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There has been extensive research on deprivation poverty using the consensual approach in this region with a number of national surveys in Australia, New Zealand and various Pacific Island Countries and Territories. In particular, the Kingdom of Tonga has pioneered surveys using the consensual approach to measure progress towards meeting UN SDG poverty targets and to improve policy interventions. Details of research in Vanuatu will be added shortly.
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In 2016, the Solomon Islands included a module on multi-dimensional deprivation in their national survey aimed at finding the necessities of life for all people of the Solomon Islands. The survey found that there is widespread consensus in the population about the importance of these items to the lives of people in the Solomon Islands today.
Tonga has pioneered a multidimensional poverty measure to meet its SDG goals, which builds on the Consensual Approach. It combines low income with measures of deprivation - based on socially perceived essentials - to identify the poor. One in four adults and on in three children are in poor.
![Sydney, Australia, street with beggar and passersby. Credit: Kgbo [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]](/sites/default/files/styles/feature/public/Image%20library/Beggar_in_Sydney%2C_Australia.jpg?itok=rtfeSO3t "Sydney, Australia, street with beggar and passersby. Credit: Kgbo [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]")
In 2014/15, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey used a new set of questions to examine deprivation poverty. It found 10.7% of the population was in deprivation poverty defined as those who lacked two or more necessities because they couldn't afford them.
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.
