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Yesterday, 27 September 2015 saw Minister Jeff Radebe, Minister in the Presidency: Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation participating in a packed High Level United General Assembly side event entitled “ Anchoring a Global Multidimensional Poverty Index within the Sustainable Development Goals”, in New York, USA.

At this critical juncture in the process of finalising how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be measured, the event reflected on the critical importance of embedding a multidimensional measure of poverty within the new proposed framework.

More specifically, it stressed how a global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), as a core (tier one) indicator within the SDGs, can energise a coordinated, effective and multi-sectoral attack on poverty in all its dimensions (and thus help to measure Target 1.2 of the SDGs).

The event included such diverse, distinguished and illustrious speakers as:

H. E. Mr. Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera, President of Costa Rica
H. E. Mr. Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister of Bhutan
H. E. Mr. Juan Orlando Hernández, President of Honduras
H.E. Mr. Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia
H. E. Mr. Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations
Tatyana Orozco de la Cruz, Director of the Department for Social Prosperity of Colombia
Marcos Barraza Gómez, Minister of Social Development of Chile
H. E. Dr. Arsenio Balisacan, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary of the Philippines
Dr. Savas Alpay, Chief Economist of the Islamic Development Bank
HE Mr Dang Huy Dong, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Planning and investment of Vietnam, and
HE Dr. Pabel Munoz, National Secretary of Planning and Development of Equador

This session was followed by an open debate that included reflections by the following eminent persons:

H.E. Giogi Kvirikashvili, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia
H.E. Amadou Ba, Minister of Economy and Finance, Senegal
H.E. Mr. Badre Eddine Allali, Under-Secretary-General for Social Affairs, League of Arab States
Khalid Abu-Ismail, Chief Economic Policy Section, UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
Dr. Ingolf Dietrich, Deputy Director-General, Head of the Special Unit of Post-2015 Agenda, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany
H.E. Mrs. María Luisa Navarro, Deputy Minister for Multilateral Affairs and Cooperation of Panama
Mr. Alex Thier, Assistant Administrator of Policy, Planning and Learning, USAID of the United States
Dr. Gabriel Rivera Conde, Chief Strategic Projects, Office of the President of Mexico

Minister Radebe noted the fact that many speakers have celebrated the fact that the SDGs have gone well beyond MDGs and are explicit as regards economic contribution and environment. Further and importantly the SDGs recognize that poverty has different forms and dimensions. It was in this respect that Minister Radebe drew the attention of the audience to two features of the SDG development agenda that are connected to multidimensional poverty: the focus on integration, and on leaving no one behind.

Minister Radebe noted that it is recognized and accepted that the SDGs are interlinked, and their realization requires an integrated policy response. Indeed, the preamble to the SDG document states: “The interlinkages and integrated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals are of crucial importance in ensuring that the purpose of the new Agenda is realised.”

Statisticians across Africa, Minister Radebe went on to note, have supported a Multidimensional Poverty index as a Tier 1 indicator of the SDGs because an MPI can cover 8 of the 10 poverty-related SDGs. It can help integrate our poverty policies and in order to be effective, we are required to do precisely so.

Minister Radebe also reflected on South Africa’s role as a Steering Committee member of the 40-country Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network, and noted that he had seen many cases where multidimensional poverty metrics function as a tool to “facilitate integration and policy coherence across sectors” pertaining to multidimensional poverty.

Minister Radebe noted further that the UN Secretary General has commented that he hoped the SDGs “inject new impetus for embracing integrated approaches to development.” Why was this so, Minister Radebe paused and enquired. He adeptly responded: “When integration is lacking, synergies are not realized. When policy coherence is evident, progress accelerates. Multidimensional poverty metrics help us to see how poverty-related goals and targets are interlinked with each other – and with environmental threats. So we can pioneer a joined-up response. This kind of approach is required in the SDGs”.


Another point Minister Radebe raised related to disaggregation and he noted that in “Transforming our Lives” we pledged “that no one will be left behind. And we will endeavor to reach the furthest behind first.” In reference to South Africa’s first MPI Minister Radebe explained that ‘’we used census data, ten years apart, to identify which data zones in our country had reduced multidimensional poverty and which were being left behind. Its impact in our country astonished us”.

Thus, precision measures of poverty empower actors at all levels, from local to national, to do their bit to reduce the suffering of our poorer sectors. And we need all of their energies – each one matters to us, in South Africa he noted further. The Minister shared that in July 2015 at their third ISIbalo seminar for evidence based decision making they had indeed invited Dr Sabina Alkire of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative to run a training program on multidimensional poverty indices.

In conclusion the Minister made reference to his release just a week ago of the “2014 Development Indicators for South Africa Report” which provides a score card based on high quality statistics facilitating the deepening of the democratic and freedom project of service delivery and ensuring a better quality for all. The multidimensional poverty determinants in South Africa stubbornly remain unemployment and poor quality of education.

It was for this reason that Minister Radebe lent the voice of South Africa, of Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN), and of African statisticians to this event, and support multidimensional poverty indices as tools for integrated policy that leave no one behind.

The event was organised by the Republic of Costa Rica with the support of the MPPN, of which the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative acts as Secretariat.

The MPPN is a South-South network of more than 40 governments and institutions that is championing the use of multidimensional poverty measures alongside traditional income measures at both the national and global levels.

These governments include China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Vietnam among many others. The diverse participants within the MPPN endorse the use of the global MPI for the SDGs and the use of national, regional and sub-national MPIs as a powerful policy tools for enhanced poverty reduction, with the ability to illuminate the state and progress of marginalised groups.


Issued by Government Communications (GCIS) on behalf of Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation