Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2022: Unpacking deprivation bundles to reduce multidimensional poverty
FOCUS
This report was released on October 17, 2022, by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), a research centre at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the 12th edition of the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report, released annually by OPHI since 2010. In the report, ‘multidimensional poverty’ includes income and other indicators such as poor health, lack of education and poor living standards.
This
edition of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) calculates and presents
data on multidimensional poverty among 111 developing nations (23 low-income
countries, 85 middle-income countries and three high-income countries) covering
6.1 billion people. It
bases its study on 10 indicators across three dimensions of poverty: health,
education, and standard of living. This report identifies a series of
'deprivation bundles' – recurring patterns and combinations in which people are
deprived across the 10 indicators. It identifies the ‘bundles’ that are most common
in specific regions and recommends designing strategies which address the
indicators of poverty comprehensively.
The report is divided into two parts, each of them containing multiple sections. The first part ‘Interlinkages - from understanding overlapping deprivations to developing integrated multi sectoral policies’ consists of three sections. These are: Understanding interlinked deprivations (Section 1); Poverty declines and the role of interlinkages: Three case studies (Section 2); and Galvanizing policy efforts to reduce interlinked deprivations (Section 3).
The second part ‘Levels and trends from the 2022 global dimensional poverty index’ contains five sections: Who are the 1.2 billion poor people and where do they live? (Section 1); How well were countries reducing poverty before the Covid-19 pandemic? (Section 2); How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected multidimensional poverty? (Section 3); India: 415 million people exited poverty in 15 years, Multidimensional poverty index value and the incidence of poverty more than halved (Section 4); and Call to action: the data revolution risks leaving poverty data behind (Section 5).-
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is measured against three broad dimensions of poverty, which are further divided into 10 indicators. Nutrition and child mortality are measured under the dimension of health. The dimension of education covers years of schooling and school attendance. Standard of living consists of indicators like cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets. A person is identified as ‘multidimensionally poor’ if they are deprived in one-third or more of the 10 listed indicators.
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The 2022 report covers 111 countries and 6.1 billion people. Among these, 1.2 billion people (19.1 per cent) experience multidimensional poverty. Around 593 million multidimensionally poor people are children (under 18 years of age) and almost 94 million are aged 60 years or more.
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Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the largest number of multidimensionally poor people – nearly 579 million. It is followed by South Asia with 385 million multidimensionally poor people. Figures from these two regions made up 83 per cent of the global multidimensionally poor population.
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Of all the poor people across 111 countries, roughly 964 million (83 per cent) reside in rural areas while 198 million (17 per cent) live in urban areas. Additionally, 518 million of the 1.2 billion people have a deprivation score of 50 per cent or more indicating that they live in severe poverty.
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Data from between 2019 and 2021 shows that around 4.2 per cent of Indians live in severe poverty – that is, their deprivation score on the MPI is either 50 per cent or more. The country, additionally, has the largest population of poor people globally – 228.9 million – of which 90 per cent live in rural areas.
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The report notes that about 21.8 per cent of children in India (97 million) are multidimensionally poor.
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The report adds that 19.7 per cent of Indians living in households headed by females are multidimensionally poor. In comparison, 15.9 per cent of people in the country that live in male-headed households are multidimensionally poor.
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This GMPI report focuses on interlinkages. It looks at the combinations of deprivations experienced simultaneously by a single person or household. The most common combination or ‘profile’ covers deprivations in four indicators– nutrition, cooking fuel, sanitation and housing – which impacts around 45.5 million people. This profile is primarily observed in South Asia and is experienced by 34.4 million people in India, 2.1 million in Bangladesh and 1.9 million people in Pakistan.
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About 210.4 million people in the world experience deprivations in all six standard of living indicators – cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets.
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Globally, 4.1 million people experience deprivation across all 10 indicators. As many as 3.8 million of these people live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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More than one billion people suffer from deprivation in either sanitation or drinking water whereas 437.1 million experience deprivation in both. The majority of people deprived in both indicators live in Sub-Saharan Africa (330.4 million people) followed by South Asia (47.5 million people).
Focus and Factoids by Ananya Dhanuka.
PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.
FACTOIDS
AUTHOR
United Nations Development Programme, New York and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, Oxford
COPYRIGHT
United Nations Development Programme, New York and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, Oxford
PUBLICATION DATE
17 Oct, 2022