OPHI and the MPPN held an online Side Event at the 75th UN General Assembly for 21 world leaders and policymakers to discuss how to reduce poverty in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. The leaders’ attitude towards reducing poverty during the COVID-19 hyper-event and recession was well articulated by Pakistan’s Sania Nishtar: ‘Let’s not waste this chance’.

54% of Angolans live in multidimensional poverty and experience multiple deprivations, according to the Angola Multidimensional Poverty Index (A-MPI), which assesses the proportion of poor and the intensity of that poverty.

The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), developed by OPHI and UNDP, compares acute multidimensional poverty for more than 100 countries and 5.9 billion people and monitors changes over time.

While data is not yet available to measure the rise of global multidimensional poverty after the pandemic, OPHI and UNDP made simulations for 70 countries in the developing world. Simulations based on the anticipated impacts of the virus on just two components of the global MPI – nutrition and school attendance – suggests how much impact the crisis could have unless it is addressed.

Ghana has made significant progress on poverty reduction over time, with deprivations of Ghanaians from the perspectives of health, education, and living standards reducing by nine percent from 55 percent in 2011 to about 46 percent in 2017. This implies that with the current population of 31 million, 14 million Ghanaians are estimated to be multidimensionally poor.