The Global Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN)
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network held a special side-event at the UN General Assembly on 24 September 2013 to discuss the future of multidimensional poverty measurement in the context of the post-2015 development agenda. For reports, video footage, a call to action and more.
An international peer network for policymakers engaged in exploring or implementing multidimensional poverty measures
Providing peer-to-peer technical and policy support, and mutual input into design and institutional arrangements
Poverty is often defined by one-dimensional measures, such as income. But no one indicator alone can capture the multiple aspects that constitute poverty.
A rapidly increasing number of policymakers around the world are working to establish multidimensional poverty measures. Many of them are using the Alkire Foster methodology and the related set of empirical techniques developed by OPHI.
These measures enable them to:
- Allocate resources more effectively;
- Improve policy design;
- Identify interconnections among deprivations;
- Monitor the effectiveness of policies over time;
- Target poor people as beneficiaries of services or conditional cash transfers.
OPHI has published a brochure, ‘Measuring Multidimensional Poverty: Insights from Around the World‘, which features case studies on how the Alkire Foster method of measuring multidimensional poverty has been adapted and applied in Colombia, Mexico, Bhutan, China, El Salvador, Malaysia and Minas Gerais in Brazil, among others.
The Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network was formally launched in Oxford on 6-7 June 2013, by President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and high-level representatives from Mexico and around 20 other governments.
Watch videos and download the presentations given during the launch events
*2014 Read the latest brochure about the Network
Read about the launch events of 6-7 June 2013
See an agenda of the launch events
The Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network, which issupported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), provides international support to policy makers engaged in or exploring the construction of multidimensional poverty measures, including input into the design of the measures, and the political processes and institutional arrangements that will sustain them. At present, Ministers and senior officials from 22 countries participate in the Network, plus 5 institutions.
The network enables early adopters of multidimensional poverty measures to share their experiences directly with policy makers in other countries who are exploring the possibility or who are in the process of implementing such measures (‘South-South’ learning). It also provides access to resources including technical support, executive training courses and an online store of knowledge and lessons learned.
For example, in September 2013, policymakers from Mexico and Brazil joined members of Vietnam’s National Assembly and the UN’s Development Programme (UNDP) at a seminar in Hanoi to discuss multidimensional approaches to setting poverty reduction targets and drafting social welfare policies. Hosted by the National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee and UNDP, the seminar saw participants discuss practical, sustainable initiatives for poverty reduction. The meeting of member countries from the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network was coordinated in the wake of the announcement in June 2013 by Vice-Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Nguyen Trong Dam, that Vietnam planned to adopt a multidimensional framework for measuring poverty.
The Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network was created in response to the overwhelming demand for information on implementing multidimensional measures, and for technical and institutional support. OPHI manages and coordinates the network, along with founding members CONEVAL (Mexico’s National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy), and Colombia’s National Planning Department (DNP) and Department for Social Prosperity (DPS).
As more and more countries join the network and share their experiences, the resources that can be accessed increase and the impact of multidimensional poverty measurement in the international arena grows. The aim of the network is that this will lead to policies that are better designed, accurately targeted and more effective in alleviating poverty in all its dimensions.
Participants in the network at present include policymakers from:
Angola
Brazil
Chile
China
Colombia
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
India
Iraq
Malaysia
Mexico
Morocco
Mozambique
Nigeria
Pakistan
Tunisia
Uruguay
Vietnam
The Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC)
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) (9 member and associate member states)
The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) (15 member states)
The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative
