NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Reducing poverty at scale is possible. This is the main finding of a report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford. The report identifies “poverty profiles that can offer a breakthrough in development efforts to tackle the interlinked aspects of poverty.”

Titled, ‘Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2022: Unpacking Deprivation Bundles to Reduce Multidimensional Poverty,’ the publication “looks beyond income as a measurement of poverty.” Instead, it seeks to “understand how people experience poverty in different aspects of their daily lives,” including access to education, health, housing, drinking water, sanitation, and electricity.

The report identifies a series of “deprivation bundles” – recurring patterns of poverty – and uses data to determine the different poverty profiles that are more common in certain places. This, it argues, is “a crucial step in designing strategies that address multiple aspects of poverty at the same time.”

Photo courtesy of Zeyn Afuang.