FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Jamaica National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

1. What is Multidimensional Poverty?
The United Nations identifies poverty as ‘the greatest global challenge’ and defines poverty using two definitions: monetary and multidimensional. Traditionally, poverty has been measured in monetary terms, where an individual is determined as poor if they are not able to pay for basic goods and services above a defined poverty line. However, multidimensional poverty measurements are based on the concept that focusing on monetary poverty alone, or on any single indicator, is not enough to capture the lived reality of poverty. Multidimensional poverty conceives of poverty as an experience of overlapping deprivations, and identifies whether or not people are living in poverty based on whether they experience a critical mass of possible deprivations.

2. What makes someone multidimensionally poor?
A person is considered multidimensionally poor if they experience multiple disadvantages in a critical share of indicators at the same time. For example, he/she may not have access to education, and may live in a household that is overcrowded, and do not have access to safe drinking water.

3. What is a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)?
a) Multidimensional Poverty Indices (MPIs) capture details about the lived experience of people in poverty to offer actionable information for poverty reduction.
b) An MPI groups weighted indicators of poverty under various dimensions and categorises a person as poor or not poor based on whether they meet the threshold, or ‘poverty cut off’, of a certain proportion of the weighted indicators.
c) The MPI shows:
I. The proportion of the population that are poor (incidence)
II. The intensity of their poverty; that is, the average share of deprivations that multidimensionally poor people face. Some people will be more deprived than others i.e. they will be deprived in a greater number of the indicators included in the measure.
III. Which areas and groups are poorest, or the contribution of each indicator to the MPI.
d) The MPI value is the product of the proportion of population who are poor (incidence) multiplied by the intensity of their poverty; Incidence x Intensity=MPI. The MPI value will go up or down depending on whether deprivations have been addressed.

4. How many countries have an MPI?
To date, over 50 countries in all world regions have created their own measures of multidimensional poverty according to national definitions. Jamaica is one of a few countries in the Caribbean to introduce a multidimensional poverty measure.

5. Who developed the National MPI for Jamaica?
The process to develop the National MPI was led by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), with technical support provided by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), and funding support by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

6. What is the Jamaica National MPI?
The Jamaica National MPI is made up of 15 indicators grouped into four dimensions: education, health, living standards and employment. Each dimension is equally weighted, and each indicator within each dimension is equally weighted. The National MPI identifies a person as multidimensionally poor if they are deprived in 40% or more of the indicators included in the measure.

 

7. What data is used to calculate the National MPI?
The Jamaica National MPI is calculated using data from the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions (JSLC). It is an annual survey that captures the most comprehensive socioeconomic data in the country.

8. How was the structure of the Jamaica National MPI determined?
The National MPI was developed according to national definitions of poverty and based on extensive consultations conducted in two phases: (I) island wide focus group discussions with 357 participants from 17 communities across seven parishes. These consultations drew on inputs from unemployed and under employed youth, teenage mothers, households with persons with disabilities, female headed households, grandparents heading households, community leaders, teachers, health practitioners, youth advocates, and other key stakeholders. (II) The second phase included technical consultations and empirical research to design, compute and validate the measure. It included representatives from across government, civil society, academia and development partners. Indicators were included if they could detect change over time and were available in the JSLC dataset.

9. Will Jamaica continue to use a monetary poverty measure?
Yes. The National MPI will complement rather than replace the existing monetary poverty measure. While the monetary poverty measure tells us how many people cannot afford basic consumption, the MPI shows which deprivations they face, and in what combinations, allowing government to identify who is poor in what ways.

10. How will the National MPI be used?
The Jamaica National MPI will:
I. Be an official, permanent policy tool used by the Government of Jamaica to strengthen the country’s poverty reduction strategy. The MPI will guide the design of responses that target the actual drivers of poverty, and demonstrate the commitment of a government to root out poverty in all its forms and dimensions.

II. Offer a stable measure against shocks, such as from tropical storms, which helps long-term planning.

III. Facilitate leaving no one behind. The measure uses the same data source for both monetary and multidimensional poverty. This allows for an analysis of the proportion of the population that are multidimensionally poor, those that are monetary poor, and those that experience both multidimensional and monetary poverty. Those that are identified as multidimensionally poor would have otherwise been left behind, and those that are poor according to both measures should be prioritised for interventions.

IV. Capture actionable information on people’s poverty—showing where individuals may face deprivations in health, education, living standards and employment. MPIs show that the way people experience poverty differs across the country and can guide the coordination of initiatives that address interlinked deprivations.

V. Inform the design and targeting of social policies by identifying the key deprivations experienced by poor individuals and households.

VI. Facilitate targeting for social protection programmes, as it can identify people living in households that face overlapping deprivations. It is important that the social register used for targeting in the country includes the indicators used in the MPI so that the MPI can be computed with this data and enables the identification of households in highest need.

VII. Reveal bands of severity for poverty, revealing whether people are close to the poverty threshold/cut-off, or suffering from even higher levels of deprivation and in the greatest need of interventions.

VIII. Show the proportions of population who are poor, the ways in which they are poor, which parishes and which demographic groups (i.e. people with disabilities, female-headed households with children) are poorest and what their deprivations are.

IX. Strengthen budget allocation and guide programme implementation at both the national and sub-national levels. For instance, if a parish shows high multidimensional poverty due to housing quality or access to water, resources can be prioritised accordingly.

X. Capture more information about the lived experience of poverty at the national level to inform evidence-based and cost-effective responses.

11. How often will the structure of the National MPI be updated?
To enable the study of trends and progress, an MPI should not be changed whenever a new survey is fielded. Keeping the measure constant for a number of years will allow for tracking changes in deprivation over time and enable comparisons between subgroups, urban/rural areas, and vulnerable populations at a more granular and comprehensive level than consumption. However, new indicators that offer useful information will be considered to ensure the tool remains relevant.

12. How often will the MPI estimates be released?
The MPI will be released whenever the indicators are available in the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions for a given year.
For further information, visit the PIOJ website at www.pioj.gov.jm