In this warm and very interactive Meeting, members shared their experiences developing, implementing, and utilizing multidimensional poverty measures to help reduce the many overlapping deprivations experienced by the poor. This year, particular emphasis was given to how MPIs were being used to prioritize and track progress in countries’ SDG agendas and how they were working as part of coordinated planning processes.

At the opening on 9 October, participants attended China’s prestigious Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum. The Vice Premier of China spoke, as did other Chinese and foreign leaders, including MPPN’s own Steering Committee leader Gonzalo Hernandez Licona (Mexico). In the afternoon, participants had an intensive briefing on China’s Precise Poverty Targeting Intervention, in which, in 2014, 70 million Chinese were identified as poor using China’s multidimensional framework that covers monetary, health, education, housing and livelihood deprivations. The realistic and highly visible political target is to eradicate such poverty by 2020.  Wang Pingping from the National Bureau of Statistics of China gave a keynote lecture tracing progress using monetary and multidimensional poverty measures. IPRCC and OPHI presented based on documents and fieldwork in two provinces. Nicholas Rosellini, the UN Resident Coordinator and the UNDP representative in China, gave a second keynote linking China’s poverty reduction activities to the SDGs.

On 10 October, the formal opening session included an address by Dr Tan of IPRCC, MPPN Steering Committee and FAO.  Sabina Alkire provided an overview of the MPPN’s activities since the last Annual Meeting, including the magazine Dimensions and the new policy briefing series. The first in-depth session looked at the challenges and opportunities involved in designing a National MPI in Chile, Pakistan, Mexico, and Colombia. Gonzalo Hernandez Licona of CONEVAL in Mexico gave a keynote explaining how Mexico’s national measure was developed and used for policy purposes. OPHI’s Adriana Conconi presented the draft handbook on creating National MPIs for feedback from member countries. Representatives from Malaysia, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Seychelles shared their ongoing work building MPIs. Next, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, and Costa Rica discussed how they were using MPIs to facilitate policy coordination and budget allocation. Finally, Felipe Roa-Clavijo presented the current MPPN communications materials, particularly Dimensions magazine and the new policy briefing series, engaging with participants about ideas for future issues. Presentations are available here.

The last day began with international agencies presenting on child poverty, conceptualizations of multidimensional poverty, Africa’s movement out of poverty, and regional MPIs. Participants then enjoyed an interlude session with videos and brochures showing how countries are communicating their MPI to policymakers, the media, and the public. IPRCC also shared their online platform for South-South knowledge sharing. Pali Lehohla, Statistician General of Statistics South Africa, gave a rousing keynote on the need to tilt MPI towards planning and the SDGs. In closing, Minister Dlamini of South Africa shared South Africa’s policy initiatives and reiterated their plans to host the 2018 meeting and her hopes for the Network in the future. The meeting concluded by finalising the communiqué and plans for the MPPN for the coming year and sharing commitments for action during the coming year.

The representatives approved the three-point communiqué, which:

• Calls for channels of SDG reporting for National and Global MP
• Endorses MPIs as a tool to meet poverty-related SDGs
• Promotes the use of research to innovate in response to demand

Important information:

• Communiqué
• Presentations
• Pictures MPPN 2017
• Agenda
• Concept Note
• Fourth MPPN Annual Meeting in Acapulco, Mexico. 2016
• Third MPPN Annual Meeting in Cartagena, Colombia. 2015
• Second MPPN Annual Meeting in Berlin, Germany. 2014
• Launch and First MPPN Annual Meeting in Oxford, United Kingdom. 2013
• What is the MPPN?
• MPPN website