Multidimensionally Poor (based on National MP measure): 17.4% (2021)
Launch date of national MPI: December 2017
Launch date of updated MPI: August 2021
Nepal’s first official national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was launched in December 2017. The index was developed by the National Planning Commission of the Government of Nepal together with OPHI. The World Bank and United Kingdom – Department for International Development (DFID) offered technical and financial support.
The Nepal MPI index in 2017 had 3 dimensions and 10 indicators. It showed that 28.6% of Nepalis were multidimensionally poor – meaning that their lives are affected by several deprivations simultaneously. But it also revealed that Nepal actually halved its official MPI between 2006 and 2014, from 0.313 to 0.127. The Nepal Multidimensional Poverty Index report from 2017 is available here.
In 2021 Nepal launched an updated MPI with new MPI figures and additional indicators reflecting the relationship between multidimensional poverty and vulnerability towards COVID-19 in Nepal. This report by the Government of Nepal National Planning Commission in partnership with OPHI, UNDP, and UNICEF uses 2014 and 2019 data from the Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (NMICS).
Nepal MPI:
The Nepal Multidimensional Poverty Index report 2021 is available here.
Nepal’s Voluntary National Review in 2016 reported: “Multidimensional poverty reduced from 64.7 percent in 2006 to 44.2 percent in 2015 (OPHI 2016) dropping by an average of two percentage points per year. These achievements were largely due to improved health and education and increased remittances incomes.”… “The government aims to bring down the percentage of people living below the poverty line to 4.9 percent and to reduce multi-dimensional poverty to 10 percent by 2030. The NPC has set targets of an annual economic growth rate of 7.2 percent and 4.7 percent annual growth in the agriculture sector during the Fourteenth Plan period (2016/17- 2018/19) and to increase per capita gross national incomes to $2,500 by 2030.” (page 14 and 15) Reference (page 38): OPHI (2016). OPHI Country Briefing December 2016: Nepal. Oxford: Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. Full Report Here.