Massachusetts House Resolution on the Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty Adopted
Earlier this year, The Massachusetts House or Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution that acknowledges the Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty (MAP) when designing policy interventions to poverty. The resolution, co-sponsored by fourteen representatives, also recognizes that people in poverty should be involved as partners in policy making. Representative Christine Barber of the 34th Middlesex District in Massachusetts introduced the resolution in the house after receiving the report Pushed to the Bottom: The Experience of Poverty in the U.S. from ATD Fourth World.
This is an important milestone in our advocacy process, and now other institutions around the United States are building from this resolution to take on a participatory approach. We hope to achieve comparable results elsewhere. Please let us know if you would like to propose a similar resolution to any of your elected officials.
Below is the text of the resolution.
Recognizing the Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty
WHEREAS, Policy practitioners strive to consult people with direct experience of poverty in designing policies, but the measurement of poverty itself has not benefited from the guidance of people who have experienced it; and
WHEREAS, In response to this need, ATD Fourth World, a global movement aimed at ending poverty and protecting human rights and dignity, partnered with the University of Oxford to design and implement a participatory research project with over 2,000 participants, a majority of whom have experienced poverty; and
WHEREAS, This research launched the “Poverty in All Its Forms: Determining the Dimensions of Poverty and How to Measure Them” international participatory research project, with research teams in Bangladesh, Bolivia, France, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, and six regions or cities in the United States: Appalachia, New York, New Orleans, Boston, Oakland, and Gallup, New Mexico; and
WHEREAS, The Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty (MAP) has been developed from this research and, since March, 2019, has been made available for researchers and practitioners to advance knowledge about the nature and characteristics of the poverty dimensionsthrough the report “Pushed to the Bottom: the Experience of Poverty in America”; and
WHEREAS, Because those who have lived in poverty were central advisors in the task of defining poverty and creating the MAP dimensions, its use will not only promote a less technocratic analysis of poverty, it will also improve our understanding of poverty and our policy responses to it; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the Massachusetts State Legislature acknowledge the Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty (MAP) in designing policy interventions to poverty and policies to support those living in poverty; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be forwarded by the Clerk of the House of Representatives to ATD Fourth World.