PHM-Exch> Oxford and UNDP launch a better way to measure poverty

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: HDR Announcements announcements at hdrdistribution.org


    Oxford and UNDP launch a better way to measure poverty

OPHI and UNDP

14 July 2010

*London, 14 July 2010:* The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative
(OPHI)<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450132/36353/goto:http://www.ophi.org.uk/>of
Oxford University and the Human Development Report Office of the
United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today launched a new poverty measure
that gives a “multidimensional” picture of people living in poverty which
its creators say could help target development resources more effectively.



The new measure, the Multidimensional Poverty
Index<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450133/36353/goto:http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/>,
or MPI, was developed and applied by OPHI with UNDP support, and will be
featured in the forthcoming 20th anniversary edition of the UNDP Human
Development Report<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450134/36353/goto:http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/>
*. *The MPI supplants the Human Poverty
Index<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450135/36353/goto:http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/indices/hpi/>,
which had been included in the annual *Human Development Reports*
since 1997<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450136/36353/goto:http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1997/>
.

The 2010 UNDP Human Development
Report<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450137/36353/goto:http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/>will
be published in late October, but research findings from the
Multidimensional
Poverty Index<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450138/36353/goto:http://www.ophi.org.uk/>were
made available today at a policy forum in London and on-line on the
websites
of OPHI (www.ophi.org.uk)<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450139/36353/goto:http://www.ophi.org.uk/>
.

The MPI assesses a range of critical factors or ‘deprivations’ at the
household level: from education to health outcomes to assets and services.
Taken together, these factors provide a fuller portrait of acute poverty
than simple income measures, according to OPHI and UNDP. The measure reveals
the nature and extent of poverty at different levels: from household up to
regional, national and international level. This new multidimensional
approach to assessing poverty has been adapted for national use in Mexico,
and is now being considered by Chile and Colombia.

‘The MPI is like a high resolution lens which reveals a vivid spectrum of
challenges facing the poorest households,’ said OPHI Director Dr Sabina
Alkire, who created the MPI with Professor James Foster of George Washington
University.

The UNDP Human Development Report Office is joining forces with OPHI to
promote international discussions on the practical applicability of this
multidimensional approach to measuring poverty. ‘We are featuring the
Multidimensional Poverty Index in the 20th anniversary edition of the Human
Development Report this year because we consider it a highly innovative
approach to quantifying acute poverty,’ Dr Jeni Klugman, Director of the
UNDP Human Development Report Office and the principal author of this year’s
Report, said. ‘The MPI provides a fuller measure of poverty than the
traditional dollar-a-day formulas. It is a valuable addition to the family
of instruments we use to examine broader aspects of well-being, including
UNDP’s Human Development
Index<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450140/36353/goto:http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/>and
other measures of inequality across the population and between
genders.’

OPHI researchers analysed data from 104 countries with a combined population
of 5.2 billion (78 per cent of the world total). About 1.7 billion people in
the countries covered – a third of their entire population - live in
multidimensional poverty, according to the MPI. This exceeds the 1.3 billion
people, in those same countries, estimated to live on $1.25 a day or less,
the more commonly accepted measure of ‘extreme’ poverty.

The MPI also captures distinct and broader aspects of poverty. For example,
in Ethiopia 90 per cent of people are ‘MPI poor’ compared to the 39 per cent
who are classified as living in ‘extreme poverty’ under income terms alone.
Conversely, 89 per cent of Tanzanians are extreme income-poor, compared to
65 per cent who are MPI poor. The MPI captures deprivations directly – in
health and educational outcomes and key services, such as water, sanitation
and electricity. In some countries these resources are provided free or at
low cost; in others they are out of reach even for many working people with
an income.

Half of the world’s poor as measured by the MPI live in South Asia (51 per
cent or 844 million people) and one quarter in Africa (28 per cent or 458
million). Niger has the greatest intensity and incidence of poverty in any
country, with 93 per cent of the population classified as poor in MPI terms.

Even in countries with strong economic growth in recent years, the MPI
analysis reveals the persistence of acute poverty. India is a major case in
point. There are more MPI poor people in eight Indian states alone (421
million in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal) than in the 26 poorest African
countries combined (410 million). The MPI also reveals great variations
within countries: Nairobi has the same level of MPI poverty as the Dominican
Republic, whereas Kenya’s rural northeast is poorer in MPI terms than Niger.

The recently released 2010 UN Millennium Development Goals Report stressed
that the MDGs will be fully achieved only by addressing the needs of those
most disadvantaged by geography, age, gender or ethnicity, OPHI researchers
point out. ‘Our measure identifies the most vulnerable households and groups
and enables us to understand exactly which deprivations afflict their
lives”, said Dr. Alkire. “The new measure can help governments and
development agencies wishing to target aid more effectively to those
specific communities.’
Additional materials about the Multidimensional Poverty Index can be
retrieved online:

   - MPI Interactive
data<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450141/36353/goto:http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/>
   - MPI Research
Brief<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450142/36353/goto:http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/mpi-resources/>
   - MPI Country
Briefings<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450143/36353/goto:http://www.ophi.org.uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/mpi-country-briefings/>
   - Human Development Report
2010<http://e2ma.net/go/6728505971/208251152/214450144/36353/goto:http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/>
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