Multidimensional poverty in Voluntary National Reviews 2016–2025

Each year at the UN’s High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), Member States are given the opportunity to report their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by submitting Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). When reporting progress towards SDG 1 ‘No Poverty’, countries are encouraged to report multidimensional poverty statistics alongside monetary ones. SDG target 1.2 calls for UN Member States by 2030 to ‘reduce by at least half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions. This policy brief explores how MPIs, and multidimensional poverty more generally, were reported in the VNRs released between 2016 and 2025.

Citation: Duncan, E. (2025). 'Multidimensional poverty in Voluntary National Reviews 2016–2025', OPHI Briefings 60, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford.