Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay shared experiences in developing indicators
Brasilia, 14 of September 2015 – Representatives from the government and research institutes in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay met in Brasilia, at the Technical Workshop on Multidimensional Poverty organized by WWP (read more here and here) to discuss national experiences with regard to the design and implementation of multidimensional poverty indicators.
This new approach to characterizing poverty is being increasingly adopted by Latin American countries, drawing on methodologies that combine monetary poverty and social vulnerability.
“We want to ensure that a minimum set of elements is in place associated with social rights that must be universally met over time. This is what we mean by the measurement of multidimensional poverty, ” said Ricardo Aparicio, Deputy Director General of Poverty Analysis of the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy in Mexico.
Imanol Camblor

Imanol Camblor

Official figures released by Chile showed that the number of poor people in that country increased by six percentage points once the multidimensional calculation was taken into account.
“This method of poverty measurement has made it possible for us to identify specific needs in various areas. Indeed, it has paved the way for a more complex characterization of what poverty means in Chile, ” explained Isabel Millán, Head of Social Observatory Division of the Ministry of Social Development in Chile.
Further reading:
Public policies
Representatives from Costa Rica and Uruguay stressed the importance of using indicators as evaluation tools for social policies.
“Our goal is to build a multidimensional poverty indicator that makes it possible to identify the impact of social policy, improve its design, while allowing it to serve as a mechanism to enhance accountability on the part of social policymakers in our country,” explained Mariela Madrigal, a member of the technical team at the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica.
This strategy is also supported by Brazil. According to Paulo Jannuzzi, National Secretary for Evaluation and Information Management at Brazil´s Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation (MDS), indicators need to reflect the effects of public policies (read the interview with the National Secretary here).
“The issue is complex, not only from a conceptual point of view, and from the standpoints of methodology and legitimacy, but also on account of its practical difficulty. It transcends purely technical considerations and raises issues pertaining to social policy dialogue, ” Jannuzzi emphasized.
Access the presentations:
Marianna Rios, WWP