stands at 24.9%, equivalent to an estimated 25 million Filipinos.” According to a 2013 World Bank report, poverty in the Philippines stands at 24.9%, equivalent to an estimated 25 million Filipinos. Prof. Castillo, whose presentation was entitled “From Feminization of Poverty to Individual Deprivation Measure”, said that the research project adopted an openly feminist methodology with close analysis of how men and women differed in their responses to the same questions across different age groups and in different geographic contexts. Their initial search for evidence to support the familiar claim that “poverty wears a woman’s face” showed that “not only were the statistics sketchy and the term ‘feminization of poverty’ used equivocally; worse, the existing poverty metrics were arguably biased by culture and gender and lacked plausible justifications. In order to investigate the gendered dimensions of global poverty, we needed a non-arbitrary metric supported by sound and open reasoning,” she emphasized. i7“The IDM is based on the lived experience of poor people and measures poverty in such a way that gender disparities and the extent of deprivation are revealed,” she added. It identified deprivation in 15 dimensions of human life: food, water, shelter, sanitation, health care, education, energy/cooking fuel, family relationships, clothing/personal care, violence, family planning, the environment, voice in the community, time-use, and respect and freedom from risk at work. On the other hand, Prof. Añonuevo said the local study sought to answer specific issues such as the context of urban poverty, what poor people think constitutes poverty, or if poverty is the main thing that makes life hard. Their findings showed that the urban poor have different perceptions of poverty relative to their gender, age and other factors. For instance, middle-aged women think of poverty as not being able to buy appliances or to afford their children’s schooling and hospitalization, not having money in the bank, and indulging in vices. Middle-aged men view poverty as being unemployed or having a low-paying job, not finishing school or getting medical care, and living in a garbage dump. For most groups, poverty-related hardships include lack of jobs and money, indebtedness, illness, unaffordable basic services and threat of eviction. The study proponents believe that IDM can aid government and organizations target poverty more effectively, measure an anti-poverty program’s success or failure, as well as reveal what aspects of poverty are changing, to what extent it is changing, and for whom it is changing. - Denn Meneses, Medical Observer