Arguably, the income poverty line may not capture the true nature of poverty.
To accommodate this criticism, the UNDP’s multidimensional poverty indicators (MPI) in its 2011 Human Development Report can be used. The MPI classifica-tion goes beyond income categories by measuring poverty through deprivation in health, education, and living standards, indicators considered fundamental to human development. Based on these measurements, seven of 10 ASEAN countries were considered to have a multidimensional poor population in 2008. In general, 15.69% of people in the region experienced deprivation, while another 18.41% were at risk of multidimensional poverty. Further, Laos (47.2%) and Cambodia (52%) were the two ASEAN countries with extremely poor populations.However, poverty in Indonesia also warrants attention: while only 20.8% of Indonesians were multidimensionally poor, because of the country’s large population, the figure contributes to more than 50% of the total poor in the region.