Pakistan's first Multi-dimensional Poverty Index initiated by Gov, UNDP, and Oxford University

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform, UNDP and OPHI Friday signed agreement to promote multidimensional poverty measurements and policy applications via knowledge exchange between participants; knowledge sharing; and joint advocacy.

On the occasion, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) congratulated the Federal and Provincial Governments for initiating the development of the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for Pakistan.

This marks the beginning of the process of regularly calculating a new poverty index in Pakistan based on the global MPI methodology.

This index was inspired by the global MPI, developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and released by UNDP in the Human Development Reports 2010, 2011, and 2013.

This index is a novel measure for policy analysis, resource allocation, dialogue, and monitoring.

MPI approaches poverty as a multifaceted issue, enabling policymakers to allocate resources more effectively, improve policy design, monitor policy efficiency over time, and target poor people as beneficiaries of services and social safety nets.

Mapping multidimensional poverty at the provincial and district level will be undertaken and sub national calculations will be envisaged in the future.

Different sectors will be integrated in determining the final index with weights including health, education, and income. The national multidimensional poverty line will serve as the baseline for comparison to determine the number of people below the multidimensional poverty line and those above it.

For ease of comparison, different districts will be ranked and mapped on the severity/range of multidimensional poverty.

On the occasion, Dr. Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI at the University of Oxford talked about the concept, measurement, and objectives of the Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and shared the results of the training session.

While addressing, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Professor Ahsan Iqbal said, "The traditional one- dimensional indices cannot reflect the true poverty levels in Pakistan.

The MPI is more comprehensive, integrated and holistic as it covers education, health and living standards. This partnership between the Government, UNDP and University of Oxford will help us understand, and better address issues related to poverty in Pakistan."

Marc-Andr Franche, Country Director UNDP in Pakistan said, "The MPI is crucial for policymaking and improving the targeting of social policy. It is vital to develop a robust revenue formula, improve policy design and monitor effectiveness of policy over time.

Each country needs to choose dimensions that are most important for measuring poverty. In Pakistan, this is the first step for measuring the multidimensional poverty both at the federal and provincial levels and UNDP is extremely pleased to be part of this process."