Hammock promotes OPHI’s multidimensional approach in Latin America

OPHI Research Associate John Hammock presented the Alkire Foster counting approach to multidimensional poverty measurement in the Dominican Republic and Brazil this month.

Accompanied by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Hammock met with the Vice-President of the Dominican Republic, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, as well as high-level policymakers from the National Office of Statistics; the Ministry of Economics, Planning and Development; and Progressing with Solidarity, a government anti-poverty programme. He also presented the Alkire Foster method, which underlies OPHI’s global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and several national measures, to the National Network of Microfinance Institutions and UN staff.

Hammock said there was strong interest in the Dominican Republic both in a national multidimensional poverty measure, and in using the method for the targeting of government anti-poverty programmes.

Following this visit, Hammock participated in a day-long workshop on multidimensional poverty in Brasilia, which was sponsored by UNDP, at which he presented the MPI methodology and its application by a number of countries. The workshop, which was attended by representatives of nine State Governments of Brazil and a number of Federal Government agencies, also heard talks on the application of the Alkire Foster approach in Minas Gerais and Sao Paolo, and by an NGO in Rio de Janeiro.

While in Brasilia, Hammock met with Secretary Paulo Jannuzzi and technical staff from the Office for Evaluation and Information Management at the Ministry of Social Development.