'Include MPI in census'

Kathmandu, Dec. 22: The first-ever Nepal Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has recommended to include as many variables as feasible in the next census in order to map poverty at the local level.

Nepal conducts census in every 10 years and the next census will be held in 2021.

"Inclusion of the MPI in census will help with policy intervention at the grassroots level, animate local activism, and provide a razor-sharp picture of MPI in Nepal," reads the report which is prepared by the National Planning Commission (NPC) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford.

To make the results comparable between different time periods and gauge progress over the years, the study has also suggested to include all MPI variables in future surveys, such as the National Living Standards Survey (NLSS), since it will increase its utility as a management tool, because just-in-time information is vital to the evidence-based policy.

Talking to The Rising Nepal, Director General of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) Suman Raj Aryal indicated towards the possibility of incorporating the MPI along with other source of calculation and analysis in the future surveys.

The report has also recommended that the public sector resources should be informed by the MPI as well as monetary poverty levels.

"It is good that the poorest provinces have seen faster reductions in poverty. That commitment has to be sustained. Therefore, province-level policies should be guided by the composition of poverty in each province, as well as the overall level of the poverty," says the report.

The MPI provides an authoritative measure to compare regions, groups, and changes over time, and it can be broken down by indicator to show how poverty has changed.

The study has found that 28.6 per cent of Nepal's population was multidimensionally poor, with two indicators - undernutrition and households that lack any member who has completed five years of schooling – contribution most to the multidimensional poverty in the country.

It reinforced that the rural-urban divide is evident with 7 per cent urban population and 33 per cent rural population being multidimensionally poor.

According to the report, half of the population in provinces 2 and 6 are multidimensionally poor, and such poverty existed in 30 per cent population in province 5 and 7.

The study also found that the multidimensional poverty was halved from 2006, it came down to 28.6 per cent from 59 per cent in 2006.

The MPI included three dimensions of poverty - health, education and living standard - and 10 indicators nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, improved sanitation, improved drinking water, electricity, flooring and roofing and assets ownership.