OPHI announces new MPI Ambassadors and its Inaugural MPI Champion

We are pleased to announce the addition of three distinguished leaders to our MPI Ambassadors and Champions Programme, a group of global leaders who have made a significant difference in the lives of many experiencing poverty and who have inspired countless others in the process.

Following the successful launch of the MPI Ambassador and Champions Programme, inaugurated by Juan Manuel Santos and Ana Helena Chacón in October 2024, Luis Guillermo Solís, former President of Costa Rica (2014–2018), and Isabel de Saint Malo, former Vice President of Panama (2014–2019), have joined as MPI Ambassadors. 

MPI Ambassadors are former senior members of government (President, Prime Minister or Vice President) and/or equivalently former senior leaders of multilateral organisations, who invested significant commitment and innovation in using their MPIs to reduce poverty during their term of office. Gonzalo Hernández-Licona has also been welcomed as the Inaugural MPI Champion. MPI Champions are leaders up to the Ministerial Level who greatly advanced the MPI during their previous term(s) in a relevant office and are presently working elsewhere.  

OPHI Director Sabina Alkire said of the new Ambassadors and Champions: “Poverty alleviation requires a comprehensive understanding of individuals' lived experiences, high-impact strategic actions, stakeholder coordination, and, most importantly, committed leadership. In their new roles, our esteemed Ambassadors and Champions will share how they used MPI data to inform concrete policy actions that address poverty in all its forms.”

During their time in office, Mr Solís, Ms Saint Malo, and Dr Hernández-Licona each played pivotal roles in positioning the MPI as a critical policy tool for poverty reduction. 

Luis Guillermo Solís, former President of Costa Rica, focused on social development in office and throughout his subsequent career in academia. During his presidency, Solís prioritised effective poverty reduction, which led to Costa Rica becoming one of the fastest countries to create and implement their National MPI. As a result, the proportion of people living in poverty in Costa Rica decreased from 21.7% in 2014 to 18.8% in 2017.

Isabel de Saint Malo was the first woman to hold the office of Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama. She used her formidable skills to champion and implement Panama’s first MPI, which among other insights, made visible the sharply higher levels of poverty in the Indigenous comarcas (indigenous territories), and showed how to reduce such inequalities. 

Gonzalo Hernández-Licona, former Executive President of the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL) (2005–2019) in Mexico and Director of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN), has been recognised as the Inaugural MPI Champion. While he was at the helm of CONEVAL, Mexico became the first country to launch an MPI in 2009. Dr Hernández-Licona has extensive experience in poverty measurement, policy analysis, evaluation and communication with national and state-level government bodies. He has shared his experience and skills vibrantly as Director of the MPPN (2021-) which now covers 64 countries and 20 organisations. He has also co-authored several publications, including the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development and is the lead author of the joint handbook with UNDP How to Use National MPIs as a Policy Tool: From Metrics to Policy.

As MPI Ambassadors and Champions, Mr Solís and Ms Saint Malo and Dr Hernández-Licona will continue to share the very practical, yet pivotal, ways in which they advanced poverty reduction by using MPI analyses to inform multisectoral policies, management practices, and communication opportunities. 

Dr Hernández-Licona will also lead a new group of passionate MPI Champions (to be announced shortly) who have been instrumental in the innovation, robustness, and implementation of national MPIs across their countries and organisations. These are challenging times in which to empower many actors to advance sustainable human development. Together, our MPI Ambassadors and Champions will embark on a journey to inspire, support, and equip a new generation of leaders to turn a corner on poverty and create lasting change.

Learn more about the MPI Ambassadors and Champions Programme