Highlights from speaker statements

Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

‘…as the United Nations marks its eighty years anniversary, eradicating poverty is a central test of its mission. For Africa, the urgency is even greater. More than 20 countries have now adapted national Multidimensional Poverty Indices, which enables better planning, targeted social protection and data-driven resource allocation. The example of Sierra Leone, which introduced its MPI in 2019, and Togo, which continues to actively apply its MPI, demonstrates that gains are possible, even in the harshest of contexts, but progress is awfully uneven. In the Saharan South Africa, for example, millions remain bound by poverty traps born out of conflict, climate vulnerability and deprivation.’

‘If the world is to eradicate poverty, Africa cannot remain on the margins. It must be placed at the centre of the solution. It is a welcome development that the Sevilla commitment, the Pact for the Future, the draft declaration of the Second World Social Summit on Social Development and the preparations for the COP 30all underscore that the eradication of poverty is the very foundation of peace, stability and human dignity.’

‘…we must deepen the use of Multidimensional Poverty Indices as living instruments of governance. MPIs make the invisible visible. They reveal overlapping reputations that income measures alone cannot capture. If we fail to measure poverty in its full complexity, we cannot hope to design policies that truly transform lives.’

‘..we must prioritize investment in fragile and vulnerable contexts. Poverty and peace are two sides of the same coin. Without peace, development collapses, without development, peace cannot endure. Financing…least developed countries and conflict-affected regions where the returns on social investment are greatest and where a single investment in education, health and all livelihoods can change the trajectory of an entire nation.’

‘…we must maintain global solidarity and regional cooperation. The fight against poverty cannot be won by individual countries acting alone. It requires multidimensional action, innovative financing and partnerships that liberate Africa’s own resources. Institutions like ECA are championing the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area for job creation, supporting domestic resource mobilization, deepening African capital markets and advancing the creation of an African Credit Rating Agency. It makes no sense, for example, that African countries continue to borrow at more than three times the cost of other countries, why should distorted perceptions of risk slow down the development of an entire continent? Correcting these injustices is essential if Africa is to realize its full potential.’

Yusuf Murangwa, Minister of Finance, Rwanda

‘Whatever approach we consider, it’s very important that we capture the different dimensions of poverty, because poverty is not a singular issue. It’s something that is a phenomena that has a number of dimensions and to design policies that address poverty effectively, we need to be able to understand the different dimensions of poverty so that the policies that we design can address the specific deprivations that our populations face.’

‘Multidimensional Poverty Indices are very attractive, especially for countries like Rwanda and other developing countries, because of three important aspects, first of all, from our experience multidimensional poverty measurements are very stable…even in periods of shocks and also over longer periods of time when you compare to other measurements of poverty, and this is very important because it allows countries, especially in designing and tracking the effectiveness of policies over a longer period of time, to be sure that they are making progress or not making progress.’

‘Another important aspect of multidimensional indices in measuring poverty is that they are quite sensitive to policy interventions. For example, if there is intervention in terms of policy, in education, in housing, in water, in sanitation, in health, it is possible for Multidimensional Poverty Indices to pick that effect rather sooner than other measures of poverty. This is something that we’ve experienced over the last 15 years or so in Rwanda.’

‘The simplicity – without compromising robustness – of Multidimensional Poverty Indices makes it very attractive for countries that have low capacity, low resources to measure poverty.’

‘In Rwanda…it’s now close to…17 years implementing different versions of Multidimensional Poverty Indices. We’ve picked these tools on most of our surveys, labour force surveys, Demographic and Health Surveys, and the census, and many other surveys, and it has helped us so much to track developments that…have been happening over the last 15 years, and also in explaining some of the changes that we see even in other measures of poverty, like the income and expenditure approach to poverty.’

‘I would call upon all of us to put a lot of emphasis in promoting the use of Multidimensional Poverty Indices in most development programmes, so that we are able to see that we can track what is happening in terms of reducing poverty globally, but most importantly in the global south.’

Yorleni León Marchena, Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion, Costa Rica

‘En el 2015 Costa Rica creó el Índice de Pobreza Multidimensional, un índice que es complementario a la pobreza por línea de pobreza.’

‘Del 2015-2024 la pobreza multidimensional en los hogares pasó del 21.8 a 10.1%, en este mismo periodo la intensidad de la pobreza multidimensional pasó de 27.7% a 25.6% siendo entonces más o menos entre 5 o 6 indicadores de los 20 indicadores que tienen las dimensiones, las que se encuentran todavía en rezago y que el país debe de trabajar para solucionarlas.’

‘A nivel de zonas rurales nosotros verdaderamente nos sentimos muy contentos por los datos que arroja este índice, ya que en zonas rurales los datos son aún mejores. Puedo contarles que las disminuciones en pobreza multidimensional fue mayor en 6.3% en zonas rurales con respecto al dato nacional, lo que significa que las acciones para trabajar en la corrección de esa pobreza multidimensional ha estado muy focalizada en esas zonas rurales en esos hogares que se encuentran en zonas rurales.’

‘Ustedes sin duda comparten conmigo que estos son buenos resultados para el país, yo no tengo duda de ello.’

‘¿Qué hemos aprendido en estos 10 años a partir de la aplicación y el uso de este índice? Uno, que las dimensiones y los indicadores tienen dificultades para leer acertadamente la realidad lo que nos lleva entonces al ejercicio periódico que es necesario estar actualizando estos índices (…) Hemos aprendido también que la integración del IPM con el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo o con las políticas públicas es débil y debería de ser muchísimo más fuerte de lo que viene siendo. (…) También hemos aprendido que el país tiene una abundancia de indicadores, muy similares o con dimensiones que resultan ser duplicadas. Y esto entonces nos pone en un predicamento porque nos resultan algunos casos difíciles de darles un tratamiento que logre generar un verdadero valor al indicador con respecto del resto de indicadores y a la inversa.’

‘¿Entonces qué estamos haciendo? el Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos está trabajando de manera conjunta con otra cantidad de instituciones, incluso con instituciones fuera del país, en la actualización del IPM y esperamos va a estar listo a partir del 2026.’

‘Uno, vamos a trabajar en marcos normativos que permitan fortalecer esa integración del Índice con el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo que ese es el instrumento más importante de cada administración una vez que toma cargo o posesión un nuevo presidente o presidenta. Y vamos a integrar o fortalecer esa integración a partir de esos marcos normativos también con política pública para darle una mayor fuerza a los resultados que arroja el índice. Y dos, vamos a trabajar en una evaluación sobre la pertinencia en términos de generación de valor público del conjunto de indicadores que hoy tiene particularmente el sector social, a fin de quedarnos con aquellos indicadores que realmente logren tener una incidencia concreta en el bienestar de país.’

‘Hasta el momento estamos satisfechos de haber tomado como país la decisión de habernos adentrado a apostar por un índice con esas características.’

Obid Khakimov, Deputy Advisor to the President, Director of Centre for Economic Research and Reforms (CERR), Uzbekistan

‘…we are in early stage of implementing, the Multidimensional Poverty Indices…since 2020, poverty reduction became one of the most top priorities, an economic and social priority in Uzbekistan…This journey not only to reduce the income poverty, but also to understand and address the poverty in its all dimensions, education, health, housing, energy access and human dignity.’

‘By integrating multidimensional poverty measurements in our national development strategies, we have moved beyond narrow economic indicators and towards a more holistic understanding of well-being’.

‘In 2023 our Centre, in collaboration with the UNDP and OPHI, conducted a pilot project establishing national Multidimensional Poverty Index. Since 2024, this methodology has been integrated into the regular household survey, conducted by the state statistical agency, which [covers] 16,000 households. And since 2025, we first calculated our Multidimensional Poverty Index.’

‘…improving infrastructure and the living situations and creating favourable living conditions in the regions have become the key step in reducing our multidimensional poverty. To this end, infrastructure is actively being improved in disadvantaged areas, home to, and this year alone, 470,000 households gain access to the clean water. And 790,000 household gain access to improve electricity supplies.’

‘At the Global Forum recently held in Uzbekistan, our President Shavkat Mirziyoyev put forward several initiatives…to strengthen the international response to the poverty. …the first one is the introduction of a requirement to incorporate poverty reduction in the financing of the large infrastructure projects in developing countries by international financial institutions.’

‘Second one is establishing a new financial architecture to combat the poverty that would mobilize over 4 trillion needed by developing countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, holding a high-level conference in 2026…with the participation of international financial institutions, donor organizations and the partner states, to develop new approach to finance poverty reductions.’

‘I would like to emphasize that Uzbekistan is committed to continuing reforms and working together with international partners to ensure sustainable poverty reduction.’

‘Regarding the Sustainable Development Goals, in 2018 Uzbekistan took the obligation to reduce the monetary poverty by [half], by 2030. So, since 2020, Uzbekistan already fully completed its obligations by the SDGs, and the President announced a new milestone that by 2030 Uzbekistan fully will abolish absolute poverty in Uzbekistan and our poverty reduction policy will be directed only in multidimensional poverty reduction policies.’

Claudia Maldonado, Coordinator of Evaluation and Policy, National System of Statistical and Geographical Information, Mexico

‘as a result of a general law of social development of 2004, Mexico was the first country in the world to adopt a public, official, periodic, transparent and replicable measure of multidimensional poverty.’

‘This measure was originally developed with some of the colleagues that are here now in close dialogue with specific academic specialists in order to provide a robust, credible and reliable measure for public policy improvement with a very innovative poverty measure based on income and the social rights of education, health care, social security, dignified housing and proper nutrition.’

‘Last July, the functions of poverty measurement and the evaluation of Social Development Policy were transferred to the National Institute for Statistics and Geography (INEGI) after the elimination of the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy known as CONEVAL. On August 13, at INEGI we released the official multidimensional poverty data using the same methodology, the same criteria and transparency measures established originally by CONEVAL. In this very critical juncture of constitutional change amidst uncertainty, we have some core lessons to reflect upon. First, the continuation of a rigorous and transparent measurement in a new institutional setting has been possible to do due to an explicit mandate, public and well established procedures, historically implemented by CONEVAL according to the best practice and the continuation of a highly skilled technical team that was responsible for poverty measurement at CONEVAL and joined the ranks of INEGI to continue this mission.’

‘Second multidimensional poverty went down from 43.2% of the population in 2016, which is the beginning of the comparable series, to 29.6% in 2024, including extreme poverty, and there is relative improvement of all the indicators of access to social rights, such as education, health, social security, nutrition and housing.’

‘Nevertheless…Mexico has not been able to recover from a terrible setback in access to health since 2018, nor overcome a long history of violation of social rights in the form of exclusion. Today, 7 million people continue to live in extreme poverty and structural sources of inequality and development gaps associated with location, race, ethnicity and gender prevail. Furthermore, the prevalence of poverty is comparatively higher at earlier stages of life, with very worrisome implications for life cycles and trajectories among those who are born and raised in poverty with an accumulation of disadvantages.’

‘Third, with the multidimensional poverty measure, we are in a better position to tackle complex development problems with evidence, informed decision making and public debate anchored in credible data. This data, unfortunately, still show that we are far from achieving the goal of leaving no one behind, and that decisive improvements in policy and strategy are needed to advance social rights for all.’

Bartholomew Armah, Senior Economist Advisor to the CEO, African Union Development Agency AUDA-NEPAD

‘…what does it take to fight multidimensional poverty from our perspective, first a data-driven approach allows for targeted policies that tackle MPI deprivations head on. For instance, through targeted investments in rural electrification, clean cooking fuel, extensive sanitation, construction investments and financial inclusion, India demonstrated that interventions that directly attack the core indicators of MPI can lift a vast majority of the people out of poverty quickly.’

‘Secondly, integrated approaches that address the underlying causes, as opposed to the symptoms of MPI are critical. For instance, this also involves understanding the interlinkages among the different MPI indicators and then applying policies that have knock-on effects. For example, improving access to clean water and energy has positive knock-on effects on health, education, employment, so it’s addressing some of the basic needs and how they interrelate and interact with other indicators, so that you have an optimal and cost-effective effect. Examples include Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net programme and Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty programme.’

‘Third, through poverty-focused Development Plans that are linked to national budgets and underpinned by robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks. These are critical to keep an eye on the dial to see how progress is unfolding, and also to ensure that resources go to areas of priority.’

‘We have embedded the drivers of MPI in Africa’s Second Ten Year Implementation Plan, which is the Agenda 2063, and are supporting member states to align their National Development Plans with the Second Ten Year Plan, as well as to the SDGs, under what we call the “Two Agendas, One Plan framework”. This is key to ensuring that these interventions are prioritized for funding and tracked.’

‘Excellencies and distinguished guests, the future is now…where poverty is not a defining feature of Africa, but a relic of its past. By investing in our people and planet and forging partnerships of mutual respect, we can turn this future into our present reality’.

Bjørg Sandkjær, Assistant Secretary General for Policy Coordination, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)

‘…we know that poverty is not a uniform experience. It remains one of the most complex pressing challenges facing the world today. So, while income poverty captures part of the picture, millions of people experience multiple interlinked deprivations across education, health, housing, basic living standards. So recognizing those dimensions is critical. Having policies that focus narrowly on income alone risks overlooking people who remain vulnerable in essential aspects of life.’

‘And I would like to reference some data from the 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, which tell us that more than 1.1 billion people live in acute multidimensional poverty. More than half of that 1.1 billion are children, and almost 40% live in conflict-affected countries where vulnerability is compounded, and the highest concentration of multidimensional poverty remains in Sub Saharan Africa.’

‘[Addressing] these complex realities, requires tailored context-specific strategies that reach the most disadvantaged and accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development Goals.’

‘As we’ve also heard from previous speakers, Multidimensional Poverty Indices provide a powerful lens for understanding and addressing these realities. They reveal patterns and overlaps of deprivation that income measures alone can’t capture. They allow policy makers to identify, not only those living in poverty, but how they are experiencing poverty, which dimensions require urgent attention and where interventions can have the greatest impact.’

‘In countries where national MPI data are disaggregated by subnational regions, governments can prioritize interventions in areas with the highest deprivation, ensuring that social protection programmes do reach those most in need.’

‘MPIs are increasingly used to monitor progress over time and to evaluate the effectiveness of intersectoral strategies helping governments adjust interventions and allocate resources more efficiently. By identifying overlapping deprivations, multidimensional measures also encourage coordination across sectors, ensuring that social protection, education, health and economic policies work together for greater impact.’

‘At DESA, we support member states and the UN system in harnessing MPI data for evidence-based planning. Multidimensional poverty measurement complements other statistical tools and helps track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring that no one is left behind.’

‘…we are supporting the working, High Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, very interesting discussions.’

‘Let me wrap up by mentioning the upcoming Second World Summit for Social Development. It will be held in Qatar, 4-6 November, it will provide an important platform for reaffirming our collective commitment to comprehensive poverty reduction strategies and to advance innovative solutions to address multidimensional poverty globally, so multidimensional poverty measures are not just analytical tools, they are instruments for action. I encourage all partners to continue to share and to learn from each other so we can scale best practices to expand impact.’

Lin Yang, Deputy Executive Secretary, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

‘We are very proud of the strides the Asia Pacific region has made in eradicating extreme poverty. At the same time, we recognize that the Asia Pacific region remains off track in attaining Sustainable Development Goal 1. And regarding the higher poverty line, measuring moderate poverty, our region continues to have the largest number of poor people, millions more live too close to poverty lines, and they remain highly vulnerable to shocks, including those caused by climate change.’

‘MPI aligns with the global development priorities. It’s closely aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and relates directly to human capital and the development, which are long term determinants of economic prosperity and the social progress.’

‘MPI adapts to local context. I think that is why many countries…embrace this index. Countries can tailor the global framework to reflect their unique realities, making poverty measurement more relevant and responsive. With the multiple rounds of surveys, they can assess progress over time, identify areas where gains could be accelerated or where worrying trends must be reversed.’

‘MPI strengthens regional analysis and the comparability. The ESCAP Regional Commission has 53 member states covering more than 60% of the global population and representing a very diverse group of countries, including LDCs and middle-income countries. MPI offers strength as a regionally comparable measure of poverty, and is therefore frequently referred in our analytical work.’

‘MPI is synergistic with the tools developed by ESCAP. For instance, our Leaving No One Behind platform aggregates SDG indicators to capture the intersectionality of circumstances powered by machine learning algorithms and identifying the furthest behind the groups across 19 SDG indicators in 33 countries at both national and sub national levels. Because the Leaving No One Behind platform uses the same data sources as the MPI, we can harness strong synergies to support integrated and inclusive policy design as well as effective monitoring and evaluation.’

‘Building our recent progress, we will feature a regional MPI analysis in our flagship report, Social Outlook for Asia Pacific 2026’

‘In collaboration with DESA and the ECA, we’re also exploring how social protection can reduce multidimensional poverty with the country-level insights, including in Maldives. we aim to deepen this work and expand across regional partnerships to strengthen support for Member States through innovative data-driven tools that promote inclusive and actionable policy solution.’

Claudia Valenzuela, Vice Minister for Policy, Planning, and Evaluation of the Ministry of Social Development, Guatemala

‘For us, reducing multidimensional poverty is more than just a statistical goal. It is a national priority and an ethical commitment toward people and human dignity.’

‘A decade ago, our country measured poverty almost exclusively based on income, but it was just in 2018 that we moved towards creating the Guatemalan Multidimensional Poverty Index and updated in 2024 with the latest Living Conditions Survey.’

‘It is comprised of 17 indicators that are relevant to address the social and economic complexities in Guatemala.’

‘57.7% of the population lives in multidimensional poverty. Among those who are poor, the intensity of the deprivation reaches 45.1%’

‘Poverty in Guatemala also has a marked territorial and ethnic dimension. In rural areas, the incidence reaches up to 76.3% compared to 40.8% in urban areas. Among the Mayan population, which is half of our population, three out of four people live in multidimensional poverty. These figures speak to historical inequalities that we must address with differentiated and culturally relevant policies.’

‘Faced with this reality, the Ministry of Social Development has promoted a second major advance, which is the creation of the Social Household Registry. This census is now the backbone of our social policy as it allows each household to be identified with updated administrative and statistical information. For us, the Social Household Registry is not just a database, it is the bridge that connects the evidence from the MPI with the concrete actions to social programmes. The registry as a whole provides relevant data for designing policies and strategies that promote mobility and social cohesion, and this has a special significance for the provision of services as it depoliticizes decisions about beneficiaries in a country with a history where social programmes used to be a corruption instrument. It equates the supply of our services with demand, and requires state institutions to act together and assume responsibility for citizens’ rights.’

‘[The MPI] has led the Government of Guatemala to implement the hand in hand strategy Mano a mano in Spanish, which seeks to coordinate the actions of different ministries to address specific deprivations. A concrete example of this is a policy that improves the health, housing and dignity of the poorest families. This effort would be unthinkable without the ability to identify with accuracy which households still face specific deprivations.’

‘[The MPI] provides us with a territorial targeting framework. This allows us to design differentiated intervention packages, avoiding the one-size-fits-all solutions that do not respond to local realities. And second, it strengthens inter-institutional coordination. No single ministry can solve multidimensional poverty, but if we all use the same compass, we can align health, education, housing, labour and infrastructure budgets to jointly address deprivations. The index then becomes a common language that facilitates partnerships and multiplies impact.’

‘Guatemala has made significant progress from income to multidimensionality, from a statistic to an administrative platform, from snapshots to actually zooming in for concrete action. Our challenge now is to consolidate this progress, expand the coverage of the registry and of Mano a mano, perfect the use of the MPI in planning, and ensure that every public policy translates into fewer deprivations and more opportunities for our people.’

Matías Cociña, Acting Under Secreatry, Ministry of Social Development and Family, Chile

‘Chile’s journey with the MPI began more than a decade ago in 2015. After two years of work, the country introduced an official MPI developed in collaboration with OPHI and based on the foundations from a Presidential Commission of Poverty Measurement. From the outset, the aim was to reveal deprivations that income alone could not capture in education, health, work and social security and housing. A couple of years later, a fifth dimension was introduced to the index, aimed at capturing how deprivations in social networks and social cohesion also contribute to poverty.’ 

‘The decision to introduce an MPI was pivotal. Since 2009, the share of households living in multidimensional poverty, as measured by the original four dimension index, which is the longest series, has been cut almost in half from 21.7% to 11.5% in 2022. Under the five dimension measure, the rate for that last year, for 2022 was 13.4%, which shows that this fifth dimension raises the bar for the index. 

‘After a decade of implementation, we can say that the MPI is now part of the statistical landscape in Chile, and more importantly, it is viewed as relevant to understand the deprivations that many households face, even if they are not classified as poor under the traditional income-based metric…In fact, in 2022 over 85% of those identified as multidimensionally poor were not considered poor under the income poverty measure.’ 

‘The regional distribution of poverty shown by both measures is also very different. The MPI has also allowed us to monitor progress in a way that resonates with citizens…In that sense, the MPI has become not only a statistical tool, but also a platform for dialogue between evidence and policy. To apply it more systematically to policy design and evaluation remains a challenge. With that in mind, developing reliable local level estimates of the index and its components will be key in years to come.’ 

‘In 2023 President Boric convened a new Presidential Commission of experts to update the country’s poverty measures. Following its proposals, and with the technical support of UNDP, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, we are now validating a redesigned MPI. OPHI has also provided valuable feedback through this process. This new version of the MPI will most likely raise the standards that the country imposes in terms of poverty measurement. The Commission’s proposal retains the original five dimensions currently in use, while expanding the number of indicators from 15 to 20. It adds new elements to the measures such as food insecurity, informal employment, the burden of carework within households and the lack of digital connectivity, among other deprivations reflecting new social needs and setting a higher standard.’ 

‘This process highlights four lessons we would like to share with you briefly…First, poverty is not static, societies change, our ways of measuring it must evolve. This is why regular reviews are essential. Second, to strengthen the use of the MPI in public policy, design and evaluation, the greatest possible territorial disaggregations are needed, both for the index and for each dimension. Third, when updating or implementing an MPI, a high-level institutional framework provides firm foundations for the measure to be sustainable across time and across administrations, and finally, international collaboration is indispensable. The dialogue within the MPPN, the technical guidance from OPHI, the support from human agencies and the global visibility of the MPI have been vital to Chile’s successful experience.’

‘Let me conclude by reaffirming Chile’s commitment to the common endeavour of measuring and addressing multidimensional poverty. We see the MPI as a leading tool that keeps us accountable to the promise of the 2030 agenda that no one will be left behind.’ 

Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski, Director of Gender, Poverty, & Social Policy, ECA

‘The Second World Summit on Social Development in November provides us with a great opportunity to build consensus on accelerating poverty reduction in Africa and beyond. Reiterating what our Executive Secretary said, we must build on significant achievements so far and reaffirm that lasting peace and sustainable development are both preconditions, but also a consequence of success in fighting poverty, and hence cannot be separated from it.’

‘Some African countries, for example, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra, Leone and Toga, to name a few, have made rapid progress in reducing the incidence of multidimensional poverty over the last decade or so.’

‘Other countries have made the fastest progress in reducing the number of people living in multidimensional poverty, and they include Côte D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, just to name a few.’

‘Several African countries will have halved the global MPI by 2030 which is the indicator, 1.2 and the examples are São Tomé and Principe and Sierra Leone.’

‘Unfortunately, a number of African least developed countries remain trapped in a reinforcing cycle of conflict, extreme weather conditions and stubbornly high or even rising poverty. As a result of these events, due to rapid population growth, instead of poverty reduction, the number of people living in multidimensional poverty has increased in many least developed countries.’

‘In the Democratic Republic of Congo, around 10 million people became multidimensionally poor, between 2007 and 2018 alone. Clearly, the number has only increased with the onset of Covid and subsequent cascading crisis, some of which actually lasts till today, including cost of living crisis. The number of people living below poverty, below the extreme poverty line, of $3/day in DRC, increased at a similar rate.’

‘This brings me to conclusion, which is a call for collective action today and in the past, we have witnessed inspiring success stories in Africa and other regions on how poverty reduction and even eradication is possible. China and India lead the way globally, and several African countries have also done relatively well, it is time to celebrate and also learn from these success stories.’

‘We at the ECA hope that, together with the partners present, we can act together as one voice and provide actionable solutions to African countries…At ECA, together with our partners and the wide UN system, we stand ready to support African countries in this endeavour, through these actions developing robust, national Multidimensional Poverty Indices to guide policies and that are tailored to their context and with a special attention to marginalized groups, in particular gender, gender, women and young people.

‘We also want to conduct policy relevant research on poverty and the interlinkages with climate, conflict and migration. We aim to …help [governments] design policies that will reduce national MPIs with employment generation and efficient social protection programmes, and with carefully targeted industrial policies, and most importantly, we aim to facilitate the implementation of these policies.’