Panama approves plan for National MPI

On March 14th, the full Cabinet of Panama, presided by President Juan Carlos Varela, approved an innovative Plan called Panama For All: Zero Poverty. The plan includes finalizing the National Multidimensional Poverty Index to have ready to launch officially at the end of June.

The Government with OPHI assistance has been working on this national MPI since last year. Professionals from different offices and Ministries of the Government have been trained by OPHI. Data for the MPI will be collected by the National Institute of Statistics and the data analyzed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Ministry of Social Development has led this whole project and acts as coordinator of the Social Cabinet of Panama.

On March 15th, the Social Cabinet approved the dimensions and indicators of the Panama MPI. John Hammock of OPHI was able to be present for both these important meetings that help establish the MPI as an official measure of poverty to complement the existing income measure.