OPHI Summer School 2024: Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis
Organised by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford, and hosted by the Faculty of Governance, Economics and Social Sciences (FGSES), Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Rabat, Morocco.
Overview
The Summer School is aimed at those who are working on, or actively interested in gaining skills in, multidimensional poverty measurement, particularly professional staff of national offices of statistics and government ministries that deal with poverty reduction, professionals from international development institutions, academics, and doctoral students. The Summer School will be led by OPHI Director, Sabina Alkire, and the OPHI team, including researchers and academics with extensive experience of developing and implementing Multidimensional Poverty Indices (MPIs).
The purpose of this intensive Summer School is to provide a technical introduction to multidimensional poverty measurement using the Alkire-Foster (AF) method, and to share examples of its practical applications. Upon completing the course, students will have the skills required to construct and analyse a multidimensional poverty measure and will be able to describe its policy relevance and usefulness for analytical purposes. Drawing on Amartya Sen’s capability approach and empirical examples of national and global MPIs, the conceptual and empirical motivation for measuring multidimensional poverty will be presented, as well as the full suite of measurement tools.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Understand the conceptual and empirical motivation for measuring multidimensional poverty
- Understand the Alkire-Foster (AF) method and apply it to compute a multidimensional index
- Interpret and effectively communicate results, including subgroup decomposition and dimensional breakdown
- Understand how the multidimensional measure can be used as a policy tool
- Understand the advantages and limits of different data sources for measuring multidimensional poverty using the Alkire-Foster method
Understand the key properties and uses of national and cross-national multidimensional measures (e.g. global MPI)
Structure
The Summer School is a full-time, in-person course taught in English. It consists of two full weeks of instructions, accompanied by working group sessions. Throughout the course, participants will attend lectures and Q&A sessions with OPHI Director Sabina Alkire and OPHI researchers and be actively involved in discussions, and work through problem sets in small groups using Stata.
Entry Requirements
- A demonstrable knowledge of Stata is an essential pre-requisite for attending the course. This will be assessed as part of the application process.
- A strong knowledge of quantitative methods and a strong interest in poverty measurement and analysis are highly desirable.
- The Summer School will be delivered in English so a high level of English language ability is necessary.
- Participants will need to have their own laptops to access relevant material of the course such as readings, and Stata exercises. Please make sure that your device can run the latest version of Stata.
Fees and Funding
- Students/developing country researchers: £625
- Developing country professionals: £1500
- Developed country professionals: £2100
*Participants are required to arrange and pay for accommodation, flights, and any other expenses (e.g. insurance, tests, quarantine, and medical treatment)
Financial Support
Applicants are highly encouraged to seek support from their local governments and institutions or external funders. OPHI can provide support letters for such funding applications to accepted candidates.
Limited financial support may be available. All well-qualified and committed applicants are encouraged to apply even if they have not yet secured funding.
How to Apply
Please note that applications have now closed for 2024.
As part of the application, applicants have been asked to submit an up to date curriculum vitae, a sample Stata .do file, and a sample of their written work in English. Applicants will be evaluated on the basis of the information provided in their application.
Contact us
If you have any questions about the course or require help with your application, please contact us on: ophi-summerschool@qeh.ox.ac.uk