Poverty is associated not only to insufficient income or consumption, but also to insufficient outcomes with respect to health, nutrition and literacy, to deficient social relations, to insecurity, and to low self-confidence and powerlessness.
Health and Nutrition Poverty : One could focus on the nutritional status of children as a measure of outcome, as well as on the incidence of specific diseases (diarrhea, malaria, respiratory diseases) or life expectancy for different groups within the population.
Education Poverty : One could use the level of literacy as the defining characteristic, and some level judged as the threshold for illiteracy as the “poverty line”. In countries where literacy is close to universal, one might opt for specific test scores in schools or for years of education as the relevant indicators.
Composite Indices of Wealth : An alternative to using a single dimension of poverty could be to combine the information on different aspects of poverty. One might want to create a measure which takes income, health, assets and education into account. It is important to note that a major limitation of composite indices is that it is not possible to define a ‘poverty line’. Analysis by quintile or other percentile remains possible, though, and can provide important insights in the profile of poverty.
