• Talk 1: History of multidimensional poverty measurement: a global perspective (Professor David Gordon)
• Talk 2: History of poverty measurement in Latin America (Professor Luis Beccaria)
• Talk 3: Theories, definitions and measurement of poverty (Professor Fernando Cortés and Dr Héctor Nájera)

View a YouTube video of the talks (for timings of specific talks and translations see the YouTube video description).

Talk 1: History of multidimensional poverty measurement: a global perspective

Professor David Gordon (University of Bristol, UK)

In September 2015, the governments of the world agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were designed to guide global economic, environmental and social policy in all countries over the next fifteen years. The primary SDG is to “End poverty in all its forms everywhere” during the 21st Century, leaving no-one behind. There have been over 400 years of both anti-poverty policy and poverty research in Britain which is one of the richest countries in the world and yet poverty both persists and is increasing in the UK, so are the SDG goals achievable or impossibly utopian?

This session will provide a brief history of the idea of poverty and how it has been measured. It will discuss what has been learned from poverty research about how to effectively and efficiently eradicate poverty.

Course materials

A brief history of multidimensional poverty measurement (PDF, 1,809kB)

Una breve historia de la medición de la pobreza multidimensional (David Gordon) (PDF, 1,813kB)

‌Theoretical Disputes About Poverty Townsend 1993 (PDF, 7,360kB)

World Poverty chapter 4 International measurement of poverty and anti-poverty po (PDF, 484kB)

World Poverty-appendix-A Manifesto International Action to Defeat Poverty (PDF, 150kB)

Key readings and speaker biography

See pages 5-6 of Advanced Poverty Research Methods Online Course - Programme (PDF, 673kB)

 

Talk 2: History of poverty measurement in Latin America

Professor Luis Beccaria (University of General Sarmiento, Argentina)

The talk will provide a general view of the development of official measurements of poverty in Latin America since 1970s.  It will discuss how countries have resorted to different approaches and sources of information at different point of times.  A panorama of the present situation will be discussed, including the main challenges and possible ways forward.

Course materials

History of Poverty In Latin America (Luis Beccaria) (PDF, 894kB)

Historia de la medicion de la pobreza en america latina (Beccaria) (PDF, 927kB)

Key readings and speaker biography

See page 7 of Advanced Poverty Research Methods Online Course - Programme (PDF, 673kB)

 

Talk 3: Theories, definitions and measurement of poverty 

Professor Fernando Cortés and Dr Héctor Nájera (UNAM, Mexico)

There are several theories, definitions and measures of poverty around the world.  This has led to theoretical, conceptual, and methodological disputes about the merits and limitations of each approach.  This, unfortunately, has created confusion of several kinds among the public interested in poverty measurement but also among scholars.  The best way to frame and understand these disputes is through the scientific treatment of the concept and measurement of poverty.  Drawing upon more than 100 years of academic work, the lecture clarifies the role of a theory in both the definition and measurement of poverty, describes the connections between an abstraction -concept- and the operation of measuring it and sets up key questions for the rest of the course.  

Course materials

Poverty Concept Measurement Theory (Cortes and Najera) (PDF, 794kB)

Pobreza Conceptosteoria de la Medicion (Cortés and Nájera) (PDF, 691kB)

Key readings and speaker biographies

See pages 8-9 of Advanced Poverty Research Methods Online Course - Programme (PDF, 673kB)