Monday, 16 September 2019, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Government of Botswana through the Office of the President (OP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) of University of Oxford successfully launched the 2019 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), whose focus is on ‘Illuminating Inequalities’.

The launch followed a five-day training workshop on the multidimensional poverty approach and the development of a national MPI, which Botswana has adopted to be mainstreamed in all programmes and policy documents including the draft National Poverty Eradication Policy. The training workshop targeted technical focal points in different government ministries, departments and agencies at national and local levels. These are officers whose key roles and responsibilities include implementation of interventions in the Poverty Eradication Programme, which is being coordinated by the Office of the President.

Speaking at the launch, the UNDP Resident Representative, Ms. Jacinta Barrins stressed the importance of adopting a multidimensional approach and measure to poverty eradication and commended the government for pursuing such path. She emphasized that poverty is regarded as a global development challenge that needed such approach to address it.

In her remarks, she further indicated that in 1990, UNDP published its first global Human Development Report with famous Human Development Index built from three indicators such as education, health and living standards.

In closing, she highlighted that the UN family was available to continue to support the Government of Botswana in its development process, especially helping to eradicate poverty. In particular, she expressed her delight of UNDP being a strategic partner of  the Government of Botswana through the support it is providing to the Office of the President to build capacity of the technical national officers on the multidimensional poverty approach to develop the national MPI for Botswana.