South Africa Country Study

The Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) is a new, gender-sensitive measure of multidimensional poverty, assessed across 15 dimensions at the individual level, making it possible to see who is poor, in what ways and to what extent. This report presents the results of the initial analysis of the IDM South Africa Country Study. The South African study had two parts, the first being a national-level main sample, with a final sample size of 8,652 individuals (sixteen years and older). The second was a purposive sample of people with disabilities, which was implemented in Gauteng and Limpopo provinces. For the purposive sample, 826 individuals with disabilities were sampled, and they and other adult individuals (18 years and older) in their households were interviewed, achieving a final sample size of 2,311 individuals. The same survey instruments were used for both samples and data collection for both took place between February and June 2019. Ultimately, the overall IDM Score—a composite index across all the dimensions measured—will be constructed. However, the analyses presented in this report are the results of index construction to the dimension level. Each dimension is constructed slightly differently, but follows the same principles. Questions from the individual and household surveys (the variables) are used, either singly or in combination, to construct indicators, which are then aggregated to the theme level. Themes can be constructed from just one indicator, or from as many as eight, with each theme describing a single concept or idea that fits within the relevant dimension. Finally, each dimension is constructed by aggregating one or more themes, as illustrated in Figure 1. Many indicators and themes included in the construction of the IDM and its constituent dimensions are rarely, if ever, included in other poverty analyses.