Since Cuba’s persistent economic crisis began in the 1990s, social inequalities and poverty in the country have deepened. Espina explained that since the 2000s, Cuba has not measured poverty based on income, opting instead for mechanisms such as the Human Development Index (HDI) to measure vulnerability. In recent years, the government has tried to implement social inclusion policies to help mitigate economic vulnerabilities across different sectors of the Cuban population. According to Espina, poverty measurements in the 1980s placed nearly 7% of the population in that condition. However, Cuba’s financial and material constraints remain a barrier to these new social inclusion policies having a significant impact on those living in poverty.