The Capability Approach: A Framework for Official German Poverty and Wealth Reports

The Capability Approach has been adopted as a theoretical framework for official Poverty and Wealth Reports by the German government. Our article provides information on the use of the Capability Approach in this reporting process to international readers, which may give further insights for the future realization of Capability Approach-based official reporting in other countries. We provide an overview of the major theoretical, political and organizational issues that have been raised within and by the process of establishing the German reporting system. We further explain why the extension of the Capability Approach from poverty to wealth issues in German reports may be promising also for capability analyses in general. Finally, we discuss major shortcomings and challenges of the reporting and conclude.