Editorial – Dimensions 12

We open this issue of Dimensions with the experience of Laura Pabón, Head of the Directorate of Social Development at the National Planning Department in Colombia, who talks with Felipe Roa Clavijo about the implementation of the Equity Roundtable. This top-level body brings together ten government entities to monitor and develop strategies for social inclusion and the reduction of poverty and inequality. We learn how the Roundtable has been a key mechanism for analysing the current crisis and coordinating mitigating policies.

We also look at progress in poverty measurement in the private sector. Since 2017 in Costa Rica, the Horizonte Positivo association has been implementing the business Multidimensional Poverty Index (bMPI) programme. Last year, they recognised eight companies for their work in identifying multidimensional poverty among their workforce and implementing solutions. Here, we report on the winning companies and their stories.

Alongside measuring acute deprivation around the world, should we be thinking about measuring moderate multidimensional poverty? Fanni Kovesdi addresses this question and discusses the relevance of creating a new international measure to gauge moderate poverty.

Expanding on this question regionally, Khalid Abu-Ismail and a group of researchers at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia, describe the process that led to the formal adoption of the Arab MPI to monitor multidimensional poverty with moderate degrees of deprivation in both middle-income and middle-humandevelopment countries.

Before the pandemic, poverty was declining in Latin America and the Caribbean. Mónica Pinilla-Roncancio and Héctor Moreno analyse pre-pandemic trends and projections of multidimensional poverty in the region to help analyse the potential impact of COVID-19, and guide evidence-based policies.

Finally, our guest author, Xavier Godinot, Research Director of the International Movement ATD Fourth World, discusses the hidden dimensions of poverty and describes his organisation’s approach.

We invite you to read Dimensions, a new perspective for understanding poverty.

Carolina Moreno

 

 

This article was published in Dimensions 12