Created in 2013, the MPPN aims to eradicate poverty through the use of measurements that consider the different types of deprivations experienced by people living in poverty. The MPPN works to promote public policies that have better technical design, greater focus and more effectiveness in reducing poverty in all its dimensions.

The Network was established to provide support to policymakers who are implementing a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) or are exploring the possibility of developing multidimensional measures of poverty. This support includes recommendations on the design of the measurement, as well as on the political processes and institutional arrangements needed to carry out the measurement.

For the Network, support for multidimensional measurement has specific purposes: to use public resources more effectively, to improve the design of policies, to establish relationships between people’s deprivations, to monitor the effectiveness of policies over time and to help social programs focus on those most in need.

The Secretariat of the MPPN is run out of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), which coordinates the network and its website. The Secretariat’s activities are directed by the Steering Committee, which consists of a representative group of participants of the network.