A recent report form the city of Buenos Aires measuring multi-dimensional poverty, using the consensual method, has found that in 2019,15.3% of households were multi-dimensionally poor, rising to 25.7% for households with children under 18 years of age. The method established will be used to measure nu,ti-dimensional poverty on an ongoing basis.
We are now delighted to offer you the presentation slides and video recordings of sessions across the three days, featuring formal presentations, interactive Q&As, networking opportunities and much more.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Steering Group on Measuring Poverty and Inequality has been tasked with producing a guide on Measuring Social Exclusion which references a lot of our PSE work.
Benin
In the first study of multidimensional poverty in Benin using the consensual or socially perceived necessities approach, Shailen Nandy and Marco Pomati find a high degree of consensus about what constitutes the necessities of life and an adequate standard of living. Using data from the 2006 Demographic and Household survey for Benin, the study shows how social consensus provides the basis for a reliable and valid index of multiple deprivation, which can be used to reflect multidimensional poverty in a low-income country. In 2011, Benin was ranked 166th out of 187 countries by the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index.
The table below shows for 26 items covering all aspects of living standards, the percentage considering the item ‘essential,’ the percentage consider the item ‘more or less necessary’ and the percentage considering the item not necessary. It then shows the percentage of households reporting that their need for that item was ‘not at all satisfied’. The table is sortable by column.
Items consider essential and percentage of housholds whose needs are 'not at all satisfied'
% respondents reporting needs "not at all satsified"
Need to have access to drinking water
84%
15%
0%
26%
Need to take care of oneself when sick
84%
16%
0%
19%
Having a stable and long-term job
82%
18%
1%
n/a
Need to be able to send children to school
79%
20%
1%
13%
Need to have access to electricity
77%
22%
2%
46%
Need to have three meals per day
74%
24%
2%
7%
Need to have a house
71%
24%
5%
16%
Need to have a radio
71%
28%
1%
n/a
Need to have mode of transportation
68%
30%
2%
31%
Need to take care of own body (soap, barber etc.)
67%
32%
1%
11%
A good meal on festivities/celebrations (Sunday, ceremony, etc.)
64%
33%
4%
7%
Need to have personal care products
62%
36%
2%
15%
Need to have tables and beds
62%
36%
2%
36%
Have a change of clothes (at least two)
61%
36%
2%
10%
Need to have a spacious house
59%
37%
4%
n/a
Need to be able to buy a television
59%
38%
4%
n/a
Need to have several sets of shoes
58%
38%
4%
10%
Need to have meat or fish every day
57%
36%
7%
10%
Need to be able to take a taxi
56%
42%
2%
n/a
Need to have birth control
55%
37%
8%
n/a
Need to have cereals or food made from roots or tubers every day
51%
37%
12%
5%
Need to take vacation
51%
43%
6%
22%
Need to be able to take the bus
45%
46%
9%
n/a
Need to be able to buy presents when needed
44%
51%
5%
n/a
Need to have vegetables every day
43%
40%
17%
5%
Need to work day and night
17%
24%
60%
n/a
Source: Calculated from Benin DHS 2006; N =17,483
Out of 26 items asked about, 22 were considered by more the 50 % of respondents to be ‘essential’. Of these essential items, there was no data on satisfaction with needs being satisfied for 6 of the items, leaving 16 items consider essential for which there was data on satisfaction.
46%
of households in Benin were 'not at all satisfied' with their access to electricity
These items were tested for validity and reliability against:
Respondent’s evaluations of their household income status
Respondent’s evaluations of their current financial situation
Respondent’s evaluations of the stability of their household income, and
Respondent’s quintile on the DHS household wealth index
Using this 16 items deprivation index:
36% of households have no deprivations
34% have 1 to 3 deprivations
31% have 4 or more deprivations, and
23 % have 5 or more deprivations.
To identify a ‘poverty threshold, the study used information about household assets as data on household income was not collected. A threshold of four or more necessities was identified.
Consensus about what is essential
Nandy and Pomati further show that there is a high degree of consensus as to these across age, gender, level of education, migrant status, religion and ethnicity. For example, what younger respondents think essential is very similar to what older respondents report; what women think are essential are also likely to be thought essential by men, etc.
No evidence of adaptive preference
The study also found strong evidence of lack of adaptive preference among the surveyed population of Benin. Indeed, people in poverty (i.e. defined here as those deprived of four or more socially perceived necessities) were marginally more likely than those not experiencing any deprivations (i.e. those not in poverty) to consider all of items on the deprivation index essential.
PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.
