Pakistan’s Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at ODID have signed an agreement to develop a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for Pakistan.

The signing marks the beginning of the process of regularly calculating a new poverty index for Pakistan which will be based on the Alkire Foster method developed at OPHI. This method underlies the Global MPI, an international measure of acute poverty covering over 100 developing countries which has been calculated by OPHI and published in UNDP’s flagship Human Development Report since 2010.

At the signing, Pakistan’s Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal said: “The traditional one-dimensional indices cannot reflect the true poverty levels in Pakistan. The MPI is more comprehensive, integrated and holistic as it covers education, health and living standards. This partnership between the Government, UNDP and University of Oxford will help us understand, and better address issues related to poverty in Pakistan.”

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