Brasil Leads International Initiative to Audit Multidimensional Poverty

Brazil has launched an international initiative to develop a guide for auditing poverty using a multidimensional approach. The project was unveiled by the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) on May 21 during the opening meeting of the INTOSAI Poverty Audit Network.

Linked to the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), the Poverty Audit Network brings together oversight bodies from countries such as India, the United States, Thailand, Colombia, Costa Rica, Uganda, and Brazil. Its goal is to support Supreme Audit Institutions in applying tools that more accurately identify how public policies affect citizens lives.

The initiative seeks to shift the focus of audits away from a narrow emphasis on legal compliance and budget rules toward producing recommendations that help improve evidence-based public policies.

The model presented by the TCU proposes adopting multidimensional poverty measures to assess the impact of policies aimed at reducing poverty, something that cannot be captured through income data alone. This approach makes it possible to evaluate aspects such as the effectiveness of public policies, the efficiency of public spending, and the relationship between government expenditures and social outcomes in poverty reduction.

Leadership

At the opening of the event, Mario Luketic, Secretary General of the INTOSAI's Working Group on Evaluation of Public Policy and Programs (WGEPPP), said advancing this agenda will require coordinated action among countries and greater use of methodologies capable of measuring concrete results. He also highlighted the importance of the Brazilian approach, which broadens the traditional income-based analysis of poverty to include dimensions such as health, education, and living conditions.

Representatives of international organizations reinforced the relevance of the multidimensional perspective. Ricardo Nogales, from the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), presented the conceptual and methodological foundations of multidimensional poverty. This is not just a statistical exercise, he said, stressing that the goal is to drive real-world action.

Diego Zavaleta, from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), noted that the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) complements traditional metrics and enhances the ability to turn data into more effective public policies. Jennifer Yablonski, from UNICEF, drew attention to the need for child-specific measures, as children are the group most vulnerable to deprivation.

The event also brought together representatives from the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Court of Auditors, and experts from several other countries, including Costa Rica, Colombia, Egypt, India, Madagascar, Thailand, and the United States, expressing interest in the new approach.