CEE: Red, Yellow, Green: Measuring Poverty

This College Stoplight introduces instructors to the Poverty Stoplight, a self-assessment tool created by Fundación Paraguaya that reframes poverty as multidimensional and self-diagnosed rather than income-only and externally imposed. We show how the tool’s six dimensions, 50 indicators, and red/yellow/green scale can anchor college-level lessons in development economics, behavioral economics, and personal finance. Participants will see the tool in action, work through sample indicators, and learn how to turn the underlying methodology into class activities—self-assessment exercises, data analysis, dimension-mapping, and policy debate—that connect abstract poverty metrics to students’ own reasoning and to authentic field data. Activities covered include: a live walkthrough of the visual survey; a hands-on dimension-mapping exercise; comparing the Stoplight with income-based and Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) approaches; and a discussion guide for connecting the tool to capabilities theory, agency, and financial wellbeing. Why attend: Bring an authentic, globally used real-world tool into your classroom to make multidimensional poverty concrete and measurable. Leave with ready-to-use activities and a discussion guide that connect the tool to development and behavioral economics theory. Learn how a self-assessment methodology builds student agency and links economics to personal financial wellbeing.