Global Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MDPI)

(இதன் தமிழ் வடிவத்திற்கு இங்கே சொடுக்கவும்)

Global Multidimensional Poverty Index

• The index is a key international resource that measures acute multidimensional poverty across more than 100 developing countries.
• It was first launched in 2010 by the OPHI and the Human Development Report Office of the UNDP.
• The MPI monitors deprivations in 10 indicators spanning health, education standard of living.
• It includes both incidence as well as intensity of poverty.
• It has been published annually by OPHI and in the HDRs ever since.

MPI Indicators and Dimensions

• A person is multi dimensionally poor if she/he is deprived in one third or more (means 33% or more) of the weighted indicators (out of the ten indicators).
• Those who are deprived in one half or more of the weighted indicators are considered living in extreme multidimensional poverty.

• It compiles data from 110 developing countries covering 6.1 billion people.
• It is accounting for 92 percent of the population in developing countries.
• It tells an important and persistent story about how prevalent poverty is in the world.
• It provides insights into the lives of poor people and their deprivations.
• Further it describes how it intense their poverty is to inform and accelerate efforts to end poverty in all its forms.
• As still only a few countries have data from after the COVID-19 pandemic, the report urgently calls for updated multidimensional poverty data.
• While providing a sobering annual stock take of global poverty, the report also highlights examples of success in every region.

• The MPI assesses poverty at the individual level.
• If a person is deprived in a third or more of ten (weighted) indicators, the global MPI identifies them as ‘MPI poor’.
• The extent – or intensity – of their poverty is also measured through the percentage of deprivations they are experiencing.
• The global MPI shows who is poor and how they are poor.
• It can be used to create a comprehensive picture of people living in poverty.
• It permits comparisons both across countries and world regions, and within countries by ethnic group, urban/rural area, sub national region, and age group, as well as other key household and community characteristics.
• For each group and for countries as a whole, the composition of MPI by each of the 10 indicators shows how people are poor.
• This makes the MPI and its linked information platform invaluable as an analytical tool to identify the most vulnerable people – the poorest among the poor, revealing poverty patterns within countries.
• Over time, enabling policy makers to target resources and design policies more effectively.

Key findings

Where do poor people live?

• Across 110 countries 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people are poor – just over 18% are estimated to live in acute multidimensional poverty.
• 534 million out of 1.1 billion poor people – half of all poor people – live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Over a third of all poor people live in South Asia – that’s 389 million people.
• 730 million – nearly two-thirds of all poor people – live in middle-income countries.
• Low-income countries are home to over one-third of all poor people – 387 million.

Who are the poorest?

• The higher the incidence of poverty, the higher the intensity of poverty that poor people experience.
• 485 million poor people live in severe poverty across 110 countries, experiencing 50–100% of weighted deprivations.
• 99 million poor people experience deprivations in all three dimensions (70–100% of weighted deprivations).
• 10 million of the 12 million poor people with the highest deprivation scores (90–100%) live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Which groups are the poorest?

• Sub-national regions are being left behind in two ways: where poverty is widespread, poverty is also most intense.
• Half of the 1.1 billion poor people (566 million) are children under 18 years of age.
• 84% of all poor people live in rural areas.
• Rural areas are poorer than urban areas in every world region.

What deprivations do poor people face?

• 824–991 million out of the 1.1 billion poor people do not have adequate sanitation, housing or cooking fuel.
• 600 million poor people live with a person who is undernourished in their household.
• Gaps in years of schooling are a cross regional issue: In all regions except Europe and Central Asia, around half of poor people do not have a single member of their household who has completed six years of schooling.

How do monetary and multidimensional poverty compare?

• In 42 of 61 countries more people live in multidimensional poverty.
• Based on the global MPI, more people are in the extreme monetary poverty, according to the World Bank’s $2.15 a day measure.

How has poverty changed?

• 72 of 81 countries, covered well over 5 billion peo­ple.
• But nearly all data are from before the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 25 countries halved their global MPI value well within 15 years, showing that progress at scale is attainable.
• In 42 countries-over halves of those covered-chil­dren are being left behind.
• In 15 countries, the rate of poverty reduction was outpaced by population growth: The number of poor people increased despite poverty rates declining.
• Cambodia halved its MPI in 7.5 years (2014–2021/2022), including during the COVID-19 pandemic years despite increases in deprivations in school attendance.

The Key Highlights of the Index

Global Outlook

• Globally, 1.1 billion people (18% of the total population) out of 6.1 billion people, are acutely multidimensionally poor and live in acute multidimensional poverty across 110 countries.
• Sub-Saharan Africa has 534 million poor and South Asia has 389 million.
• These two regions are home to approximately five out of every six poor people.
• Children under 18 years old account for half of MPI-poor people (566 million).
• The poverty rate among children is 27.7%, while among adults it is 13.4 %.

Outlook for India

• Poverty in India: India still has more than 230 million people who are poor.
• India has some 18.7% population under this category.

India’s Progress in Poverty Reduction 

• India is among 25 countries, including Cambodia, China, Congo, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam, that successfully halved their global MPI values within 15 years.
• Some 415 million Indians escaped poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-21.
• The incidence of poverty in India declined significantly, from 55.1% in 2005/2006 to 16.4% in 2019/2021.
• In 2005/2006, approximately 645 million people in India experienced multidimensional poverty, a number that decreased to about 370 million in 2015/2016 and further to 230 million in 2019/2021.
• Improvement in Deprivation Indicators: India progressed significantly in all the three deprivation indicators: Health, Education, Standard of living.
• Decline in poverty has been equal as well, cutting across regions and socio-economic groups.
• The poorest states and groups, including children and people in disadvantaged caste groups, had the fastest absolute progress.
• The percentage of people who were multi dimensionally poor and deprived of nutrition decreased from 44.3% in 2005/2006 to 11.8% in 2019/2021, and child mortality fell from 4.5% to 1.5%.

Recommendations

• There is a need for context-specific multidimensional poverty indices that reflect national definitions of poverty.
• While the global MPI provides a standardized methodology, national definitions offer a comprehensive understanding of poverty specific to each country.
• It is crucial to consider these context-specific indices to evaluate and address poverty effectively.

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