The Faculty of Economics and Business University (FEB UI), in collaboration with T20 and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford, held a series of talks and a summer program entitled “Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis”, part of OPHI Summer School 2022. This event was held in the Auditorium of the Management Department Building, FEB UI Depok Campus, from the 1st to the 13th of August 2022. A total of 88 OPHI Summer School participants from 29 countries attended the event both offline and online.
In the keynote, the Dean of FEB UI, Teguh Dartanto, Ph.D., stated that Summer School 2022 is included in the G20 side event series as a concrete form of FEB UI’s contribution to the nation: things discussed in the program include concepts, practical applications, and policy reviews for a multidimensional assessment of poverty. “We hope all participants would have the capability to determine relevant policies, especially during Covid-19.” Teguh wished the participants good luck in collaborating with each other.
Poverty was chosen as the topic of the talks due to its presence in developing countries as a crucial problem, especially after it has exarcebated in the wake of Covid-19 outbreaks worldwide. According to T20 Lead Co-Chair, Prof. Bambang Brodjonegoro, Ph.D., a clear understanding of poverty, especially in developing countries, is important, for poverty is among the most urgent of developmental problems, more so if it has caused lack of access to clean water, sanitation services, healthcare services, and quality education. In fact, the elimination of poverty is listed as the number 1 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
“The government needs economic growth. Without growth as a tool of development, it will find reducing poverty, whose significant impact is felt by society as a whole, difficult. Furthermore, economic growth might be capable of dealing with the problem of inequality in a better position,” Prof. Bambang said.
When it comes to the assessment of poverty, Indonesia still employs the most basic of indicators: the poverty line. However, the assessment of poverty — some of whose factors can be traced outside socio-economic factors — requires a more comprehensive and sophisticated instrument. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), a concept that analyses poverty from a broader range of angles, is among the topics discussed in the talks. The director of OPHI, Prof. Sabina Alkire and her team, which includes researchers and academicians, shared experiences related to the development and implementation of MPI.
The purpose of OPHI Summer School 2022 is to provide a technical introduction to multidimensional poverty measurement using the Alkire-Foster (AF) method, and to share examples of its practical applications. Upon completing the course, students will have the skills required to construct and analyse a multidimensional poverty measure and will be able to describe its policy relevance and usefulness for analytical purposes. Drawing on Amartya Sen’s capability approach and empirical examples of national and global MPIs, the conceptual and empirical motivation for measuring multidimensional poverty will be presented, as well as the full suite of measurement tools.
Participants in Summer School 2022 consist of professional staff from national statistical agencies and ministries dealing with poverty alleviation, professionals from international development agencies, academics, and doctoral students. Each participant takes part in teaching sessions and working group sessions, and take active part in discussion of cases or problems.
Topics covered during the Summer School include Unidimensional Poverty Measures; Multidimensional Poverty Measures and Methodologies; The Alkire Foster (AF) Method of Multidimensional Poverty Measurement; Measurement Design–Purpose, Dimensions, Indicators, Cutoffs, and Weights; Estimation of Multidimensional Poverty and Interpretation of The Results; Subgroup Decomposition and Dimensional Break-Down; Multidimensional Poverty Changes Over Time; and Interpretation and Analysis of Multidimensional Poverty.
Members of OPHI who attended the program offline (on-site) include Prof. Sabina Alkire (Director of OPHI), Monica Pinilla Roncancio (Researcher), Corinne Mitchell (Director of Programs and Operations), Ricardo Nogales (Research Associate), Putu Geniki Natih (Researcher), Alexandra Fortacz (Research Analyst), Fanni Kovesdi (Research Analyst) , and Ana Maria Marin Morales (Events and Communications Officer). Some of the other participants appeared online: Rizwan ul Haq (Research Officer), Agustin Casarini (Researcher), Jakob Dirksen (Research and Policy Officer), Juliana Milovich (Researcher), James Foster (Research Associate), Davina Osei (Researcher), Michelle Muschett (Senior Public Policy Advisor), and Derek Apell (Researcher).
