Democratic Approach to Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in Latin America

The fight against poverty involves agreements and commitments concerning its definition, the measurement of its extent and depth, and policies to combat it from a predefined theoretical perspective. Within the international system, including the Inter-American system, and in the domestic context, its measurement has been using questionable parameters, such as the World Bank's "Dollar a Day" and the Multidimensional Poverty Index. In Brazil, it is mainly used the per capita income criterion. By setting the lines at low levels, poverty is underestimated. The paper aims to analyse the contributions of a democratic approach based on human rights to the definition and measurement of poverty in Latin America. It formulates a scientifically and politically supported normative meaning and recognises the fulfilment of needs as a right. It understands poverty as a relative and multidimensional concept (Townsend). Advancing the Consensual Approach method (Mack and Lansley), poverty is defined as an enforced lack of socially perceived necessities. In the peripheral Latin American context, the paper recognises the limits of institutional policies, promoting the political and tactical use of Law (Pazello). It contributes to research on poverty and encourages international cooperation and dialogue with decolonial and peripheral perspectives. In this way, it presents findings of the Post-doctoral Research "Decolonial critical contributions to measuring multidimensional poverty in Latin America using the Consensual approach".