Seychelles represented at annual multidimensional poverty peer network meeting |23 October 2017

Seychelles was represented at the 5th meeting of the MPPN held at the Beijing Convention Centre in Beijing China from October 9-11, 2017. 

The delegation was led by the principal secretary for Family Affairs, Marie-Josée Bonne, and accompanied by Dr Conrad Shamlaye, health policy advisor, Dr Gerard Adonis, social development consultant, Ziggy Adam from the Agency for Poverty Alleviation, Marcus Simeon and Emmanuella Morel of the Agency for Social Protection. 

The network was launched in 2013 where the first meeting took place at the headquarters of Oxford University’s Poverty Human Development Initiative (OPHI). 

Now in its 5th meeting, the network has grown to include more than 50 countries and 15 international institutions, with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) being the last to join the network this year. It has grown considerably over the years as a response to the overwhelming demand from policy makers to interchange experiences.

One of the major areas to be considered is the interlinkage between the realisation of the goals of the SDGs especially Target 1.2 to ensure that these indicators are not overlooked in the SDG reporting framework. Multidimensional Poverty Indices (MPIs) continue to gain ground as a leading governance tool for measuring, designing interventions, and monitoring changes in multidimensional poverty. As official permanent poverty measures, the MPI and monetary poverty measures complement each other and provide renewed vigour and strength to evaluating multidimensional impact of poverty.

This is an extremely propitious time for the consultation at this global level as Seychelles is heavily engaged in defining its national development plan.

For over 40 years, the Seychelles has been implementing a people-centred development agenda and we are yet to introduce a robust measuring tool to gauge how the lives of the Seychellois has changed over time. 

While income poverty has been measured at 39% of the population by the National Bureau of Statistics, there is growing awareness that poverty exists in many dimensions. Identifying and measuring these dimensions, and the prevalence as well as the intensity of poverty are crucial steps in developing and improving policies and action by all sectors to target those in need and alleviate and reduce poverty systematically.