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The UNDP Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Standard of Living Dimension
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute poverty developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). It complements traditional income-based poverty measures by capturing the multiple, simultaneous deprivations that people in poverty face.
The MPI uses ten indicators grouped into three equally-weighted dimensions of well-being: Health, Education, and Standard of Living. A person is identified as multidimensionally poor if they are deprived in at least one-third ($\geq 33.3\%$) of the weighted indicators.
Standard of Living Indicators in the Global MPI
The Standard of Living dimension is one of the three core pillars of the Global MPI, representing one-third of the total MPI weight. It comprises six indicators, each contributing a weight of $1/18$ to the overall MPI score. These indicators reflect access to basic amenities and material possessions essential for a decent quality of life.
The table below outlines the six standard of living indicators, their respective weights, and the deprivation cutoffs used to determine if a household is deprived in that indicator.
| Indicator | Weight in MPI | Deprived if living in a household where... |
| Cooking Fuel | $1/18$ | The household cooks using solid fuel (dung, agricultural crop, shrubs, wood, charcoal, or coal). |
| Sanitation | $1/18$ | The household has unimproved or no sanitation facility, or it has an improved facility that is shared with other households (according to SDG guidelines). |
| Drinking Water | $1/18$ | The household does not have access to improved drinking water (according to SDG guidelines), or improved drinking water is a 30-minute or longer walk from home, round trip. |
| Electricity | $1/18$ | The household has no electricity. |
| Housing | $1/18$ | The household has inadequate housing materials in any of the three components: floor (natural materials), roof (natural or rudimentary materials), or walls (natural or rudimentary materials). |
| Assets | $1/18$ | The household does not own more than one of these assets: radio, TV, telephone, computer, animal cart, bicycle, motorbike, or refrigerator, and does not own a car or truck. |
MPI Dimensions and Structure
For context, the table below shows all ten indicators across the three dimensions of the Global MPI.
| Dimension | Indicator | Weight in Dimension | Weight in MPI |
| Health ($\mathbf{1/3}$ total weight) | Nutrition | $1/2$ | $1/6$ |
| Child Mortality | $1/2$ | $1/6$ | |
| Education ($\mathbf{1/3}$ total weight) | Years of Schooling | $1/2$ | $1/6$ |
| School Attendance | $1/2$ | $1/6$ | |
| Standard of Living ($\mathbf{1/3}$ total weight) | Cooking Fuel | $1/6$ | $1/18$ |
| Sanitation | $1/6$ | $1/18$ | |
| Drinking Water | $1/6$ | $1/18$ | |
| Electricity | $1/6$ | $1/18$ | |
| Housing | $1/6$ | $1/18$ | |
| Assets | $1/6$ | $1/18$ |
Note on Weighting:
The three dimensions are equally weighted (each contributing $1/3$ to the total MPI score). Since Health and Education each have two indicators, each indicator in those dimensions is weighted $1/6$. Since Standard of Living has six indicators, each indicator in this dimension is weighted $1/18$, ensuring the $1/3$ dimensional weight is maintained ($6 \times 1/18 = 6/18 = 1/3$).
Addressing the Core of Poverty
The indicators within the Standard of Living dimension—from lack of clean cooking fuel and sanitation to deprivation in electricity and assets—provide a critical, granular view of poverty that monetary measures alone cannot capture. By assigning equal weight to this dimension alongside Health and Education, the Global MPI emphasizes that poverty is fundamentally about the lack of basic necessities and services that form the foundation of a dignified life. Analyzing deprivations in this dimension allows policymakers to target interventions directly at improving fundamental infrastructure and resource access, thereby addressing the most visible and immediate hardships faced by the 1.1 billion people currently identified as multidimensionally poor. The MPI thus serves as an invaluable tool for tracking progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 1 (ending poverty in all its forms) and creating integrated strategies that build both capability and material well-being.
.jpg "The UNDP Cooking Fuel Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index")
The UNDP Cooking Fuel Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), utilizes the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to capture the complex, non-monetary aspects of poverty. The MPI goes beyond income to assess deprivations across three key dimensions: Health, Education, and Standard of Living.
The Standard of Living dimension is crucial, consisting of six equally weighted indicators, each reflecting a basic necessity for a decent quality of life. Among these is the Cooking Fuel Indicator, which specifically addresses the need for clean and safe energy for daily cooking.
The Cooking Fuel Indicator
The Cooking Fuel Indicator is a direct measure of a household's access to clean energy for cooking. Lack of clean cooking fuel has significant negative implications for health, particularly for women and children who spend more time indoors exposed to harmful smoke. It also relates to environmental sustainability and time poverty, as gathering solid fuels is often a time-consuming chore.
Deprivation Definition
A household is considered deprived in the Cooking Fuel indicator if it uses solid fuels for cooking. These typically include:
Dung
Wood
Charcoal
Coal
Agricultural crop
Shrubs
The use of these fuels contributes to indoor air pollution, which is a major health risk. Households using clean fuels like electricity, kerosene, gas (LPG, natural gas), or biogas are considered not deprived.
Weighting in the MPI
The Standard of Living dimension contributes one-third (1/3) of the total MPI deprivation score. Since the Standard of Living dimension has six indicators (including Cooking Fuel), each of the six indicators is assigned an equal weight of 1/18 of the total MPI score. A household must be deprived in a weighted sum of at least one-third (or 33.33%) of the ten indicators to be classified as multidimensionally poor.
Table: Cooking Fuel Indicator Details
| Dimension | Indicator | Deprived if living in a household where... | Weight (of total MPI score) | Corresponding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Area |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Cooking Fuel | The household cooks with dung, wood, charcoal, or coal (solid fuels). | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Sanitation | The household's sanitation facility is not improved (according to SDG guidelines) or it is improved but shared with other households. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Drinking Water | The household does not have access to improved drinking water (according to SDG guidelines) or improved drinking water is a long walk (30 minutes round-trip or more) from home. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Electricity | The household has no electricity. | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Housing | The household has inadequate housing materials (for floor, roof, or walls). | 1/18 | SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Assets | The household lacks essential durable assets and means of transport. | 1/18 | SDG 1: No Poverty |
Note: The remaining four indicators belong to the Health (Nutrition, Child Mortality) and Education (Years of Schooling, School Attendance) dimensions, each with a weight of 1/6.
The Importance of Clean Cooking Fuel
The inclusion of the Cooking Fuel indicator highlights that poverty is not solely about a lack of money but also about a lack of basic services and essential infrastructure.
Health Impact: The use of solid fuels indoors leads to high concentrations of health-damaging pollutants, resulting in acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) in children and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer in adults. This disproportionately affects women and children.
Environmental Impact: Reliance on wood and charcoal contributes to deforestation and climate change. Shifting to cleaner fuels supports environmental conservation efforts.
Gender Equality and Time Poverty: In many developing regions, women and girls are primarily responsible for collecting wood and other solid fuels, a time-consuming and often dangerous task. Access to clean fuel frees up this time for education, income-generating activities, or leisure, advancing gender equality.
Economic Development: The indicator is aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 7, which calls for ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all, a key driver of economic development.
The Cooking Fuel indicator is a powerful tool for policymakers, allowing them to precisely identify and target the nearly one billion people globally who still lack this essential component of a decent standard of living, thereby informing interventions aimed at reducing multidimensional poverty.
.jpg "The UNDP Sanitation Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index")
The UNDP Sanitation Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index
The global effort to measure and eradicate poverty extends beyond simple income-based metrics. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), uses the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to capture the acute, overlapping deprivations faced by individuals. The MPI assesses poverty across three main dimensions: Health, Education, and Standard of Living.
The Sanitation Indicator is a critical component of the Standard of Living dimension, reflecting the fundamental right to a safe and dignified environment. Lack of adequate sanitation is a major driver of disease, malnutrition, and poor overall health outcomes, making its inclusion in the poverty measure essential for targeted policy intervention.
The Sanitation Indicator
The Sanitation indicator assesses whether a household has access to a safe and improved toilet facility that is not shared with other households. It directly links to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6) for clean water and sanitation.
Deprivation Criteria
A household is identified as deprived in the Sanitation indicator if the household's sanitation facility meets one of two conditions:
Unimproved Facility: The facility is not considered improved according to international guidelines (e.g., pit latrines without slabs, bucket toilets, or open defecation).
Improved but Shared: The facility is classified as improved (such as a flush toilet, ventilated improved pit latrine, or composting toilet) but is shared with another household.
The focus is on both the quality and the private nature of the facility, recognizing that shared or unimproved sanitation exposes all household members to increased health risks.
Weighting in the MPI
The Standard of Living dimension is one of the three equally weighted dimensions in the MPI, contributing one-third (1/3) of the total poverty score. Since the Standard of Living dimension is composed of six individual indicators (Sanitation, Drinking Water, Electricity, Cooking Fuel, Housing, and Assets), each of these six indicators is equally weighted at 1/18 of the total MPI score. A household must be deprived in a weighted sum of at least one-third ($1/3$ or $33.33\%$) of all ten indicators to be considered multidimensionally poor.
Table: Sanitation Indicator in the Global MPI
| Dimension | Indicator | Deprived if living in the household where... | Weight (of total MPI score) | Corresponding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Area |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Sanitation | The household's sanitation facility is not improved (according to SDG guidelines) or it is improved but shared with other households. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Drinking Water | The household does not have access to improved drinking water or improved drinking water is a long walk (30 minutes round-trip or more) from home. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Electricity | The household has no electricity. | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Cooking Fuel | The household cooks with solid fuels (dung, wood, charcoal, or coal). | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Housing | At least one of the three housing materials (floor, roof, or walls) is inadequate (e.g., natural or rudimentary materials). | 1/18 | SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Assets | The household does not own more than one of a list of specified assets (e.g., radio, TV, telephone, computer, bicycle, motorbike, or refrigerator) and does not own a car or truck. | 1/18 | SDG 1: No Poverty |
Policy Relevance and Global Impact
Sanitation deprivation remains one of the most widespread issues measured by the MPI. Global reports consistently show that hundreds of millions of multidimensionally poor people lack access to adequate sanitation, making it a common deprivation alongside clean cooking fuel and housing.
Public Health Crisis: Poor sanitation is directly linked to the spread of diarrheal diseases, cholera, typhoid, and parasitic worm infections. These illnesses are major causes of child mortality and contribute significantly to undernutrition—two other indicators in the MPI's Health dimension.
Dignity and Safety: Access to a private, improved toilet facility is critical for personal dignity and safety, particularly for women and girls. Lack of private facilities often exposes them to risks of violence, especially when collecting water or using communal toilets after dark.
Interconnected Deprivation: The MPI's value lies in showing the simultaneous deprivations. A household deprived in sanitation is often also deprived in drinking water and nutrition, demonstrating the cycle of poverty and poor health that policymakers must break.
By identifying households that are deprived in sanitation, the MPI provides governments with the data necessary to invest in WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) programs, which are fundamental to realizing human potential and achieving long-term poverty reduction.
.jpg "The UNDP Drinking Water Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index")
The UNDP Drinking Water Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), utilizes the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to measure acute poverty. The MPI captures overlapping deprivations across three equally weighted dimensions: Health, Education, and Standard of Living.
Within the Standard of Living dimension, Drinking Water is a foundational indicator, reflecting a non-negotiable human need for health and well-being. Lack of access to safe, readily available water compromises basic hygiene, leads to waterborne diseases, and can consume significant time and labor, especially for women and children, thereby reinforcing the cycle of poverty.
The Drinking Water Indicator
The Drinking Water indicator measures both the safety of a household’s primary water source and the time burden associated with collecting it.
Deprivation Criteria
A household is identified as deprived in the Drinking Water indicator if it meets one of the following two criteria:
Unimproved Source: The household does not use an improved source of drinking water. Improved sources generally include piped water, public taps, boreholes, protected wells or springs, or rainwater collection.
Excessive Distance/Time: The household uses an improved source, but the source is not on the premises, and the round trip to collect water takes 30 minutes or more. This criteria accounts for the significant time poverty experienced by those who must dedicate a large portion of their day to water collection, time that could otherwise be spent on education, livelihood, or childcare.
The focus aligns with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) targets, moving beyond mere source improvement to include considerations of accessibility and safety.
Weighting in the MPI
The Standard of Living dimension contributes one-third ($1/3$) of the total MPI score. Since this dimension is comprised of six individual indicators (Drinking Water, Sanitation, Electricity, Cooking Fuel, Housing, and Assets), each of these six is weighted equally.
Consequently, the Drinking Water indicator has a weight of 1/18 of the total MPI score. A person is considered multidimensionally poor if their household is deprived in a combination of indicators whose total weighted sum is one-third ($1/3$ or $33.33\%$) or more.
Table: Drinking Water Indicator in the Global MPI
| Dimension | Indicator | Deprived if living in the household where... | Weight (of total MPI score) | Corresponding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Area |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Drinking Water | The household does not have access to an improved source of drinking water (according to SDG guidelines) OR improved water is at least a 30-minute walk from home, round trip. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Sanitation | The household's sanitation facility is not improved or is improved but shared with other households. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Electricity | The household has no electricity. | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Cooking Fuel | The household cooks with solid fuels (dung, wood, charcoal, or coal). | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Housing | At least one of the three housing materials (floor, roof, or walls) is inadequate. | 1/18 | SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Assets | The household does not own more than one of a list of specified assets and does not own a car or truck. | 1/18 | SDG 1: No Poverty |
Interconnectedness and Policy Focus
Deprivation in drinking water is a widespread challenge globally, often affecting hundreds of millions of people who are simultaneously deprived in other basic necessities.
Impact on Health and Nutrition: Unsafe drinking water is a primary cause of diarrheal disease, a leading contributor to child mortality and chronic undernutrition—both key indicators in the MPI's Health dimension. By linking these deprivations, the MPI clearly shows that addressing water poverty is a vital step in improving public health.
Time Poverty and Education: The requirement to walk 30 minutes or more for water highlights the concept of time poverty. This time is often borne by women and girls, preventing them from participating in education or economic activity. Therefore, improving water access has a direct positive spillover effect on the School Attendance and Years of Schooling indicators in the MPI's Education dimension.
Targeted Investment: The MPI allows policymakers to identify subnational regions or demographic groups where water deprivation is most acute. This enables targeted, rights-based interventions, such as investment in local infrastructure (boreholes, piping) to ensure access to water that is both safe and proximate.
A Unified Approach to Poverty Eradication
The UNDP's Standard of Living dimension, particularly the Drinking Water indicator, serves as a powerful reminder that poverty is about more than just a lack of money—it's a confluence of simultaneous deprivations that lock people into a vicious cycle. Addressing water deprivation through investment in safe infrastructure and proximity reduces disease, improves child health, saves valuable time, and boosts educational opportunities. By providing granular data on who is deprived and how they are deprived, the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) transforms abstract poverty statistics into a tangible roadmap for targeted development. Ultimately, achieving universal access to clean, safe, and easily accessible drinking water is a critical step not only toward fulfilling SDG 6 but toward realizing the fundamental goal of ending poverty in all its forms everywhere.
.jpg "The UNDP Electricity Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index")
The UNDP Electricity Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), uses the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to provide a comprehensive measure of acute non-monetary poverty. The MPI is built on three equally weighted dimensions: Health, Education, and Standard of Living.
The Electricity indicator is a fundamental component of the Standard of Living dimension, reflecting a household's access to modern energy services, which is crucial for safety, health, education, and economic activity. Lack of electricity is a clear sign of deep deprivation, hindering access to information, limiting study time, and often necessitating the use of hazardous alternative light and energy sources.
The Electricity Indicator
The Electricity indicator is one of the clearest and most straightforward metrics in the MPI, serving as a binary measure of basic infrastructure access.
Deprivation Criteria
A household is identified as deprived in the Electricity indicator if it meets the following simple, unambiguous criterion:
The household has no electricity.
This is often one of the most common and stark deprivations experienced by the multidimensionally poor globally, highlighting a failure to achieve the most basic level of modern amenity. The indicator is directly linked to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.
Weighting in the MPI
The three dimensions of the MPI (Health, Education, and Standard of Living) are each given an equal weight of one-third ($1/3$) of the total score. The Standard of Living dimension is composed of six distinct indicators. To maintain the equal weighting of the main dimensions, each of the six Standard of Living indicators receives an equal share of the dimension's weight.
Therefore, the Electricity indicator is assigned a weight of 1/18 of the total Multidimensional Poverty Index score. A person is counted as multidimensionally poor if their household is deprived in any combination of weighted indicators that total to one-third ($1/3$ or $33.33\%$) or more.
Table: Electricity Indicator in the Global MPI
| Dimension | Indicator | Deprived if living in the household where... | Weight (of total MPI score) | Corresponding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Area |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Electricity | The household has no electricity. | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Cooking Fuel | The household cooks with solid fuels (dung, wood, charcoal, or coal). | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Sanitation | The household's sanitation facility is not improved or is improved but shared with other households. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Drinking Water | The household lacks access to an improved source of drinking water or the water collection round trip takes $\geq 30$ minutes. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Housing | At least one of the three dwelling components (floor, roof, or walls) is made of inadequate material. | 1/18 | SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Assets | The household lacks more than one essential asset and does not own a car/truck. | 1/18 | SDG 1: No Poverty |
The Significance of Electricity Access
Deprivation in electricity has profound impacts across all dimensions of poverty, making it a critical focus area for policymakers:
Education: Lack of electricity means children cannot study after dark, directly impacting the School Attendance and Years of Schooling indicators.
Health: Electricity is vital for refrigerated vaccines, storing medicines, and providing modern lighting in healthcare facilities. Its absence also forces a reliance on less-safe light sources (like kerosene lamps), which contributes to indoor air pollution and fire risks, potentially compounding the deprivation captured by the Cooking Fuel indicator.
Livelihood: Access to electricity enables small businesses to operate for longer hours, supports the use of power tools, and connects households to information via radio, television, or computer, which are linked to the Assets indicator.
By measuring electricity deprivation as part of a collective poverty index, the MPI enables governments to design integrated policies that tackle energy poverty alongside other co-existing deprivations, driving holistic and sustainable development.
.jpg "The UNDP Housing Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index")
The UNDP Housing Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), jointly published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), goes beyond income to measure acute poverty through simultaneous deprivations in health, education, and standard of living. Within the Standard of Living dimension, the Housing indicator is crucial, as it measures the fundamental deprivation of safe and adequate shelter.
A lack of proper housing materials exposes a household to the elements, increases health risks, and is a visual marker of severe, chronic deprivation. The indicator directly contributes to monitoring progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, particularly the target on ensuring access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing.
Defining Housing Deprivation
The Housing indicator assesses the quality of the dwelling’s construction materials. It takes a holistic view of the structural integrity of the home by focusing on three key elements: the floor, the roof, and the walls. A household is identified as deprived if at least one of these three components is considered inadequate.
Deprivation Criteria
A household is considered deprived in the Housing indicator if:
The floor is made of natural materials (e.g., earth, sand, or dung).
The roof is made of natural or rudimentary materials (e.g., natural leaves, straw, mud, plastic sheeting, or makeshift materials).
The walls are made of natural or rudimentary materials (e.g., cane, mud, plastic sheeting, or makeshift materials).
The definition of "inadequate" materials is based on the normative judgment that these materials offer insufficient protection from severe weather, dust, and pests, thus posing significant health and safety risks to residents.
Weighting in the MPI
The Standard of Living dimension is one of the three equally weighted dimensions in the MPI, contributing one-third ($1/3$) to the overall score. Since this dimension is composed of six individual indicators (including Housing), each of these six indicators is given an equal weight of one-eighteenth ($1/18$) of the total MPI score.
This ensures that the fundamental need for adequate shelter is appropriately reflected in a household’s overall deprivation score.
Table: Housing Indicator in the Global MPI Context
The table below illustrates how the Housing indicator fits into the broader Standard of Living dimension of the Global MPI.
| Dimension | Indicator | Deprived if living in the household where... | Weight (of total MPI score) | Corresponding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Area |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Cooking Fuel | The household cooks with solid fuels (dung, wood, charcoal, or coal). | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Sanitation | The household's sanitation facility is not improved or is improved but shared. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Drinking Water | The household lacks access to an improved source of drinking water or the collection round trip takes $\geq 30$ minutes. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Electricity | The household has no electricity. | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Housing | At least one of the three housing materials (floor, roof, or walls) is inadequate (natural or rudimentary). | 1/18 | SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Assets | The household does not own more than one essential asset and does not own a car/truck. | 1/18 | SDG 1: No Poverty |
Policy Implications of Housing Deprivation
Housing deprivation is more than just a lack of comfort; it creates an environment that exacerbates other forms of poverty:
Health Risks: Poor quality housing (e.g., dirt floors, leaky roofs, inadequate ventilation) increases the risk of infectious diseases, respiratory illnesses, and parasitic infections. It compromises the basic sanitation and hygiene efforts tracked by other MPI indicators.
Safety and Security: Rudimentary materials offer little protection from extreme weather events or crime, making the poor disproportionately vulnerable to disasters and external shocks. In fact, major global MPI reports often highlight inadequate housing as one of the most common deprivations faced by the multidimensionally poor, with hundreds of millions of people lacking adequate shelter globally.
Cross-Sectoral Targeting: Governments utilizing the MPI, such as through national-level housing schemes, can precisely target resources to households simultaneously deprived in Housing and other indicators, ensuring that housing improvement is integrated with electricity, sanitation, and water access efforts for a comprehensive attack on poverty.
A Comprehensive Mandate for Dignity
The Housing indicator is more than a simple metric for the UNDP's Multidimensional Poverty Index; it is a powerful lens revealing the acute physical vulnerability faced by the world's poorest. By counting deprivations in walls, roofs, and floors, the MPI converts structural fragility into a measurable policy target, directly connecting poor living conditions to broader issues of health, safety, and human dignity. Because a lack of safe housing often overlaps with deprivations in water, sanitation, and electricity, addressing the housing gap—through policy interventions like low-cost, resilient construction and material subsidies—acts as a high-impact lever for tackling multiple deprivations simultaneously. Ultimately, achieving universal access to adequate and secure shelter is a non-negotiable step toward fulfilling the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring that all people have a safe foundation upon which to build a life free from acute poverty.
.jpg "The UNDP Assets Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index")
The UNDP Assets Indicator in Multidimensional Poverty Index
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), a measure co-published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), identifies acute poverty by looking beyond income. It captures overlapping deprivations across three equally weighted dimensions: Health, Education, and Standard of Living.
The Assets indicator is one of the six components within the Standard of Living dimension and serves as a proxy for the household’s economic resilience and wealth accumulation. Unlike the other five indicators in this dimension (which measure access to services like clean water, electricity, and improved sanitation), the Assets indicator gauges the tangible material goods owned by the household, which are essential for communication, livelihood, and coping with financial shocks.
Defining Deprivation in Assets
The Assets indicator employs a specific, tiered cutoff to determine deprivation. It focuses on a small list of essential, non-luxury items typically found in household surveys across developing countries. Ownership of these items is interpreted as a minimal threshold of financial stability and access to modern technology.
Deprivation Criteria
A household is identified as deprived in the Assets indicator if:
It does not own more than one of the following essential household assets:
Radio
Television (TV)
Telephone (mobile or landline)
Computer
Animal Cart
Bicycle
Motorbike
Refrigerator
AND
It does not own a car or truck.
This rule is designed to ensure that a household cannot simply own multiple low-cost items (e.g., two radios) and be counted as non-deprived if they lack access to other basic forms of communication, transport, or storage. The exclusion of a car or truck acknowledges that owning a high-value asset, even without any small assets, would indicate an acceptable level of economic well-being.
Weighting in the MPI
The Standard of Living dimension contributes one-third ($1/3$) to the overall MPI score. Since there are six indicators in this dimension (Cooking Fuel, Sanitation, Drinking Water, Electricity, Housing, and Assets), each indicator, including Assets, is assigned an equal weight of one-eighteenth ($1/18$) of the total possible deprivation score.
This weight ensures that asset poverty contributes measurably to the identification and intensity of multidimensional poverty.
Table: Assets Indicator in the Global MPI Framework
The table below details the Standard of Living dimension, highlighting the specific role of the Assets indicator within the overall MPI structure.
| Dimension | Indicator | Deprived if living in the household where... | Weight (of total MPI score) | Corresponding SDG Area |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Cooking Fuel | The household cooks with solid fuels (dung, wood, charcoal, or coal). | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Sanitation | The household's sanitation facility is not improved or is improved but shared. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Drinking Water | The household lacks access to an improved source of drinking water or the collection round trip takes $\geq 30$ minutes. | 1/18 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Electricity | The household has no electricity. | 1/18 | SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Housing | At least one of the three housing materials (floor, roof, or walls) is inadequate. | 1/18 | SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities |
| Standard of Living (1/3) | Assets | The household does not own more than one of eight basic assets, and does not own a car or truck. | 1/18 | SDG 1: No Poverty |
The Importance of the Assets Indicator
The Assets indicator is particularly valuable because it serves three main functions in measuring global poverty:
Proxy for Economic Wealth: In the absence of reliable income or consumption data in many developing regions, assets offer a stable, long-term snapshot of a household’s economic standing and ability to withstand shocks.
Livelihood and Opportunity: Ownership of items like an animal cart, bicycle, or motorbike directly relates to a household’s mobility and ability to earn a living. A radio, TV, or telephone provides access to information critical for health, education, and market opportunities.
Cross-Check with Income: The Assets index acts as a powerful complement to traditional monetary poverty measures, revealing that even households that may be close to the monetary poverty line can still suffer from chronic material deprivation, highlighting the need for policies focused on wealth creation and economic inclusion.
A Measure of Economic Resilience
The Assets indicator in the UNDP's Multidimensional Poverty Index is a crucial, non-monetary measure of a household's capacity to engage with the modern economy and cope with emergencies. By focusing on the ownership of essential goods for communication, transport, and livelihood, the index captures the material exclusion that often traps the poor in a cycle of acute deprivation. Targeting this deprivation—through initiatives that promote financial literacy, access to credit, and ownership of productive assets—is vital for building the economic resilience required to lift the poorest segments of the population out of multidimensional poverty and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 1: No Poverty.
Conclusion: A Foundation for Human Development
The UNDP's Standard of Living dimension within the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) serves as a robust and actionable framework for diagnosing and addressing acute material deprivation. Encompassing six essential indicators—from basic services like Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Electricity to material assets and adequate Housing—this dimension provides a high-resolution map of the infrastructural and physical deprivations that directly undermine human dignity and potential. Collectively weighted to constitute one-third of the total MPI, these indicators reveal the profound overlap of deprivations that define acute poverty, where a lack of clean cooking fuel often coincides with inadequate housing and asset poverty. Addressing deprivations in this dimension is therefore a crucial, high-impact lever for policy. By prioritizing investments in essential services and durable assets, governments can not only reduce a significant portion of multidimensional poverty but also create the stable, healthy, and resilient environments necessary for progress in both the Health and Education dimensions, ultimately accelerating the path toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.