Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network

October 20, 2020

The Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN) is a growing global community of 61 countries and 19 organizations that focuses on multidimensional poverty. The network provides south-south dialogue, capacity building and, access to a repository of experiences and lessons learned about measuring multidimensional poverty. Created in 2013, the Network was established to provide support to policymakers who are implementing a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) or are exploring the possibility of developing multidimensional measures of poverty.

The MPPN aims to eradicate poverty through the use of measurements that consider the different types of deprivations experienced simultaneously by people living in poverty. The MPPN also works to promote public policies that have better technical design, greater focus and more effectiveness in reducing poverty in all its dimensions.

The Network enables early adopters to share their experiences with newcomers to multidimensional poverty measurement. It provides peer-to-peer technical, statistical and policy support, as well as input into the design and institutional arrangements for successful multidimensional poverty eradication. Through meetings, knowledge sharing, and informal exchange, the Network supports policymakers to develop more effective poverty eradication policies grounded in multidimensional measures of poverty. Its vision is a world in which poverty in all its forms is measured, tracked over time – and eventually eliminated.

The aim of the network is to eradicate poverty by bringing poverty measures closer to the lived realities of poor peoples’ lives. It promotes the MPI and policies that are better designed, more accurately targeted and more effective in alleviating poverty in all its dimensions. At the global level, it promotes a Global MPI in order to compare multidimensional poverty reduction across countries. Multidimensional poverty measures enable policymakers to:

For the Network, support for multidimensional measurement has specific purposes: to use public resources more effectively, to improve the design of policies to eradicate poverty, to establish the relationships between people’s deprivations, to monitor the effectiveness of policies over time, and to help social programs focus on those most in need.

The activities of the Secretariat are guided by a Steering Committee made up of a cross-section of participants.  In key strategic decisions related to the network, the Secretariat is guided by the Steering Committee. The annual meeting of participants reviews the work of the Secretariat and sets the MPPN priorities for the coming year.

The network is funded by OPHI and its participants. It was co-founded by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), CONEVAL (Mexico’s National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy), and Colombia’s Department for Social Prosperity (DPS).

OPHI is an economic research and policy centre at the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development. It hosts the network Secretariat, managing and coordinating the network, along with the network website.  You can contact the network Secretariat for further information.