Ehsaas discusses UNDP report to see how it can inform policy

Islamabad: Just a day after the launch of UNDP’s Human Development Report (HDR), Ehsaas organized a roundtable to discuss findings of the report because as stated by the PM’s Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr. Sania Nishtar, “evidence is the key to planning and we want to make sure that we review the findings of the report and analyze how best they can inform policy.”

Also present at the discussion was Director Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative Dr. Sabina Alkire, together with MNAs Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha and Shandana Gulzar, Resident Representative of UNDP Ignacio Artaza, and Policy Analyst, Development Policy Unit, UNDP, Umer Malik.

Dr. Alkire reiterated the use of multidimensional poverty index to track progress with regard to the impact of poverty interventions. Dr. Alkire works on a new multidimensional approach to measuring poverty that goes beyond the traditional focus on income and growth. The approach includes social goals such as health, education, nutrition, standard of living and other valuable aspects of life. She, along with her colleague James Foster, has devised a new method for measuring multidimensional poverty that has advantages over other poverty measures and has been adopted by the Mexican and Bhutanese governments and the UNDP.

The UNDP’s Human Development Report analyzes inequality in three steps: beyond income, beyond averages, and beyond today. The report talks about the importance of addressing the many different kinds of inequalities in the world today, and measures countries’ progress beyond just economic growth, with the ultimate aim of unlocking people’s full potential.

Speaking about the report, Ignacio Artaza stated, “The HDR shows us that inequality is not ‘natural’ or inevitable. However, governments, civil societies, and ordinary citizens need to work together and translate words into concrete actions to ensure that people all over the world can live their lives to their fullest potential.”