persons with between seven and nine years of schooling have a poverty rate similar to the average predictably the percentage of poor persons is higher among the unemployed than among the employed and the economically inactive moreover among the employed the poverty rate is lower for wage earners than for ownaccount workers who in several countries have a similar poverty rate to that of the economically inactive population this raises the question of whether the public policies for poverty alleviation are placing sufficient emphasis on the achievement of minimum standards a broader look at poverty including deficiencies in spheres such as social protection and income explores the relationship between different dimensions of deprivation in particular it explores conceptually and empirically different dimensions thresholds and ways of adding dimensions in order to advance towards the construction of a relevant multidimensional poverty index that can be applied throughout the region