Seychelles hosts international high-level meeting on multidimensional poverty |03 July 2019
Ms Ah-Time presents President Faure with a copy of Seychelles’ first national MPI report
The manner in which Seychelles measures and defines poverty is set to change significantly as the country adopts the multidimensional poverty index (MPI), designed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (Ophi) at the University of Oxford.
Laura Ah-Time, chief executive of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), officially presented President Danny Faure with a copy of Seychelles’ first national MPI report during the opening ceremony of the 7th annual high-level meeting of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN).
The three-day meeting is being hosted by the government of Seychelles and was officially launched by the Minister for Family Affairs Mitcy Larue during the ceremony held on Monday at the Savoy Resort & Spa.
Over 50 international delegates from more than 20 countries and six international organisations are participating in the meeting.
In her opening remarks, Minister Larue stressed that it is not enough to preach great ideals but that leaders and policy makers should also strive towards making a difference in the lives of a country’s citizens.
She noted that, in that regard, Seychelles has made a commitment to the MPI so as to ensure the goal of ‘leaving no one behind by 2030’.
“So we in the Seychelles do not want to be left behind. We too aspire to widen the platform upon which the country assesses poverty, vulnerability and resilience among the population. It is for this reason that we have now added multidimensional poverty measurement alongside our traditional measures with the aim of understanding the types of deprivation poor people face […]” Minister Larue stated.
Unlike the one-dimensional poverty outlook which only takes into account a person’s economic status, the multidimensional poverty index measures data for each person or household and creates a profile of the deprivations being experienced based on various factors.
These factors include health, education, living standards, housing, and employment among others.
Mrs Ah-Time noted that the development of the first national MPI was a collaborative work with the NBS, department of poverty alleviation, department of family affairs, Ministry of Health and the Agency for Social Protection.
“Their support has been very crucial in the development of this first MPI for Seychelles. We have learnt much from this pilot MPI and have also faced many challenges, given the specificity of our small island nation which is also considered as high-income,” Mrs Ah-Time said during her intervention.
“We hope to be able to offset these challenges as we prepare to collect data for the compilation of the next MPI which is planned to take place in this third quarter of 2019,” she added.
The MPI report has been distributed to various stakeholders to make them better understand their individual roles in the alleviation of poverty in Seychelles.
Sabina Alkire, the director of Ophi and one of the architects of the MPI, commended Seychelles for meeting the standards of excellence with its first pilot MPI as well as for the collaborative process which allowed for its creation.
Seychelles’ MPI report has also been presented to and is being validated by Ophi.
“Ophi has had the honour to be alongside the technical team and work with the bureau to look at the statistical quality and the technical rigour. Above all, I would like to state that this is a report which meets the standards of excellence that we have,” Ms Alkire noted.
The principal secretary for poverty alleviation, Alvin Laurence, remarked that while some people might not consider themselves to be poor, everyone are susceptible to fall into the poverty line such as in cases of house fires wherein they lose their belongings or health implications.
“This is why people must understand the importance of home insurance and savings,” he highlighted.
The multidimensional meeting ends today.
