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Posts del June, 2017

Dominican Republic becomes first country in the Caribbean to launch a MPI

Publicado el: June 28th, 2017 Por MPPN

Functions of the IPM-RD

The Dominican Republic is also part of the Global MPI that is calculated every year by OPHI. The Global MPI makes it possible to compare multidimensional poverty across countries. The Dominican Republic is part as well of the IPM-Latin America developed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), with OPH that allows the Dominican Republic to measure its performance along side that of its neighbors. But now the country will have its own National IPM-RD, to analyze the situation in which Dominicans live and to develop more efficient and effective public policies.

The index measures five critical dimensions at the individual level that reveal not only how many people are multidimensionally poor, but also the composition and intensity of their poverty, considering that poverty is not just lack of money. The MPI-DR directly calculates deprivations in Health, Education and Child Care, Livelihood and Labor; Housing and Environment; Digital Gap and Social Relationships. Public primary services such as water, electricity and sanitation are also measured by this innovative index.

Measuring poverty from a multidimensional perspective will make monitoring much easier for authorities which will allow better identification of vulnerable groups and permit better targeting for public policy and interventions.

Panama Launches its First Multidimensional Poverty Index and Adopts the Annual Measurement

Publicado el: June 27th, 2017 Por MPPN

During the event, Sabina Alkire, founder and director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and one of the creators of the methodology for calculating the MPI, applauded the Panamanian government for taking this historic step towards measuring and combating poverty in an integrated manner. She recognised the hard work done by the staff of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Social Development and the National Institute of Statistics and the Census of the Comptroller’s Office of the Republic that worked with the technical assistance of the University of Oxford for a year to develop and now launch the national MPI. The results of the assessment have since been verified by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme.

 

Results of the Panama MPI

19.1% of the Panamanian population live in multidimensional poverty households.

The source of information for the construction of this first MPI, and subsequent measurements, is the Multiple Purpose Survey, also known as the Household Survey, which is undertaken every March by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses. This will allow comparisons to be made year-on-year in order to chart changes over time in multidimensional poverty at the national level.

The Panamanian MPI is comprised of seventeen indicators or deprivations spread over five dimensions: 1) Education, 2) Housing, basic services and Internet access, 3) Environment, neighborhood and sanitation (4) Employment, 5) Health. A household is considered to be in multidimensional poverty if it is deprived in five or more of the indicators.

The Education dimension contributes to 23.9% of the total MPI percentage, Employment follows with 20.9%, Environment, neighborhood and sanitation 20.7%, Housing, basic services and Internet access 19.8% and, finally, Health with 14.7%.

With regards to province and indigenous region-specific details, the Panamanian MPI reveals that in the Ngäbe Bugle region 93.4% of people are multidimensional poor. The Guna Yala region follows with 91.4%, Emberá Wounaan 70.8%, Bocas del Toro 44.6%, Darién 40%, Coclé 22.6%, Veraguas 19.1%, Colón 16.4%, West Panama 15.6%, Chiriquí 12.4%, Panama 8.5%, Herrera 8.5% and, finally, Los Santos Province with 4.2% of its population in multidimensional poverty.

 

What the MPI measures

  • Incidences of multidimensional poverty or quantity of households in multidimensional poverty conditions.
  • The intensity of poverty suffered.
  • The deprivations of these households.
  • The specific dimensions of wellbeing to which the authorities should prioritise their public policy efforts, which will in turn foster better relations between different sectors in society.
  • The effects caused by public policy and investment in combating poverty.
  • The proportional assignment of resources to those most in need in accordance with the rest of a given geographical area.

 

Achievements of the Panama Plan: The Country for All – Zero Poverty

The plan, adopted by Executive Decree in the Las Minas district of Herrera, was created with long-term goals in mind, aiming to be achieved by 2030. It aims to provide sustainability and stability to social investment programmes in priority areas, measuring its progress in the meantime through the national MPI.

The Plan will focus, integrate and enhance services, infrastructure and social programmes and thereby guarantee the break away from poverty through growth and access to opportunities.

 

 

Translated from Spanish to English by Alexander Cavan, United Nations Volunteer.

 

PANAMA MPI (in Spanish)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panama and the Dominican Republic presented their National MPIs

Publicado el: June 22nd, 2017 Por MPPN

The Government of the Dominican Republic launched its MPI on the 27th of June in an official ceremony led by the Vice President of the country, Margarita Cedeño Fernández and attended by a number of Government Ministers and Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI. The Dominican Republic MPI also has 5 dimensions, but with 24 indicators. Among them are the digital divide, discrimination and participation—all highly innovative. The data comes from a new instrument, the MPI Questionnaire, designed specifically to capture the different dimensions that had been identified through a participatory process.

Both measures help to identify the multiple dimensions of poverty that batter peoples lives at the same time. Their individual measures give each government information that can be used for more effective and efficient social policy and allow better governance of poverty resources.

MPPN and OPHI help organize a side event in OAS General Assembly

Publicado el: June 14th, 2017 Por MPPN

Guatemala will develop a National Multidimensional Poverty Index

Publicado el: June 9th, 2017 Por MPPN

The Minister of Social Development, José Moreno, invited Dr. John Hammock, co-founder of OPHI, to come to Guatemala to discuss a possible national MPI with the Government and various stakeholders that would be important in the development of a National MPI in Guatemala.

Dr. Hammock spoke to the leadership and also the technical staff of MIDES (the Ministry of Social Development). He singled out the importance of the trip of Vice Minister Demetreo Morán Herrera to the MPPN meeting in Acapulco late last year. Dr. Hammock also spoke to leaders of NGOs and key think tanks.

Also important were meetings with the Organization of American States, the UNDP and the European Union, all who expressed interest in supporting the program in different ways.   In a meeting with the Minister and Vice Ministers of MIDES with Dr Hammock, the Vice President of Guatemala, Dr. Jafeth Cabrera Franco, expressed the strong interest in a national MPI at the highest levels of the Government.  As coordinator of the Social Cabinet of the country, he looked forward to presenting the National MPI to that Cabinet.  He indicated that MIDES will lead the process but the full Government is behind the effort to build a National Guatemala MPI.

Left to right: Carlos René Vidal López, Vice Minister of Social Protection; José Mauricio Rodriguez Vice Minister of Administration and Finance; John Hammock; Jose Moreno Minister of Social Development and Demetreo Morán Herrera Vice Minister of Social Policy, Planning and Evaluation.

 

Training on MPI of Government technical staff.