President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has decided to adopt Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as the assessment tool for poverty in Maldives.
He made the decision following discussions at the Cabinet session held at the President’s Office Tuesday afternoon.
Based on the paper submitted by the Ministry of National Planning and Infrastructure, Ministers spoke on the importance of utilizing MPI alongside the existing poverty index (Income Poverty Index) as it would consider the standard of living during the assessment of poverty in Maldives.
In addition, Cabinet Ministers also encouraged the utilization of MPI as a tool to enhance policies through identification of the necessary actions to rectify the issues.
MPI is an international measure of acute multidimensional poverty covering over 100 developing countries. It complements traditional monetary-based poverty measures by capturing the acute deprivations that each person faces at the same time with respect to education, health and living standards.
This can also be a useful tool in identifying disparities in the provision of basic necessities in island nations like the Maldives.
The index was derived through extensive technical work carried out by the Ministry of National Planning and Infrastructure. The methodology of deriving an assessment of living conditions require all data accumulated for use to be gathered from surveying.
Technical assessments indicate that the best survey to gather the aforementioned data is Demographic Health Surveys (DHS).
Many countries adopt and utilize country specific guidelines to assess their situation on a national level and to meet the sustainable development goals.
The National Multidimensional Poverty Index in Maldives is derived through the extensive joint efforts of the National Bureau of Statistics, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the UNICEF Maldives Country Office.
