The Alkire-Foster Method in Research and Policy

Research Applications

The Alkire-Foster method for multidimensional measurement has been applied by researchers for different purposes and for different countries and regions of the world.

For example, practical applications of the Alkire-Foster method are available for poverty in:

• Latin America (Working Paper 79)
• Sub-Saharan Africa (Working Paper 81)
• South Asia – Bhutan (Research in Progress paper 20a and Bhutan MPI 2017 report), Bangladesh (Working Paper 65) and India (Working Paper 60).
• China

OPHI research papers have also applied the Alkire-Foster Method to additional problems including:

• Child Poverty (Working Paper 57)
• Targeting of Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) (Research in Progress paper 20a, later published in Social Indicators Research, Vol. 112, 2013)
• Fuel Poverty (Working Paper 42)

Policy applications

The Alkire-Foster Method for multidimensional measurement has been used by policymakers in countries around the world to create national measures of poverty and wellbeing. Find out more about national measures of poverty and other policy applications of the Alkire Foster method on our policy pages.