Ethiopia Improves MPI but Needs to Stride Forward: UNDP

Addis Ababa ENA July 12/2019 Ethiopia’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has shown improvement over the past years but needs to continue moving forward with more emphasis on some of the indicators, according to United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The 2019 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index which was launched on Thursday indicates that 886 million and 440 million of the total 1.3 billion multi-dimensionally poor people worldwide live in middle-income and low-income countries respectively.

Briefing journalists on the findings of the report, UNDP Resident Representative Turhan Saleh said Ethiopia has made progress in multidimensional poverty reduction.

Ethiopia’s MPI has improved significantly from 0.54 to 0.48 from 2011 to 2016 and represents the fastest absolute reduction relative to starting MPI as well as deprivation fell across all 10 indicators, the report revealed.

“Ethiopia has made progress on health, significant improvements in schooling and income. Poverty has gone down in Ethiopia. So, these are factors showing the achievements that have been made over the past several years that are helping to contribute to Ethiopia’s reduction in multidimensional poverty,” he elaborated.

However, Saleh pointed out that there are still areas that Ethiopia has to improve further.

Nutrition, cooking fuel, sanitation, electricity and housing are among the issues that are affecting peoples’ multidimensional poverty, he said, adding that “this shows that there is still work to be done.”

Appreciating Ethiopia’s investment in social sector, The Resident Representative noted that the country has to emphasize in investing a lot in health, education, agriculture and energy.

Moreover, Saleh stressed that Ethiopia should “make sure and continue to make sure health, education, nutrition, energy, food security get high priority.”

Half of the 1.3 billion multi-dimensionally poor people are children under the age of 18, the index pointed out.

The 2019 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) covers 101 countries comprising 5.7 billion people which accounts 76 percent of the global population.