Multidimensional Poverty Index - Winter 2014/2015: Brief Methodological Note and Results

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) (released January 2015, henceforth Winter 2014/2015 MPI) uses the same parameters (dimensions, indicators, cutoffs and weights) and the same functional form (Alkire and Foster Adjusted Headcount Ratio M0) as in previous years.1 The main innovations in 2014 consisted in: updating the estimations for a larger series of countries than any previous year, providing further analysis over time, as well as a new measure of destitution, and new measures of inequality among the poor and across subnational regions. This brief methodological note presents the Winter 2014/2015 MPI updates, and the tables with the full results. It first explains the main updates in the 2014/2015 MPI, following the guidelines for updates presented in the 2014 Methodological Note (Alkire, Conconi and Seth 2014b). It summarizes the MPI methodology that has been presented in detail in previous methodological notes (Alkire and Santos 2010; Alkire, Roche, Santos and Seth 2011; Alkire, Conconi and Roche 2013; Alkire, Conconi and Seth 2014b). Then it briefly describes the measures of destitution and the index of inequality among the poor. The methodologies presented in this note were used to generate the tables on the MPI and the 110 country briefings and interactive maps available on OPHI’s website. The tables are presented as appendices and are available for download as Excel files.

Citation: Alkire, S., Conconi, A., Robles, G. and Seth, S. (2015). ‘Multidimensional Poverty Index – Winter 2014/2015: Brief Methodological Note and Results’, OPHI MPI Methodological Note 27 (OPHI Briefing 27), Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford.

This paper counts also as OPHI Briefing 27.