The Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Simon Harry urged Nigerians, to support the ‘Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2021’ which was formally flagged off on Wednesday along with its ‘Train the Trainers’ component, in view of the criticality of the results of the survey data to poverty alleviation and development plans in the country.
Harry, during a media briefing on the survey, said the exercise would identify deprivations across health, education and living standards as well as show the number of people who are multi-dimensionally poor and the deprivations they face at the household level.
The Statistician General, therefore, solicited the cooperation of respondents in their answers to the Survey’s questionnaires by being factual with the information they give in view of the importance of the survey result to national planning and development, particularly in Nigeria’s efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG 1) on poverty alleviation target.
He explained that generally the MPI designed to cover three dimensions and 10 indicators namely, health (child mortality, nutrition, education (years of schooling, enrolment) and living standards (water, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, floor and assets)
However, the statistician general said that the National MPI developed for Nigeria, had four dimensions, namely health, labour force, education and living standards,
According to him, the National MPI has the overall objective of establishing poverty data to inform evidence-based policies for immediate, medium and long-term interventions, through the new national development plan.
Harry stressed that the data generated from the survey would help Nigeria monitor progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and assured Nigerians that the result of the MPI, 2021 will be a useful guide for policy-makers at the sub-national level in making targeted and impactful interventions.
He expatiated: “It would interest you to note that for the first time ever, the result for Multidimensional Poverty Index 2021 will be reported at senatorial district level.
“There is no doubt that this will be a useful guide for policy-makers at sub-national level in making targeted and impactful interventions where necessary”, Harry added
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Director, Demography and Household Statistics Department, Mr, Adeyemi Adeniran, explained that the uniqueness of the MPI had to do with the fact that it allows for poverty to be easily decomposed into various dimensions.
On the importance of the survey to planning and development, he said: ‘The survey will help to establish poverty data to inform evidence-based social policies for targeted interventions; give the status of poverty level in the country; show the number of persons who are multi-dimensionally poor and the deprivations such people face at the household level and also measure the share of the population that is multi-dimensionally poor and adjust by the intensity of deprivations” he said.
Similarly, Senior Economic Advisor of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Dr Amarakoon Bandara, in his remarks explained that the exercise would be a flagship project with National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Nigeria’s efforts to alleviate poverty as the survey findings be used to influence policy decisions at all levels of government in the country..
The Coordinator of the MPI at the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), Ms Sola Afolayan, described the MPI survey as critical to national development plans implementation , as the MPI data would guide governments’ initiatives on poverty alleviation nationwide.
The MPI survey project has as partners and stakeholders, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), Oxford Poverty and Human Index (OPHI) and National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO).
It would be recalled that in 2018, Transparency International released a report which rated Nigeria the World Poverty Capital, displacing India.
Before then, India was rated the World Poverty Capital with a population of 1.324 billion people as against Nigeria’s 200 million.
