A simulation exercise of the effects of COVID-19 in the South Asian country revealed socio-economic disruption and significant health threats for a population already suffering from food insecurity and lack of adequate sanitation. According to the analysis, the incidence of multidimensional poverty in Afghanistan could increase from 51.7% to 73.5%.
We are in a period of great uncertainty.
Today, Latin America is the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. On various fronts, we are facing a situation for which we have no precedents to draw on when seeking explanations or devising possible solutions. Indicators of all kinds, be it health, economic, social or cultural ones, are reaching levels that we could not have anticipated just a few months ago.
COVID-19 has brought to the world economic and health challenges not seen for almost a hundred years; yet this crisis has also highlighted the innovation and creativity of countries in the use and adaptation of their own multidimensional poverty indicators, as well as other measurement tools to better meet this huge challenge. In this note we would like to highlight some innovative techniques that the participants of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN) are implementing in response to the global pandemic.
One of the core functions of the MPPN is the exchange of measurement knowledge and experience. The knowledge generated in one country can serve or inspire other countries in their measurements. At a time when global collaboration is required, we will continue our efforts to facilitate knowledge exchange amongst MPPN countries.
The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development is one of the broadest agreements that countries have proposed in recent decades. The agenda encompasses goals associated with inequality, violence, the environment, and deaths caused by noncommunicable diseases, among other topics of great importance to global development. It also seeks to meet goals to guarantee access to clean water sources, adequate sanitation, electricity and the internet. For the first time, a global agreement was proposed to reduce poverty in all of its dimensions, thus providing an opportunity to employ a multidimensional perspective in the measurement and analysis of the situation of people experiencing poverty.