OPHI Summer School 2023: Multidimensional Poverty Measurement & Analysis

OPHI Summer School
Tuesday 04th July 2023 - Friday 14th July 2023
09:00 - 17:00 BST
Bogotá, Colombia

Organised by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford, and hosted by the Centre for the Sustainable Development Goals for Latin America (CODS), Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

Application deadline: 14 April 2023. Please apply, even if you do not have funding, to secure your place.
Course dates: 4–14 July 2023
Format: In-person
Location: Bogotá , Colombia

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.

*Participants are required to fulfil all country and COVID-19 related travel and entry requirements. For details, please visit www.migracioncolombia.gov.co

Fees and Funding

Course fees

  • £600 GBP for students and developing country researchers
  • £1,400 GBP for developing country professionals
  • £2,000 GBP for developed country professionals

*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. We are happy to provide support letters for such funding applications to accepted candidates.

Limited financial support may be available. Competition for financial support will be strong. However, well-qualified and committed applicants with financial needs are encouraged to apply.

How to Apply

Application form

To apply, please complete the online application form by 14 April 2023. We encourage you to apply to secure your place, even if you still do not have funding. As part of the application, you are asked to submit an up-to-date curriculum vitae, a sample Stata .do file, and a sample of your written work. Applicants will be evaluated based on the information provided in their application.

Accommodation

Please note that participants must arrange their own accommodation. Here are some suggestions based on proximity:

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