Some of the poorest countries in the world are becoming less poor, according to new report by Oxford University’s Poverty and Human Development Initiative. The study reveals that world poverty is dropping at rapid rates, predicting that acute poverty will be eradicated within two decades.
The groundbreaking research suggests a very probable end of Third World and a brighter global picture altogether. The researchers from Oxford assessed global poverty using a completely new methodology, the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) which includes ten indicators to calculate poverty – nutrition, water, cooking fuel, sanitation, child mortality, years of schooling and attendance, electricity assets and a covered floor. They analyzed the different indicators in a total of 22 countries and nearly 190 subnational regions which contain around 2 billion people, or almost 30% of the world’s population.
Of all 22 countries in the study, 18 reduced their MPI significantly, and most of them reduced the multidimensional poverty faster than the simple income poverty. Top-performing countries, according to the results, were Nepal, Rwanda, and Bangladesh which could shrink their MPI at the faster rates and the intensity of the poverty. Ghana, Tanzania, Cambodia and Bolivia, followed by Colombia, also had strong reductions in more relative terms. As a whole, poorer countries such as Ethiopia, Malawi and Senegal showed the greatest reduction in the intensity of MPI poverty, proving to the scientists that the complexity of MPI was essential, not only the percentage of poor people.
The report comes shortly after UN’s development report which was published last week and said that the reduction of poverty in the developing world is surprisingly increasing. According to it, with more than 40 poor countries that reported higher growth, there is new, global rebalancing – the rich ones are getting less rich, and the poor are getting less poor. Millions of people are switching to a new, global middle class, which is, according to the UN, a result of international and internal development projects, investments in schools, health clinics, housing, infrastructure and improved access to water.
The academic study discovered that in 2013 there are a total of 1.6 billion people living in the so-called multidimensional poverty. And most of the poorest people live in South Africa (India) and sub-Saharan Africa, and 9.5% off the bottom billion actually lived in developed, upper middle-income countries.
However, the results of the Oxford study, and most important the new measure, MPI, are now debated and even doubted by some experts. But the researchers are hoping to raise alertness among governments and organizations, and help regions reduce or eradicate poverty.
