2024 Sambell Oration
The 2024 Sambell Oration focussed on why measuring poverty matters and how a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) can benefit Australia.
Beyond numbers: Why measuring poverty matters
The 2024 Sambell Oration was held on Tuesday 20 August and focussed on why measuring poverty matters and how a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) can benefit Australia. Our Orator this year was international expert in poverty measurement, Professor Sabina Alkire, Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at Oxford University.
It was an honour to host Prof. Alkire who spoke eloquently about the importance of measuring poverty – beyond income measurements. As Prof. Alkire suggested, Australia should consider a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), "not to induce guilt, paralysis or a dread and feeling nothing can be done" but because that process might make poverty "visible in ways that can be linked to action".
Around the world, 156 countries have official poverty measures – either an official income measure, a multidimensional measure, or both. Australia has neither. It’s time that changed and BSL wants to help drive that change. As Prof. Alkire also noted, "addressing poverty is not one institution's job. It must be communicated to many different actors: NGOs, the private sector, students and local governments. Many hands make light work across generations and communities."
The panel discussion following Prof. Alkire’s presentation, which included our Executive Director Travers McLeod, Catherine Liddle, CEO of SNAICC, Danielle Wood, Chair of the Productivity Commission along with Prof. Alkire, was thought-provoking and insightful. The panelists were in firm agreement that adopting a multidimensional poverty measure would bring real benefits and lasting change to communities across Australia.
You can watch Prof. Alkire's Oration - Beyond numbers: Why measuring poverty matters, and the panel discussion below.
Read the full transcript: BSL Sambell Oration 2024 Transcript Sabina Alkire
2024 Sambell Oration Orator - Professor Sabina Alkire
Professor Sabina Alkire directs the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis, welfare economics, the capability approach, the measurement of freedoms and human development.
Together with Professor James Foster, she developed the Alkire-Foster (AF) method for measuring multidimensional poverty, a flexible technique that can incorporate different dimensions, or aspects of poverty, to create measures tailored to each context. With colleagues at OPHI this has been applied and implemented empirically to produce a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The MPI offers a tool to identify who is poor by considering the range of deprivations they suffer tailored to the national or local context.
2024 Sambell Oration Panellists
Catherine Liddle is CEO of SNAICC, the National Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children. Catherine is an Arrernte/Luritja woman from Central Australia and prior to joining SNAICC she led multidisciplinary teams for more than ten years managing workplace transformations and advocating for policy reform. At SNAICC, Catherine is focusing her leadership on ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s rights are upheld to ensure their safety, development and wellbeing.
Danielle Wood is Chair of the Productivity Commission. Prior to being appointed to this prestigious role in November 2023, she was CEO of the Grattan Institute and head of its Budgets and Government Program. During her time at the Grattan Institute, Danielle also held roles as member of the Australian Government’s Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, the Parliamentary Budget Office Expert Advisory Committee, the Jobs and Skills Australia Consultative Forum and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government Research Committee.