The Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM): a gender-sensitive and multi-dimensional measure of deprivation.
Project implemented: January 2016
By 2020 the IDM is ready for global use as an individual measure of deprivation and a tool for tracking how development is changing lives.
Gender data matters: without it, we cannot achieve the 2030 Agenda, and, without it, it is difficult to devise effective policy and programs.
Develop a robust measure of individual-level multidimensional poverty that is sensitive to gender and can be disaggregated.
Use in a range of countries and contexts, and for different purposes, to identify how it is best used.
Develop a technological platform for collection, analysis and display of IDM data to enable use and uptake.
Enhance and inform global debate about individual-level, gender sensitive data for poverty measurement.
The IDM was mentioned in a statement by a member of the Australian delegation at an interactive expert panel on data and gender statistics at the United Nations’ 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2017.
By 2020, the IDM Program will provide nuanced evidence of gender gaps across a range of SDG targets to highlight priority needs for achieving the Goals by 2030.
The Australian Government is partnering with the Australian National University and the International Women’s Development Agency, to deliver the Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM). This gender-sensitive and multidimensional measure assesses deprivation at the individual level, in relation to 15 dimensions of life, making it possible to see who is poor, in what way and to what extent. The IDM is helping to overcome the current limitations of poverty data by getting below the household level to provide individual-level assessment of deprivation. By enabling disaggregation of data and measuring what poor women and men say defines poverty, using an approach that can reveal the relationship between gender and poverty, including within the household, the IDM can provide a gender-sensitive, nuanced, intersectional picture of deprivation. This can help governments and organisations to tackle poverty more effectively through better targeting of policy and programming. Individual level, gender-sensitive, multidimensional measurement is critical to tracking global progress towards the SDGs, and understanding how development efforts are contributing to ‘leaving no one behind’.
