Trends in multidimensional poverty in Latin America

This chapter provides an overview of the trends in multidimensional poverty during the last two decades across the Latin American countries. Data indicates multidimensional poverty to have been decreasing, with improvements across a wide range of dimensions. Some of the poorest countries in the region halved their multidimensional poverty incidence with rapid reductions in acute poverty among the poorest groups. The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown measures, however, are likely to have reversed many of the earlier gains. It is certainly a critical time to implement focused and interconnected policies that address simultaneous deprivations of the multidimensionally poor and prevent the crisis from having devastating long-run consequences.