6th Annual Meeting of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN) ends successfully Johannesburg, South Africa

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.

More information:

• Final Communiqué
• Presentations
• Photos
• Agenda
• Concept Note
• Fifth MPPN Annual Meeting in Beijing, China. 2017
• Fourth MPPN Annual Meeting in Acapulco, Mexico. 2016
• Third MPPN Annual Meeting in Cartagena, Colombia. 2015
• Second MPPN Annual Meeting in Berlin, Germany. 2014
• Launch and First MPPN Annual Meeting in Oxford, United Kingdom. 2013
• What is the MPPN?