The Individual Deprivation Measure: A new approach to multi-dimensional, gender sensitive poverty measurement

CROP POVERTY BRIEF by Sharon Bessell

In this new CROP Poverty Brief, Dr. Sharon Bessell argues:

• Existing measures of poverty are not sensitive to gender and suffer from (at least) three limitations:

1. They use the household, rather than the individual, as the unit of analysis. This masks inequalities in the intra-household distribution of resources and burdens, resulting in inadequate understanding of gendered poverty.
2. They rely on existing data sources, which are often gender blind, limiting the potential for understanding the gendered nature of poverty.
3. The dimensions of poverty to be measured are determined by experts, rather than being grounded in the priorities and experiences of those who have experienced poverty.

• The Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) offers a new way of measuring poverty that takes the individual as the unit of analysis and is grounded in research with people who have experienced poverty in eighteen communities across six countries.
• The IDM is able to illuminate differences in the extent and nature of poverty at the individual level, revealing gendered differences, as well as other crucial differences between individuals.
• The nuanced and individualised information provided by the IDM provides the basis for anti-poverty policies that are able to respond to specific groups within a broader population and specific issues.
• The IDM is applicable at local level through to national and global levels.

Click here to read the Poverty Brief in full.
http://www.crop.org/viewfile.aspx?id=535 Click here to read the Poverty Brief in full.