Although the World Bank defines extreme poverty as subsisting on less than US$1.25 a day, “poverty” as a concept is viewed differently across cultures, as researchers at Oxford University in the United Kingdom have found.

They are devising a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) which takes into account malnutrition, child nutrition and other indicators to determine whether someone can be defined as poor.

Economist Sabine Alkire is Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.

She talks to Mark Bettancourt of the International Monetary Fund about painting an aggregate picture of poverty.

Duration: 3'54"