Gonzalo Hernández Licona, executive secretary of the committee National assessment Secretary of Social development Policy - CONEVAL (Mexico), participated in the V NCID Research Workshop, organized by the Navarra Center for International Development of the University of Navarra and the Ramón Areces Foundation on June 6 and 7 in Madrid.

Hernández Licona gave a presentation at lecture on the use of an indicator to measure poverty in a multidimensional way -access to Education, health, social security, decent housing, etc.-, which CONEVAL uses in Mexico. For this measurement, there has been coordination between the ministries of development Social, Education, Health, work, Finance, Economics and Agriculture, and even with the Central Bank, since all of them have specific objectives for poverty reduction.

Why do they use multidimensional indicators to measure poverty?

Poverty is a phenomenon with several dimensions and several faces. It must be understood in this way and therefore it must be measured in this way. Some people believe that poverty is a problem of lack of knowledge (technical) resources on the part of the poor population to face their challenges. But history sample clearly shows that poverty is more a problem of lack of basic rights, of social rights. That is why the Mexican congress decided that it should be measured with a approach of both social rights and income. In this way, poverty is better understood and better combated.

What specific dimensions are measured?

The dimensions included in the measurement of poverty in Mexico, as determined by congress were: household income, backwardness educational, access to health services, access to social security, access to basic services in housing, access to quality housing, access to food. Each dimension has thresholds, most of them decided by the congress in previous periods.

Are insecurity and poverty among the dimensions you measure?

CONEVAL has not measured this, but it appears that the effect may be significant. Insecurity and violence reduce investment, which reduces the economic capacity to generate jobs.

What are the benefits of approach multidimensional in measurement?

An enormous advantage of this approach is that the measurement makes the effect of public policy on poverty more visible than a measurement of income alone. For example, if a girl goes to school with a scholarship, this decreases poverty, through the dimension of Education. But a child going to school does not increase household income in the short or medium term deadline.

It is important to highlight that the congress decided that Mexico should have a multidimensional poverty measurement, but also that there should be an independent and autonomous written request to measure poverty at national, state and municipal levels: CONEVAL.

What are the major difficulties encountered in this regard?

The measurement makes it clear that poverty reduction depends on both social policy (children in schools, improved housing, access to health and social security, as well as food) and economic policy (increased incomes, wages, employment, economic growth). Poverty will be reduced faster to the extent that both policies are effective at the same time.

The surprising thing is that today, the Mexican government, as well as several state governments, have as a guiding thread of their social policy the multidimensional poverty measurement generated by the CONEVAL in 2009.

What can other countries learn from Mexico's implementation of social policies in recent years?

The new diary of sustainable goals requires all countries to reduce multidimensional poverty, from agreement with national measurements. This creates a great opportunity for the whole world: that each country seeks to measure multidimensional poverty from agreement to its own idiosyncrasy. Today Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Bhutan... already have a poverty measurement from agreement to their own methods. Hopefully, in the near future there will be various national initiatives to measure progress/development/poverty, according to the vision of each country.

The literature suggests that countries with weak institutional Structures tend to have greater problems in boosting their Economics. How has this been combated in Mexico?

Mexico continues to struggle to boost its Economics. Reforms are needed to induce greater generation of added value. One hypothesis that I share is that Mexico needs changes that strengthen the individual rights of all, that there is an environment of economic, political and social freedom that fosters innovation and creativity, based on a minimum floor for all. There is much to be done. We believe that a multidimensional poverty measurement is a step in the right direction.