Leading technical change

Equality Insights is a gender-sensitive measure of poverty of inequality. The measure is underpinned by purpose-built survey tools: Equality Insights Plus and Equality Insights Rapid.

Both tools collect information about 15 key areas of life including social, economic, and environmental dimensions, as well as assets, to reflect experiences of financial and multidimensional poverty. Grounded in lived experience, these 15 dimensions were identified through a participatory process with more than 3000 people with experiences of poverty.

The purpose of these Equality Insights surveys is to collect information about different aspects of a person’s life including their health, clothing, access to water, sanitation, their ability to raise concerns with local authorities, the demands on their time and other details that help to understand people’s circumstances.

The surveys produce inclusive data that drives evidenced-base decision-making and inspires transformative change. Our data is used by governments, national statistics offices, women’s rights organisations and gender data advocates to develop effective solutions that reduce poverty and inequality.

These tools have been informed by more than a decade of research and innovation.

Features of the tools:

• Multidimensional: measures 15 dimensions of life as identified by people with lived experience of poverty.
• Individual-level: collects information from individuals, rather than ‘heads of households’, to paint a more accurate picture.
• Gender-sensitive: assesses areas of life that are shaped by gender with questions that help to show how this influences experiences of poverty and inequality.
• Scalar: uses a scale to understand the severity or depth of poverty that is being experienced.

Equality Insights Plus

Equality Insights Plus is a long form survey that takes one hour to complete. It is a face-to-face survey, and interviews are conducted with all adults within a sampled household.

Equality Insights Rapid

Equality Insights Rapid is designed to collect data quickly and remotely, making it a useful tool in times of disaster or disruption. The survey is conducted by phone using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). It is a shorter variant of Equality Insights Plus, while maintaining the focus on 15 key areas of life plus assets, as well as ability to conduct intersectional analysis.

Reflections on the nature of poverty from data collectors in the Solomon Islands

Data collectors in each country receive in-depth training to administer the survey to individuals in their broader communities. The survey asks a set of questions about each of the 15 dimensions and about assets. Information on the ethnicity, religion, age, gender and each individual’s self-assessed quality of life is also collected, in order to understand how these factors influence deprivation and inequality and interact to deepen disadvantage. Data is de-identified and stored in ways that support detailed analysis while ensuring privacy and security. Collaborating organisations and wider stakeholders help determine analysis priorities and make sense of results in the local context, focusing insights and connecting them to opportunities for change.