Nearly 2 Million Ecuadoreans Lifted out of Poverty since 2009

Ecuador's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses reported that the country's multidimensional poverty rate dropped 16.5 percent between 2009 and 2015, translating into 1.9 million Ecuadoreans who no longer live in poverty.

“Socioeconomic poverty will be fundamentally solved through changes in the relations of power … through political processes,” said Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

The reduction of both urban and rural poverty has been one of the major objectives of the Correa administration and the Citizens Revolution that was initiated 10 years ago on Jan. 15, 2007. The country is working to eliminate extreme poverty completely, having already successfully done so in the capital region.

Jose Rosero, director of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, said the multidimensional poverty rate was reduced to 35 percent in December 2015 from 51.5 percent in December 2009.

Instead of just raw income or consumption, the multidimensional poverty measures four components: education; work and social security; health, water, and food; as well as housing and living environment.

“Poverty is a multidimensional and multifaceted phenomenon that has many aspects. You cannot describe it in a single or one-dimensional manner. In this regard, the metrics we use to measure it have to correspond to this feature of poverty, which not only focuses on the lack of resources but a lack of welfare or rights such as health, education, housing and employment,” said Rosero.

Ecuador adopted the multidimensional poverty metric two years ago in order to better evaluate the impact of social programs and investments. The metric is also used in Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador and is generally viewed by policy makers as a more effective way of measuring poverty.