Editorial – Special Issue (June 2018)

When we started OPHI a little over ten years ago, we jotted down our ideas and expectations on a paper napkin one morning in a London bakery. Our goal was to do poverty research that shaped action – with a committed and diverse team, working alongside those with different powers, be they protagonists of poverty or policy actors.

We did not think we’d really achieve it, but it shaped our dreams. So we sought to do research while scanning the horizons for ways to be useful in public action, building on Amartya Sen’s work and example.

We began as a small group of technical people, mainly women economists, so our challenge was ambitious. After work with James Foster took shape, and connected us to colleagues in Mexico, OPHI focused on offering measures to those in charge of creating and implementing public policy.

Ten years have gone by. Currently, the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is used to measure poverty worldwide by the United Nations Development Programme, and countries from different parts of the world have established or are creating official tailor-made National MPIs. These have taken on a life of their own, and in some countries are playing a pivotal role in the design and coordination of public policy, SDG reporting, and so on.

In 2013, the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN) was launched to provide a high-level South-South space for ministers as well as statisticians to share experiences and join forces to face the challenges of poverty reduction. This magazine is one its instruments.

When we are asked what OPHI is, we think of a group of talented and energetic people, full of marvellous (at times a tad crazy) ideas that are pursued with great enthusiasm and dedication. We are grateful to all those who collaborated with OPHI in so many ways through the years. Your joy and competence, friendship, humour and commitment, generosity and skill, are recognised and warmly remembered. It’s been a fun decade, and we feel another trip to the bakery – with the whole team – coming on.

 

Published in Dimensions Special Issue – June 2018