Global Multidimensional Poverty Index

• 12 Jul 2019

Global Multidimensional Poverty Index - 2019 (MPI), released by the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) has revealed that there are vast inequalities across countries, and among the poorer segments of societies.

• MPI-2019 edition is a revised version of MPI-2018.
• The MPI captures both the incidence and intensity of poverty and tracks 101 countries on deprivations across ten indicators in health, education, and standard of living.
• Index is developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• As per report a single measure is not a sufficient guide to both inequality and multidimensional poverty, and studies such as the MPI, Human Development Index, and the Gini coefficient (which measures countries wealth- income distribution), can contribute important and distinctive information for policy action to effectively reduce poverty.

Key Findings

• As per Index 1.3 billion people in the world are still multidimensionally poor.
  
  • Multidimensionally poor means that poverty is defined not simply by income, but by a number of indicators, including poor health, poor quality of work and the threat of violence.
• Level of Inequality and poverty is very high in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
• Bangladesh, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru and Vietnam (10 selected countries have a combined population of around 2 billion people) have shown significant progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1 i.e ending poverty in all its forms, everywhere.
• One in every three children (under the age of 10) and every second child below the age of 18 years is multidimensionally poor in the world.
• About 34% of the world’s children and 17.5% adults covered under MPI survey are multidimensionally poor.
• One adult in six is multidimensionally poor compared with one child in three, hence children are more prone to multidimensional poverty than adults.
• Multidimensionally poor children are concentrated more in the Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
• In African countries such as Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Niger and South Sudan 90% or more children (under the age of 10) are multidimensionally poor.
• Trends in poverty reduction is uneven in all 10 countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru and Vietnam) as rural areas are poorer than urban areas.
  
  • In Cambodia, Haiti, India and Peru poverty reduction in rural areas outpaced that in urban areas.

Indian Scenario

• India lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, (reduced from 0.283 in 2005-06 to 0.123 in 2015-16) recording the fastest reductions in the multidimensional poverty index values during the period with strong improvements in areas such as assets, cooking fuel, sanitation and nutrition.
• Among 10 selected countries India (and Cambodia) reduced their MPI values the fastest and they did not leave the poorest groups behind.
• Jharkhand has reduced the incidence of poverty at a faster pace than other regions (reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty from 74.9% in 2005-06 to 46.5% in 2015-16).
• India (along with Ethiopia and Peru) significantly reduced deprivations in all 10 indicators, namely nutrition, sanitation, child mortality, drinking water, years of schooling, electricity, school attendance, housing, cooking fuel and assets.
  
  • MPI reduced from 640 million people (55.1%) in 2005-2006 to 369 million people (27.9%) in 2015-16.