OPHI runs course on multidimensional poverty for SADC in Johannesburg

On 18-19 March 2013, OPHI ran an executive education course on multidimensional poverty in Johannesburg, for Steering Committee members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Led by OPHI’s Director Sabina Alkire and Research Officer Mauricio Apablaza, the course provided an introduction to multidimensional poverty measurement and its relevance for the design and monitoring of public policies. Participants learned about the Mexican, Colombian and Brazilian experiences in adapting, implementing and using multidimensional poverty measures, and discussed the regional benefits of the model. Participants also discussed how to define a multidimensional poverty measure according to their own requirements and national/regional contexts, and how to use it for policy design and monitoring collective efforts within the SADC Regional Poverty Observatory.

SADC is a regional community of 15 Southern African states that cooperate in pursuit of politically stable, socially just and sustainable economic development in the region. The SADC Regional Poverty Observatory was approved in 2010, and in 2012 a Steering Committee was established comprising 25 members drawn from government, civil society, the business sector, poverty and development experts, and international cooperating partners.

The course was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through GIZ, as part of an agreement to establish an international peer network on multidimensional poverty measurement. The focus of this network is on strengthening policymakers’ capacity to understand, design, and use multidimensional approaches to poverty measurement for policy purposes.