Oxford expert calls for uniform approach to measuring poverty

Sabina Alkire, professor of poverty and human development at the University of Oxford, said measuring poverty mattered because if done correctly it would provide public recognition of distressing levels of disadvantage.

Delivering the recent Brotherhood of St Laurence Sambell Oration, Professor Alkire said giving poor people visibility and recognition could result in new and creative approaches to alleviating poverty and build lasting change.

Her comments come as the federal government struggles to relieve pressure on Australians suffering under the cost-of-living crisis.

A report released by the Productivity Commission earlier this year revealed that about one in seven people living in Australia experienced poverty in 2022 – the highest level since 2001.

As the 50^th anniversary of Australia’s first Commission of Inquiry into Poverty approaches in 2025, the Brotherhood of St Laurence has urged Australia to follow the lead of countries such as Canada and New Zealand by agreeing on a set of official poverty measures which can identify all the components that are essential to reducing poverty and increasing social mobility.

Professor Alkire said while many individual indicators of poverty, such as employment, health and education, are already being monitored in Australia, these should be combined with monetary factors into a single multidimensional poverty index (MPI).

Rather than being a "heavy bludgeon of despair that cannot change,” Professor Alkire said an MPI could be a "catalyst for action that makes visible and celebrates success".

Professor Alkire said poverty experts across the world were adamant that poverty involved various challenges that struck disadvantaged people at the same time.

"Work on poverty must take this perspective, their perspective," she said.

Professor Alkire said the World Bank and UN agencies now recognised that multidimensional and monetary poverty measures complemented each other.

"I am not suggesting poverty measures that would induce guilt, paralysis or a dread and feeling nothing can be done.

"Rather, [they would] make visible disadvantage and disparities in ways that can be linked to action."

Professor Alkire said poverty statistics made poverty visible, could mobilise the reluctant and bring positive change, and provided a performance indicator that recognised incremental progress.

"Poverty measurement can be a tool for action and for hope: it can show avenues of change, find places that have changed, celebrate what they've done, and clarify what else might be done."

Watch the full 2024 Sambell Oration with Prof. Sabina Alkire on YouTube

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