The National Planning Commission released a report on the Multidimensional Poverty Index: Analysis Towards Action in June 2021, in collaboration with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, UNDP, and UNICEF.
The Index takes into account factors such as nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, housing, and assets. Although the report does not include data from before and after the pandemic, the statistics, as the report points out, can be used as a baseline to compare changes in MPI as a result of the pandemic’s consequences.
According to the report, the “incidence of multidimensional poverty” fell from 30.1 percent in 2014 to 17.4 percent in 2019. It also notes that for those five years, over 3 million people rose above the Index’s poverty line. In 2019, a little less than five million people in Nepal were “multidimensionally poor”.
The findings, however, were not satisfactory news for children. As Elke Wisch, Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund Nepal, and Ayshanie Medagandoda-Labe, Representative of the United Nations Development Program, note, children under the age of 18, who make up 35 percent of the population, accounted for 44 percent of Nepal’s multidimensionally poor.
The report also shows a rural/urban divide in “multidimensional poverty,” stating that while approximately 32% of Nepalis live in rural areas, 52.4 percent of the total “multidimensionally poor” live in these areas.
The report did note, however, that no other country with comparable levels of initial poverty had made progress, while also acknowledging that the pandemic had deprived more than half of the country’s population of adequate nutrition, water, and cooking fuel, all of which are critical to the Index. This is especially significant given that more than half of the country’s population was on the verge of leaving “MPI poverty” if one or two of the “deprivations” used as parameters in the Index could be reduced.
The report also shows a rural/urban divide in “multidimensional poverty,” stating that while approximately 32% of Nepalis live in rural areas, 52.4 percent of the total “multidimensionally poor” live in these areas.
The report also compared MPIs across Nepal’s provinces. Karnali province fared the worst, with over 39 percent of its residents classified as “MPI poor.” Sudurpaschim Province had 25.3 percent of its people classified as “MPI poor,” 24.2 percent in Province 2, 9.6 percent in Gandaki Province, and Bagmati Province had the fewest at 7 percent. According to the data, 28 percent of people in rural areas and 12.3 percent of people in urban areas were “MPI poor.”
Province 2 had the highest number of “MPI poor” people, accounting for 1.3 million people. Lumbini Province trails Province 2 in terms of “multidimensional poverty,” with 1 million people, while Province 1 accounts for 770,000. Province 2 did, however, manage to lift 800,000 people out of poverty, the most for any province in terms of proportion.
The report advocates for targeted poverty alleviation policies, particularly after the pandemic, because those already vulnerable to MPI poverty will be the most vulnerable to COVID-19 deprivation. The MPI, according to the report, addresses a “subset of priorities” envisioned in Nepal’s current 15th Periodic Plan, the Sustainable Development Goals: Status and Roadmap Report 2016-2030, and the Nepali Constitution.
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