Global poverty eradication: Governments of emerging countries to make the case at the UN for a new poverty measure "to revolutionize development interventions"

As the UN General Assembly meets this week to discuss post-2015 development goals, a high-level international panel is being brought together in UN Conference Room 1 on Thursday 25 September 1.15hrs – 14.30hrs to showcase country experiences of a new, more comprehensive approach to tackling poverty in all its forms, not just income poverty. 

Organised under the aegis of the global Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network [MPPN] and hosted by the Governments of Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Germany, the panel membership comprises: Foreign Secretary of Mexico Meade Kuribrena; Deputy Director-General of China’s International Poverty Reduction Center Tan Weiping; Statistician General of the Government of South Africa Pali Lehohla; Secretary General of the Ibero-American General Secretariat Rebeca Grynspan;, Ecuador’s Minister of Social Development Cecilia Vaca; Colombia’s Social Development Director Tatyana Orozco de la Cruz; and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative’s Director Dr Sabina Alkire. 

Dr Alkire says: “Ending $1.25 per day income poverty is essential. But equally important is ending the many overlapping disadvantages faced by people in poverty such as appalling sanitation, lack of electricity, malnutrition and ramshackle schools. Policymakers in developing countries increasingly want to use a poverty measure which can identify and address these interconnected deprivations in an effective way. A multidimensional poverty index or MPI can operate alongside income poverty measurement to ensure a focus on the additional policies and investments required.” 

Governments at the forefront of these innovations in poverty measurement will be pooling their positive country and regional-level experiences at the high-level panel at the UN. Their case studies include: 

• Mexico which released a MPI in 2009 with a legal basis, policy implications and bi-annual updates 
• Colombia’s MPI which is updated every year and is used to coordinate policy across government departments and monitor the national plan 
  The Philippines’ official national MPI with a target related to inclusive growth, updated annually 
• The South African MPI [SAMPI] which draws on census data for an up-close look at poverty 
• Bhutan’s national MPI which informs budget allocations across sectors and regions. 

These and numerous other country examples make the case for MPI adoption by the UN in relation to the new Sustainable Development Poverty Goal currently under discussion. There is a pressing need for an eye-catching and intuitive overview poverty measure with easily understood details on its component indicators. The high-level panel will demonstrate how using a MPI can track development changes over time by region and by sector as well as by nation and gives incentives to address inter-connected deprivations and celebrate success. 

OPHI’s Sabina Alkire says: “As we move forward into the post-2015 era, following the mandate to ‘leave no one behind’, we need to re-energise or even revolutionize the way we think about poverty interventions, based not only on more and better data and on participatory processes, but also on a more comprehensive understanding of human deprivations and their structural causes."

ENDS 

Media Contact 

For more information on this Special Side-event at the 69th UN General Assembly, “Universal Multidimensional Poverty Measurement for the Effective Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals”, contact Franziska Mager, OPHI communications assistant, at +44 (0)1865 271915 or ophi@qeh.ox.ac.uk. For US enquiries, please contact Erin Hespe, OPHI policy officer, at +1 (202) 758 7990 or at erin.hespe@qeh.ox.ac.uk. 

Notes to Editors 

1. The Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network 

The Global Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN) was launched last year by the Governments of Mexico and Colombia and twenty other governments. The Network convenes policymakers at the Vice-Ministerial or Ministerial level and their deputies, together with officials of regional and international bodies, to share experiences in advancing better measure of multidimensional poverty and accelerating its reduction. The work of the Network is coordinated by the MPPN Secretariat, housed at the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI), and is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). For further information on the Network, please visit http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/policynetwork/ 

2. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) 

OPHI is a research centre set up in 2007 within the Oxford Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. OPHI is led by Dr Sabina Alkire and works to develop and apply new ways of measuring and analysing poverty, human development and welfare, drawing on the work of Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen. For more information about OPHI, please visit www.ophi.org.uk