Multidimensional poverty index report 2019 launched |05 August 2020
The audience listening to a presentation of the report (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
The Multidimensional Poverty Index Report 2019 indicates where we are exactly on the assessment of poverty in several dimensions in Seychelles.
This report has been produced by the National Bureau of Statistics, the poverty alleviation department and the Seychelles Multidimensional Poverty Index technical committee.
Yesterday at the International Conference Centre of Seychelles (ICCS) the final Dissemination of the report was presented.
The aim of the presentation was to conduct a session focused on the standard of living here in Seychelles such as issue of overcrowding, housing, substance use and abuse, nutrition, teenage pregnancy, the highest level of education attained and unemployment among other indicators
Attending the launch of the document were the Minister for Family Affairs, Mitcy Larue; the principal secretary for Family Affairs Marie-Josée Bonne; the principal secretary for poverty alleviation, Alvin Laurence; chief executive of the National Bureau of Statistics Laura Ah-time; senior policy analyst (PovAD) Ziggy Adam and Maria Payet, principal statistician from NBS.
This multidimensional poverty measure provides a more comprehensive picture of poverty. It complements the traditional economic monetary approach, by identifying the different dimensions of poverty in a particular setting. It identifies those who are deprived in several dimensions at the same time, meaning the Joint Distribution of Poverty.
It reveals who is poor and how they are poor, and the average number of deprivations that each poor person experiences, meaning the range of different disadvantages they experience. As well as providing a headline measure of poverty, an MPI can be broken down to reveal the poverty level in different areas of a country and among different sub-groups of people.
“Poverty has always existed but we cannot say that it will always exist, this is why the government and the Ministry of Family Affairs have put in place programmes that will fight against poverty and leave no one behind,” said Minister Larue in her commencement address.
The minister added that even if we have been successful in controlling the spread of the Covid-19 virus we were not spared its effect that it had on our economy and many families are at risks of losing their homes.
“In order to avoid the rise of poverty, the government was quick in taking the necessary actions, we all have a role to play without precedent and we must all take our responsibility and work together to be more proactive,” said Minister Larue.
She noted that this is the last consultation and sensitisation session that the ministry of family and poverty alleviation department and we must use this opportunity to propose solutions that will help us in continuing the work in bringing up the standard of living for families.
There are fourteen indicators that help in determining poverty, stated Maria Jean, noting that to be considered poor a person must fall into four or more of these indicators.
Speaking on behalf of poverty alleviation department, Ziggy Adam noted that the stakeholders responsible for the specific dimension will be consulted before they review regulations to address poverty.
He continued by noting that the study will be conducted again in two years in order to make a difference between each report.
Christophe Zialor
