Post 2015: Global Action for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future

vulnerability (ErD 2012). this report’s focus on
inclusive and sustainable development underlines
that the eradication of existing poverty should be
achieved in ways that safeguard the opportunities
of future generations.
5.3.2 Incorporating poor people’s
experiences of deprivation
reviewing the measures of income, material need
and capability deprivation, robert chambers
argues that they fall into three progressively wider
‘clusters’ of thinking about ‘what is poverty’, but
suffer a similar limitation in being based on external
perceptions of what matters to people. as such they
fail to take into account the ‘diverse bottom-up
realities of the powerless’ (chambers, 2004: 4), and
what they value. chambers argues that the mDGs
follow a similarly abstract and reductionist logic,
because they ‘narrow and standardise vision, leave
out much that matters, and do not allow for the
multifarious ways in which people can be enabled
to enjoy a better life’.
participatory studies, notably the World bank
project, voices of the poor (narayan et al., 2000),
cast light on the ‘many poverties and deprivations’
people may experience, including but going beyond
material needs to include aspects such as time
poverty, poor working conditions, poor gender
relations, insecurity and a lack of power (chambers,
2004).
Such participatory studies have gained some
traction in the ‘wellbeing agenda’. For instance,
it has been argued that development could
integrate subjective and relational experiences of
wellbeing, alongside material living standards,
and so should focus on wellbeing as a more holistic
and empowering concept than that of alleviating
poverty (mcGregor and Sumner, 2009).
there are concerns about how to interpret
subjective information – it has been argued
that poor people may become ‘habituated’ to
deprivation, (for instance, Sen, 1979), which makes
it difficult to compare perceptions. Such data do,
however, give important insights into what people
value. aspects such as being treated with dignity
and the importance of relationships, trust and
social cohesion tend to come to the fore. It also sheds
light on the extent to which different dimensions
of wellbeing matter to people, although these
are likely to vary substantially within and across
countries and cultures. a better understanding of
poor people’s experiences of poverty should inform
how the international community and national
governments choose to bring about change, so that
policies respond adequately to the concerns and
frustrations of disadvantaged groups.
5.3.3 Measurement advances …
but not enough
the multidimensional nature of wellbeing has found
widespread expression in the HDr family of indices,
which combine measures of living standards, health
and education. the 1990 HDr first put forward the
Human Development Index (HDI), and in 1996, the
Human poverty Index (HpI). over time, the HpI is
revealing of the large discrepancies that often existed
between income poverty and this broader measure
at a country level, yet also showed a net reduction of
income poverty in 40 out of 44 countries between
1990 and 2004 (Fukuda parr, 2004). the 2010 HDr
adopted the multidimensional poverty Index (mpI),
among others.
While previous composites aggregated data on
dimensions at each country level, the mpI also
accounts for the acute deprivations that people face
at the same time. 56 In other words, it not only takes
into account deprivations in the three areas but also
56 See alkire and Foster (2011), and for a critique (ravallion, 2011). ravallion argues that composite measures are beset by technical issues such
as the need to impose thresholds on indicators without a clear methodological justification, and to ‘weight’ or value dimensions relative to one
another.
poSt-2015: Global actIon For an IncluSIvE anD SuStaInablE FuturE
It has been
argued that
development
could focus on
wellbeing as
a more holistic
and empowering
concept than that
of alleviating
poverty.
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