OPHI and the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network – a group of senior representatives from over 40 governments and international institutions – hosted a special side-event on multidimensional poverty measurement at the 46th session of the UN Statistical Commission on 2 March.

The side event, which was standing-room only, highlighted how multidimensional poverty measurement can help to ‘end poverty in all its forms everywhere’ – a key component of the first goal of the final Open Working Group proposal for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and of the Secretary General’s Synthesis report.

Featuring presentations by eminent panellists and discussion among all participants, the event demonstrated how national MPIs and an improved Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (the MPI 2015+), supported by a data revolution, can help to eradicate extreme poverty post-2015 as part of the core poverty indicators of the SDGs.

The MPI 2015+ complements income poverty measures and shines a high-resolution lens on poverty, showing who is poor and revealing the different types of disadvantage that each poor person experiences at the same time – for example, poor sanitation, malnutrition, unemployment or a lack of education – to ensure the SDGs ‘leave no-one behind’.

Multidimensional poverty measures have generated substantial interest and support in recent years. The governments of Mexico, Colombia, Bhutan, the Philippines, Chile and the state government of Minas Gerais (Brazil), and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), use official multidimensional poverty measures, while many other governments are in the process of developing or exploring their use.

Read more about the side event.