New measures are needed to understand gender and poverty

The World Banks International Poverty Line (IPL) is the benchmark for tracking progress in the reduction of global poverty. But the US$2 a day guideline has drawn criticism among academics and policy circles for subsuming all those below the IPL under the poverty category, and for its unidimensional focus on monetary poverty. A new, better measure is out there and policymakers should use it. The Millennium Development Goals when aiming to eliminate poverty and extreme poverty set the benchmark at the IPL, currently estimated at US$2 per day for poverty and US$1.25 per day for extreme poverty. But this fails to distinguish among groups women, men, children, elderly, the vulnerable and marginalised groups and also excludes multi-dimensional deprivations.