It is up to every campaigning group to decide how to use this toolkit and apply the framework. No two country teams are in exactly the same position in terms of how they are tackling inequalities. Some programmes may have a well-researched national inequality report and an active and broad-based national campaign.

Others may be campaigning on inequality-related themes, but with no defined inequality strategy or targeted inequality research. Every country situation is different and every context is unique.

This is why Oxfam refers to an 'inequality journey': It is a process through which campaigners and advocates can get to know the framework in depth, and apply it in a way that will build on the progress already made, and meet with their particular needs and goals.

The guide offered here is just that - a guide.  Country teams are encouraged to use it in a flexible manner, adjusting and adapting its content to do their own analysis, and using the elements that are most relevant for their work.

To begin this journey, we need to reflect, plan, and understand.

Get to know the framework thoroughly to decide if you want to look at all domains, or just a few. Keep in mind that if you are focusing on people’s wellbeing, all the domains will be relevant.

Consider forming a taskforce with a mix of expertise:

• Involve partners with shared interests,
• Link with technical specialists to help with data,
• Invite government or media, who may publicise or drive your agenda forward.

Plan your financial resources to implement your framework

Decide how and when you will present your findings

Consider what steps you need to take for your strategy, programmes and campaigns

These suggestions are based on the experiences of applying the inequality framework in Guatemala and Spain.  Feel free to develop your own action plan and take an approach best suited to YOUR needs.

Get inspired!
View the experiences of Guatemala and Spain

…the framework in detail

The Multidimensional Inequality Framework is organised around seven key life domains which have been identified by experts as those that are critical to enjoying a good quality of life.

These are:

We have then broken each domain down to subdomains.

Here’s an example from Domain 1: Life and health

The framework looks at how we can understand and measure inequalities in each country, in a way that also allows countries to be compared with one another. This involves using indicators which identify particular aspects of inequality within each of the subdomains. 

In our example, in relation to the subdomain “Avoid premature mortality through disease, neglect, injury or suicide”, one of the main indicators is “Inequality in life expectancy”.

Within this indicator a number of measures are suggested for ways in which inequality in life expectancy can be evaluated.  In our example they are:

Live births by gender
Perinatal, infant and under 5 mortality rates
Inequality in age-mortality rates
Period life expectancy at birth, and ages 20, 65 & 80

More about measures

Many of the measures in the framework are already used by governments, international organisations like the UN, OECD, and the World Bank and other agencies who monitor poverty and inequality.

By selecting measures which have already been defined, and are used by other agencies, we can immediately look to these sources for data, collected to assess the criteria.

For instance, in the framework a number of the measures are used as indicators to monitor progress towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  As you explore the framework you will find information on the mapping between our measures and SDG indicators. 

In our example for the measure “Perinatal, infant and under 5 mortality rates” the SDGs are:

Under-5 mortality rate
Neonatal mortality rate

… how to adapt the framework to your needs

It's important to take ownership of this framework and adapt it for your context as necessary.

This may mean prioritising or adapting the relevant domains and subdomains for your country. You may have to adapt indicators and measures so they are suitable to your context, or you may have to adapt them due to limitations of available data. If necessary, you may even have to create completely new indicators, or conduct original qualitative research that would be more appropriate for understanding inequalities in your region.

This process is known as 'countrification'

Across the seven domains a variety of measures are used to capture different aspects of inequality.

Measures of inequality can be classed as objective or subjective measures. Some objective measures capture the different outcomes between groups for a particular indicator (e.g. prevalence of violent crime by gender or employment rates by disability status).

Others capture differences due to income levels (socio-economic gradients), such as highest educational attainment or child mortality rates.

Some measures, such as the ones for income inequality or inequality in life expectancy, directly capture dispersion variation across society, while others focus on concentration at the top end (the top 1% income share).

Subjective inequality measures capture differences in areas such as life satisfaction or subjective general health status, where data is gathered regarding how different groups of people rate their own experiences in these areas.