Thepurpose of this research is to evaluate the short-term impact and long-termsustainability of Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP).Difference-in-difference and propensity score matching estimations are used todetermine the impact of programme participation on the household multidimensionalpoverty index (MPI). We found that programme participation reduced the MPIsignificantly, which is mainly driven by the food insecurity dimension, andthat the reduction in poverty is due to the reduction in the incidence andintensity, the latter in particular, of poverty among the ultra-poorhouseholds. Our analysis of the political economy of Kenya suggests that, whilethe government is making progress in the institutionalisation of socialprotection, weaknesses in the implementation and financing of the programme, aswell as the short-term focus of impact evaluation, may undermine theprogramme’s potential to help build a strong state that is accountable for theeradication of poverty.
Final Communiqué Presentations Photos Agenda Concept Note
The 6th Annual Meeting of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN) was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 30 October – 1 November 2018. The meeting was hosted by the Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation responsible for Statistics South Africa, with the support of the Department of Social Development and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
This dynamic meeting featured South-South exchanges about how countries and institutions were measuring and tackling multidimensional poverty to help improve the lives of the poor. Special attention was given to how the measures could be used for policy action and how to report the measures for tracking progress towards the SDGs.
At the opening session on 30 October, participants heard a keynote address from Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who also answered questions from the attendees about her experience with poverty reduction policies in South Africa. As the Minister said: “This meeting gives us a chance to work together in a South-South cooperation, to listen to each other, to hear about examples of best practice initiatives, and, most importantly, to learn from one another.” This was followed by a panel discussion on MPI uses from different regional participants. The afternoon was spent on an excursion organized by the Department of Social Development to two nearby community centres working with the poor at the grassroots level.
On 31 October, there was an introduction from Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI, reviewing the MPPN’s activities for the past year. The substance then opened with a keynote address by Gonzalo Hernandez Licona, Executive Secretary of CONEVAL in Mexico. The first in-depth panel discussed experiences in developing, communicating, and launching a National MPI, with presentations from Malaysia, Morocco, Mozambique, and South Africa.
In the afternoon, representatives from the Seychelles, Chad, Kenya, Thailand, and Tanzania presented on the work they were currently doing to develop multidimensional poverty measures. The OPHI team then shared key findings from the recently revised global MPI 2018. This was followed by the second in-depth panel, focused on using an MPI for policy action, with inputs from Chile, Mexico, Panama, and Vietnam.
1 November opened with the third and final in-depth panel, featuring presentations from representatives of international agencies, including SADC, Sida, UNDP, UNICEF, UN-ECLAC, UN-ESCWA, and OPHI. The day continued with the final keynote presentation, this one from Risenga Maluleke, Statistician General of Statistics South Africa. The participants then had an open dialogue about negotiating different measures of multidimensional poverty and reporting progress towards the SDGs. The meeting closed with discussion of the communiqué and work plan for the coming year.
OPHI is pleased to announce a distinguished public event on Peace and Poverty on 12 November. Former President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Laureate Juan Manuel Santos will speak on Reducing Poverty and Building Peace in Colombia: Inextricably Linked Processes, focusing on the role of robust leadership in dealing with these two highly complex and interlinked issues.
The event will mark the onset of President Santos’ Visiting Professorship at the University of Oxford. President Santos is a distinguished public figure and an influential leader, well known for his role in the recent Colombian peace process. During his term in office, which has just closed, President Santos took leadership in global efforts to reduce multidimensional poverty, including co-founding the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN), a South-South initiative of policy-makers working to fight poverty in all its forms and dimensions.
This event will be free and open to the public. Tickets will go live next week. Stay tuned to our website and social media channels to secure your ticket.
Fifty years of literature on aid effectiveness has so far proven inconclusive. Two main challenges still require some attention. The first is to properly identify the causal effect of aid on poverty alleviation. To address it, I exploit differences in the number of years countries have been temporary members of the United Nations Security Council as an instrument for the average amount of economic aid disbursed by the United States. The second is to obtain reliable data on poverty, which I confront by using multidimensional poverty data from the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). For a sample of 64 developing countries, I estimate a significant relationship between higher amounts of aid received during the period 1946–1999 and lower Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) between 2000 and 2014. On the contrary, the relationship does not seem to be significant when poverty is measured from an income perspective. Alternative measures of poverty could help improve the understanding of the relationship between development aid and poverty alleviation and might also contribute to improved targeting for aid disbursements.
Citation: Milovich, J. Y. (2018). ‘Does aid reduce poverty?’, OPHI Working Paper 122, University of Oxford.
As the rupee continues to weaken and fuel prices continue to inflate, things look bleak for India on economic terms. But there is some good news, and one that is definitely worth celebrating. According to the 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), almost 271 million people in India have moved out of poverty in the decade since 2005-06.
Read the full article here.
1.300 millones de personas son pobres en todos los sentidos de la palabra, porque no tienen apenas ingresos o carecen de acceso a agua potable, alimentos suficientes o electricidad
A survey of 104 countries comprising 5.5 billion people that looked at health, education and living standards has found that some 1.3 billion people are living in poverty — including 662 million children.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index released Thursday by the U.N. Development Program and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative says 46 percent of the 1.3 billion are considered to be severely impoverished.
Read the full article here.
A survey of 104 countries comprising 5.5 billion people that looked at health, education and living standards has found that some 1.3 billion people are living in poverty — including 662 million children.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index released Thursday by the U.N. Development Program and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative says 46 percent of the 1.3 billion are considered to be severely impoverished.
Read the full article here.
A new report shows the percentage of Indians living in poverty is half what it was a decade ago. But child poverty around the world is still rife, affecting nearly two-thirds of those under 18 in sub-Saharan Africa.
Read the full article here.
14th February 2011
In an interview with The Economic Times on poverty in India, the renowned economist Angus S. Deaton commented on the MPI stating ‘Income is only one dimension of poverty , though clearly an important one. So I very much support the development of multidimensional indexes, and think the OPHI indexes are important. Clearly, they are to some extent still experimental, but this is clearly the right direction in which to go.’ Read more in The Economic Times