A methodological note on the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2024 changes over time results for 86 countries

OPHI MPI Methodological Note No. 60 presents the methodology and policies that underlie the harmonised 233 survey datasets used to produce the harmonised level estimates and their changes over time in multidimensional poverty for 86 countries and 863 subnational regions. 40 of the 86 countries have trends for two points in time, while poverty trends in 36 countries are based on three points in time. Six countries (Benin, Eswatini, Nigeria, Philippines, Tanzania, and Thailand) have results for four points in time, three countries (Ghana, Mexico and Peru) for five time periods and Nepal have trends for six time periods. 

We also estimate how multidimensional poverty changed by four major age categories (0 to 9 years, 10 to 17 years, 18 to 59 years, and over 60 years) and by two age categories covering children aged 0 to 17 years and adults 18 years and older in all countries. Our results also show poverty trends by rural-urban area. Indicator standardisation is detailed in Alkire, Kanagaratnam and Suppa (2024a), while indicator harmonisation is detailed in this and earlier publications by the authors (2023, 2022, 2021). 

The global MPI harmonised level estimates and their changes over time remains an on-going work. The number of harmonised countries, its datasets and survey periods will increase as we continue to harmonise earlier surveys, alongside with upcoming surveys. As the survey time points grow longer, we may review the methodology and policies that underlie the harmonisation principles. This is because a few of the policies for harmonisation may be more relevant for surveys with two time points, but less with longer survey time points.

This document, focused on harmonisation methodology and principles of the 2024 round, is structured as follows. Section 2 presents the global MPI structure and indicator definitions. Section 3 provides an outline of the global MPI and its partial indices that we estimate and publish. Section 4 summarises the changes over time methodology. Section 5 provides a summary of the harmonised surveys. Section 6 outlines the principles and decisions that underlie our harmonisation work. Section 7 summarises the country-specific decisions that were applied for the datasets harmonised in this round. We conclude with key highlights of the work implemented in this round.

Citation: Alkire, S., Kanagaratnam, U. and Suppa, N. (2024). ‘A methodological note on the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2024: Changes over time results for 86 countries’, OPHI MPI Methodological Note 60, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford.