BD, Nepal reducing poverty faster than India

---

FE Report Nepal and Bangladesh are reducing poverty faster compared to India, according to a new study based on the multidimensional poverty index developed at the University of Oxford and used by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in its Human Development Reports, Prasun Sonwalkar of Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported on Monday. The report quoted Dr Sabina Alkire, director of Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) as saying, "The success of Nepal and Bangladesh in reducing poverty despite their relatively low income highlights the effectiveness of social policy investments combined with active civil society engagement." The poverty measure used by OPHI, the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), is said to be unique in capturing the simultaneous disadvantages experienced by poor people, such as malnutrition, education and sanitation, providing a high-resolution lens on their lives. "The global MPI, which was developed by OPHI and UNDP in 2010 and has been published in Human Development reports since, assesses multidimensional poverty in 104 countries for which data since 2002 are available. "The study found that were 'star performers': the percentage of poor people in Nepal dropped from 64.7% to 44.2% between 2006 and 2011, 4.1 percentage points per year, while in Bangladesh poverty rates decreased by 3.2 percentage points per year between 2004 and 2007. "In addition to reducing the percentage of poor people, both Nepal and Bangladesh reduced the intensity of poverty. This means that even poor people were on average less poor -- deprived in fewer things at the same time -- than they had been before, an important element of multidimensional poverty analysis that provides a more balanced picture of poor people's lives, the release added", the report by IANS noted. The MPI is based on a deprivation score which reflects each person's overlapping deprivations in nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, child school attendance, water, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, flooring, and assets. "India also made significant progress in reducing poverty between 1999 and 2006, but at a rate that was less than one-third of the speed of its poorer neighbours, with a reduction in poverty rates of 1.2 percentage points per year [instead of 4.1% (Nepal) or 3.2% (Bangladesh)], the study found", the IANS report said. "However, multidimensional poverty was reduced least in the poorest states -- such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- and among the poorest social groups, such as Scheduled Tribes, Muslims, female-headed households and larger households", it said. It noted: "According to the study, even India's best-performing states -- Kerala and Andhra Pradesh -- progressed little more than half as fast as Nepal or Bangladesh in reducing multidimensional poverty, a release from the Oxford Poverty and Human development Initiative (OPHI), which conducted the study, said." The report quoted to researcher Suman Seth as saying, "From 1999-2006 India did very well in certain aspects of poverty reduction; for example, MPI among the scheduled caste groups showed a strong reduction, and poverty among the most destitute went down faster than the average. However, it's still the case that the benefits of national poverty reduction have been enjoyed least by some of the poorer groups and regions." OPHI added that India had not collected official data on MPI deprivations including malnutrition since 2005/6, making India's MPI the least up-to-date in South Asia, according to the IANS report. A person is identified as 'multidimensionally poor' if he or she is deprived in one-third or more of ten (weighted) indicators. An earlier report published in The Guardian of London, quoting the latest UN development report, said: "Some of the poorest people in the world are becoming significantly less poor, according to a groundbreaking academic study which has taken a new approach to measuring deprivation. The report, by Oxford University's poverty and human development initiative, predicts that countries among the most impoverished in the world could see acute poverty eradicated within 20 years if they continue at present rates. The report identifies "star performer" nations such as Rwanda, Nepal and Bangladesh as places where deprivation could disappear within the lifetime of present generations. "Close on their heels with reductions in poverty levels were Ghana, Tanzania, Cambodia and Bolivia," the report said. The study, the report added, "comes after the UN's latest development report published last week which stated that poverty reduction drives in the developing world were exceeding all expectations." It says: 'The world is witnessing a epochal 'global rebalancing' with higher growth in at least 40 poor countries helping lift hundreds of millions out of poverty and into a new 'global middle class'. Never in history have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically and so fast.' "The brighter global picture is the result of international and national aid and development projects investing in schools, health clinics, housing, infrastructure and improved access to water. The UN also pointed to trade as being a key factor which was improving conditions in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. These improvements have not been picked up in the past when poverty has been measured strictly in income terms without taking into account other factors -- health, education and living standards." The study of the world's poorest one billion people, according to the report in The Guardian, uses a new measure, the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which was just updated in the 2013 UN report. "The initiative hopes insights from the MPI will incentivise international donors and governments to help the poorest by allowing the results to be measured. The academics believe old methods of looking at income levels -- such as those living on $1.25 a day or less -- ignores other deprivations in, for example, nutrition, health and sanitation," the report added. The system, it noted, was developed in 2010 by the institute's director, Dr Sabina Alkire, and Dr Maria Emma Santos. The Guardian report quoted as saying: 'As poor people worldwide have said, poverty is more than money -- it is ill health, it is food insecurity, it is not having work, or experiencing violence and humiliation, or not having health care, electricity, or good housing. 'Citizen activism is under-appreciated for its role. Maybe we have been overlooking the power of the people themselves, women who are empowering each other, civil society pulling itself up.' "The study found that in 2013 a total of 1.6 billion people are living in 'multidimensional' poverty. The poorest one billion live in 100 countries. Most of the bottom billion live in South Asia, with India home to 40%, followed by sub-Saharan Africa with 33%. The report also found that 9.5% of the bottom billion poor people lived in developed, upper middle-income countries," the report added.