Jamaicans who have a highly liberal outlook on life, many politicians included, tend to romanticise poverty, often excusing even criminal activities, arguing that the culprits are existing in deprived communities and are more or less forced to break the law.

And while no one denies that Jamaica is among the world’s poor countries — notwithstanding the designation by multilateral donors that we are a middle-income developing country — what we have not had is a clear way of establishing the severity of our poverty.

Until now.

The State-run Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), in collaboration with the regional Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), has devised a more effective tool to measure, understand, and address poverty across the island.

Before the new Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), as it is called, the household was deemed to be poor based on what was earned and consumed in food and non-food expenditures needed for basic survival, as determined by the annual Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions.

A key metric commonly used was the percentage of people “living below the poverty line”. In 2018, that line was calculated at $565 per day. In more recent times the PIOJ has determined that poverty has been at record lows.

That, of course, still did not say precisely how poor people were, as it is known that there are varying levels of poverty. The MPI, in addition to the traditional methods used, will now also calculate what households lack across dimensions including health, education, housing, access to services, employment, security, and overall well-being.

“It complements traditional monetary poverty assessments and strengthens Jamaica’s ability to implement targeted, evidence-based social and economic policies, aligned with Vision 2030 Jamaica and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” the collaborating partners said.

The CDB, which financed the project, noted that the process drew on extensive collaboration among national stakeholders, technical experts, and development partners and now positions Jamaica as a regional leader in adopting multidimensional approaches to poverty reduction.

The bank’s Portfolio Manager, Social Sector Division Mr Elbert Ellis stressed: “The Multidimensional Poverty Index offers a more holistic, inclusive framework for understanding interconnected deprivations, transforming poverty data into actionable intelligence.”

PIOJ Director General Dr Wayne Henry pointed to the value the MPI brings to Jamaica’s development planning, from inadequate housing and sanitation to being unemployed or excluded from school, suggesting that it “enhances our toolkit for planning and sharpens our ability to track development progress”.

One key aspect of the programme, we are happy to note, is that the MPI will also enhance the country’s capacity to design gender responsive policies, as the tool enables sex disaggregated analysis and highlights the different ways women, men, girls, and boys experience poverty.

By identifying specific deprivations, such as lack of safe drinking water, a common enough problem, the index allows for more precise targeting of social intervention programmes and resources.

The MPI could not have come at a better time, as Jamaica faces the awesome task of rebuilding after Hurricane Melissa.