OPHI Summer School 2019

Organised by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford, this Summer School will be held with the support of CONEVAL at their headquarters in Mexico City, Mexico, 12^th – 24^th August 2019. To apply click here.

The purpose of this intensive Summer School is to provide a thorough technical and practical introduction to multidimensional poverty measurement with a strong emphasis on the Alkire-Foster method.

Upon completing the course, students will have the skills required to construct and analyse an official national multidimensional poverty measure and to describe its policy relevance. Drawing on Amartya Sen’s capability approach and empirical examples of National and Global Multidimensional Poverty Indices (MPIs), the conceptual and empirical motivation for measuring multidimensional poverty will be presented, as well as the full suite of measurement tools including estimation, dimensional breakdown, disaggregation by population subgroup, standard errors and statistical inference, robustness, communications, policy applications, and so on.

Please take note that this Summer School will be held in English.

The following topics will be covered:

• Unidimensional poverty measures;
• Methodologies to analyse multidimensional poverty and the problems each methodology best solves;
• The Alkire-Foster methodology of multidimensional poverty measurement;
• Measurement design – purpose, unit of measure, dimensions, indicators, cut-offs and weights;
• Estimation of multidimensional poverty and interpretation of the results;
• Subgroup decomposition, dimensional break-down and mapping;
• Multidimensional poverty changes over time;
• Interpretation and analysis of multidimensional poverty, including impact evaluation;
• Institutions, policies, and communication.

The Summer School will be led by OPHI Director Sabina Alkire and the OPHI team, including Adriana Conconi, Usha Kanagaratnam, Fanni Kovesdi, Corinne Mitchell, Ricardo Nogales, Christian Oldiges, Monica Pinilla and Sophie Scharlin-Pettee.

 

Course Format:

The Summer School will consist of 10.5 days of instruction and working group sessions, taught in English. Each participant needs to bring a laptop with Stata to do the problem sets. Throughout the Summer School, participants will be actively involved in discussions and working through problem sets. The main course is appropriate for academics, staff of national statistical offices, international agencies, and others focused on measurement.

 

Dates and Location:

The course runs from Monday 12^th August 2019 to Friday 23^rd August 2019 with a final exam on Saturday 24^th August 2019 (non-compulsory). The Summer School will be held at: CONEVAL, Av. Insurgentes Sur # 810, Colonia del Valle, Benito Juárez, CP 03100, Mexico City, Mexico. See www.coneval.org.mx

 

Costs: The course fee is as follows:

• $850 USD for all students, and for academic researchers based in developing countries;
• $2000 USD for professionals based in developing countries; and
• $4000 USD for professionals based in developed countries.

In addition, participants will need to pay for accommodation, travel fares and the cost of the Stata software if they do not already use it. Additionally, please note that you may need to apply for a visa – at your own cost.

 

Course Application Information: click here to apply.

 

Audience

The Summer School is addressed to those who are working on, or actively interested in gaining skills in, multidimensional poverty measurement, particularly professional staff of national offices of statistics and in government ministries that deal with poverty reduction, professionals from international development institutions, academics, and doctoral students. Applicants who are currently pursuing work on measurement are also welcome. Other applicants having a demonstrated research interest in empirical analysis in these topics will be considered on the basis of their experience and space availability.

 

Pre-requisites

A demonstrable knowledge of Stata is an essential pre-requisite for attending the course. Every attendant to the Summer School will need to have Stata 10 or higher installed on their laptop. The software will not be provided by the Summer School.

A strong knowledge in quantitative methods (e.g. econometrics, statistics, etc.) and a strong interest in poverty measurement and analysis are highly desirable.

 

Financial Support

Limited financial support may be available. Competition for any financial support will be very strong. However, well qualified and committed applicants with financial need are strongly encouraged to apply. Applicants are also highly encouraged to seek support from their local governments and institutions. We would be happy to provide support letters for these funding applications to accepted candidates.

 

Application Form

To apply, please complete the online application form click here and submit a current curriculum vitae, sample Stata .do file and a sample of written work.

 

The application deadline for the Summer School 2019 is 29 March 2019. Applicants who would like to be considered for an opportunity to present their research in progress must submit a working paper. The application process is competitive; applicants will be evaluated on the basis of the information provided in their application.

 

Questions?

Please write to ophi-summerschool@qeh.ox.ac.uk