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	More than 1.6 billion people are living in multidimensional poverty by Sabina Alkire Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative   June 2015   More than 1.6 billion people are living in multidimensional poverty around the world, according to new analysis from the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford.   A new report on the latest figures for the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) shows multidimensional poverty in 101 developing countries, covering 5.2 billion people, or 75% of the world’s population. The Global MPI complements measures based on income and reflects the overlapping disadvantages poor people can face across different areas of their lives all at the same time. They include poor health, a lack of education and low living standards. If people are deprived in at least one-third of ten weighted indicators, they are identified as multidimensionally poor.   The index combines the percentage of people living in multidimensional poverty with the intensity of deprivations, or how much they are experienced.   The findings suggest that the scale of global poverty is even greater than is often estimated using traditional measures based on income. In some countries, including Mexico, Pakistan and Egypt, the researchers found that the number of people living in multidimensional poverty is twice the number who live on less than $1.25 a day.   Unlike global monetary poverty measures, the MPI can be broken down to give poverty levels for 884 regions within countries, as well as highlighting the different ways that people are poor.   For example, the figures reveal that, of the 1.6 billion people living in multidimensional poverty: more than 1.2 billion people don’t have adequate sanitation; over 1 billion are living on dirt floors; around 900 million do not have electricity; roughly 900 million people live in a household where someone is malnourished; and more than half a billion live in a home in which no-one has completed five years of school.   Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI at the University of Oxford and the Oliver T Carr Professor and Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University, said: ‘This analysis highlights how MPI and monetary poverty measures can complement each other to ensure no-one is overlooked. Often people assume that those living in income poverty are the same people that live in multidimensional poverty – but this is often not the case. Only by using both measures alongside each other can we capture the true reality of poverty.   ‘As the UN prepares to adopt 17 Sustainable Development Goals this September, which will determine the development agenda for the next 15 years, our findings serve as a powerful reminder of the extent of the poverty reduction challenge ahead and the need for an energetic and coordinated response.’   OPHI’s analysis of the Global MPI 2015 also reveals that the world’s poor do not necessarily live where you would expect.   * The findings show that over two thirds (70%) of people in multidimensional poverty actually live in middle-income countries, with just 30% living in low-income countries.   * More than 60% of people who are poor (according to the Global MPI) live in countries rated as having medium or high levels of development on the Human Development Index.   * 62% of the multidimensionally poor live in countries that are not in the three highest categories of alert on the Failed States Index.   Overall, South Asia is home to over half (54%) of the global MPI poor population, while 31% live in Sub-Saharan Africa. The country with the highest percentage of people in multidimensional poverty is South Sudan where 91% of people are MPI poor. The region with the highest poverty rate is Salamat in Chad, where 98% of people are living in multidimensional poverty.   As well as revealing where the poor live, the MPI can be used as a valuable tool for identifying the different types of disadvantage poor people face. It enables policymakers to target their resources and effectively tackle poverty in its many different ways.   * Access the following external links for more details:   http://www.ophi.org.uk/news#GlobalMPIlaunch http://www.ophi.org.uk/multidimensional-poverty-index/mpi-2015/ http://www.ophi.org.uk/news/#GMR http://www.ophi.org.uk/resources/online-training-portal/ http://www.ophi.org.uk/resources/journals/ http://www.ophi.org.uk/resources/links/ http://www.ophi.org.uk/resources/ophipodcasts/#sen http://www.mppn.org/ http://www.ophi.org.uk/ http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jun/22/end-poverty-measure-development-goals-sanitation-education-nutrition Visit the related web page
	Set ambitious targets to reduce the number of children under-5 who are stunted by WFP, WHO, Cost of Hunger in Africa   May 2015   Poor child nutrition in Malawi costs US$600 million per year   On 13th May 2015, the launch of the Cost of Hunger in Malawi highlighted the overwhelming $600 million loss every year, as a result of child under-nutrition. The study, which was commissioned by the African Union and supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the World Food programme, confirms the magnitude of consequences that child malnutrition has on health, education as well as on the national economy. The study has highlighted that the country has incurred huge economic losses associated with under-nutrition, the highest being the cost in loss of potential productivity.   In Malawi, 1.4 million children are stunted may not be able to reach their full potential as adults. Of the six African countries that have been surveyed as part of the Cost of Hunger study, Malawi has the second highest cost, equivalent to 10.3% of the country’s GDP. Only Ethiopia has a higher cost of under-nutrition, at 16.5% of GDP. In Malawi where approximately two thirds of people are engaged in manual activities, productivity is significantly reduced when adults suffer from stunting as children.   The main recommendation is for the country to set ambitious targets for stunting reduction. According to the World Health Assembly targets, member states committed to the target of a 40% reduction in the number of children under-5 who are stunted.   April 2014   Cost of Hunger in Africa Study: A Regional Look at the Price of child under-nutrition in Africa   The first report of the Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) Study that unveils the crushing impact of child undernutrition on the economies of four African countries was launched in Abuja, Nigeria during a high level event organized on the sidelines of the Seventh Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.   Experts are gathered here in Abuja to look at the startling results of the Cost of Hunger in Africa report, covering Egypt, Ethiopia, Swaziland and Uganda, which revealed staggering statistics for each country.   Ethiopia lost an estimated US$4.7 billion in 2009 because of child undernutrition. This is equivalent to 16.5 percent of the country"s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is often used as an indicator of how an economy is performing.   In Egypt, the study concluded that 40 per cent of adults were stunted as children. This represents more than 20 million people of working age who are not able to achieve their potential, as a consequence of child under-nutrition.   Child undernutrition costs Swaziland around US $92 million per year in lost worker productivity.   Uganda spends around US$254 million per year treating cases of diarrhoea, anaemia and respiratory infections linked to malnutrition. The early deaths among children each year of causes related to hunger reduce Uganda’s labour force by some 3.8 percent. That amounts to some 934 million working hours lost every year due to an absent workforce.   "Nutrition is both a crucial social and economic issue and I am committed to pursuing nutrition as a priority within Africa’s development agenda , while fulfilling the mandate provided by the Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning in 2012 to complete the study,” said Dr. Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko, Commissioner of Social Affairs of the African Union Commission.   “This study has the potential to help shape the future of Africa and the African Union Commission has proposed to member states a new flagship initiative named “Africa’s Renewed Initiative for Stunting Elimination” (ARISE 2025), which directly proposes the scenarios presented in each country report, as the goal for the reduction in stunting by the year 2025," Commissioner Kaloko added.   According to the UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Carlos Lopes, the result shows that eliminating stunting in Africa is a necessary step for its growth and transformation.   “I urge governments to ensure that the recommendations of this study are fully implemented and the enactment of the proposed food and nutrition laws for the structural transformation of the continent,” Lopes said.   United Nations World Food Programme Assistant Executive Director Manoj Juneja explained that the results of the study add to the growing urgency of efforts to eradicate undernutrition. Juneja stressed the need to provide nutrition-specific interventions to those at risk, especially children less than two years of age, adolescent girls, pregnant women and nursing mothers.   “This is a requirement if we are to break the cycle of undernutrition and protect the next generation,’ Juneja said.   The report argues that policy-makers must review their national development frameworks and ensure that the reduction of stunting is an outcome indicator of their social and economic development policies.   The report launched at a high-level panel discussion, which stressed the enormous potential for change that emerged when finance ministers, agriculture ministers, development actors, private sector, NGOs and UN agencies sat around a table and agreed to aim for nothing less than the total eradication of child stunting on the continent.   The overall study, led by the African Union Commission, and supported by the Economic Commission for Africa, the New Partnership for African Development and the UN World Food Programme, is being conducted in a total of 12 African countries, using a methodology originally applied in Latin America. Studies have been carried out so far in Egypt, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Uganda and Rwanda and are planned in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Mauritania.   http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/cost-hunger-africa-study-regional-look-price-child-undernutrition-africa http://www.costofhungerafrica.com/news/ http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/nutrition_globaltargets2025/en/ http://scalingupnutrition.org/news/nutrition-at-the-68th-world-health-assembly#.VXYT4VKpWzk http://scalingupnutrition.org/news?category=cso-network http://globalnutritionreport.org/ http://www-prod.unicef-irc.org/article/1124/ http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/767 http://www.unscn.org/en/home/ http://www.unscn.org/files/Publications/SCN_News/SCNNEWS41_web_low_res.pdf
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