Rio Group on Poverty Statistics

1 Background Information2 Present Objectives and Work Program3 Approaches to Poverty Measurement4 Transversal topics

1. Background Information

Statistical CommissionCountriesOrganizations

2 Present Objectives and Work Program

The CompendiumWork UnderwaySchedule

General Framework for Approaches

1. Introduction. Conceptual guidelines.2. Standards and Resources3. Availability of periodic calculations.4. Technical characteristics: Similarity and differences among estimates5. Challenges, options, and shortcomings

3. Approaches to Poverty Measurement

1. absolute poverty lines 2. relative poverty lines 3. access to basic services and basic capital

possession 4. relative poverty 5. subjective poverty6. combined measurement of deprivation and low

income

Standards for absolute poverty lines

a.                  Food or nourishment. b.                 Clothing.c.                 Shelter.d.                 Transportation.e.                  Education.f.                   Health.g.                 Energy or heating. Rest of expenditure after any or a group of previous items.

Geografical Breakdown

ECLAC at least metropolitan, urban and rural

areas Canadian MBM calculates 47 thresholds, based on province in size of area. Official poverty lines in the U.S. are computed nationally and do not vary by location or urban/rural status

Updating

The updating of poverty lines is done in all 4 cases Global IPC or Items

Resources of households

In all the 4 cases, the poverty line is compared with household income, a proxy of the resources of the household, to decide if the members of the household/family are to be considered to be poor.

Monetary and non monetary income. Limits.

Official Measurements

The USA estimate and those of 14 Latin American countries are official estimates. The Canadian estimates are not official

Information Sources1. Specific technical information for standards.

Example nutritional coefficients2. Income and expenditure surveys.3. Household employment surveys4. Administrative information on income.5. National accounts6. CPI information

Some Additional Topics

- nutritional requirements based or not based on a population that is population that is physically underdeveloped - national reference group was contrasted with a reference group for each sub national context - differences of poverty levels among regions may be significant - equivalence scales - Health standards

4 Transversal topics

-International Comparisons-Poverty Dynamics-Strategies for the improvement of information.

International ComparisonsDifficulties in comparing poverty measurementsderive from

- the inexistence of standards for poverty measurement approved by the Commission,-, the conceptual intricacies involved in comparing welfare levels, - the presence of political considerations, - the relative shortage of experiences in this area

Basic requirement for performing empirical comparisons concept of welfare captured by the sources of information is similar The Canberra Group has listed in its Report the items that should or could be considered in the measurement of income. It has also surveyed the availability of data for at least some of the most important income items in the national household surveys and other sources of information. If international comparability of income-based poverty measurements is to be attained, there needs to be a minimum agreement on the limits and content of the notion of income.

Table 2: Operational definitions of deprivation for children

Deprivation

Mild Moderate Severe Extreme

Food Bland diet of poor nutritional value

Going hungry on occasion

Malnutrition Starvation

Safe drinking water

Not having enough water on occasion due to lack of sufficient money

No access to water in dwelling but communal piped water available within 200 meters of dwelling or less than 15 minutes walk away

Long walk to water source (more than 200 meters or longer than 15 minutes). Unsafe drinking water (e.g. open water)

No access to water

At least two important decisions should be adopted. The first is to start with a regional or sub regional comparison, as has been the case of the European Union and ECLAC, or to start since the beginning with a worldwide approach. The second is to favor an international statistical instrument for information gathering, such as a special survey, or to favor transformations of available instruments.

Poverty dynamics

Types of questions For how long is an individual poor What are the origins of poverty. Is it

inherited? What are the effects of policies

Statistical instrument: Longitudinal surveys

Strategies for the improvement of information

New Demand: Options1 Use existing instruments( many times not being used)2 Modify existing instruments3 Create new instruments

Some strategies

1. Eurostat2. Eclac3. Australian