Multidimensional poverty assessment in IDB sub-Saharan African member countries

This report provides an overview of multidimensional poverty – levels and trends – in countries identified within the Organization of Islamic Countries (IDB) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), using the most recent estimations and analyses of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The global MPI 2015 covers 42 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa*, of which 22 are IDB countries and we focus on these IDB countries. We present the level of multidimensional poverty across these countries, and compare the MPI in rural and urban areas and the MPI with income poverty. The report also summarizes results on inequality among the poor, as this is highest in IDB SSA countries. Finally, we scrutinize the situation in IDB African countries according to a new measure of destitution, which identifies a subset of poor people as destitute if they experience a number of extreme deprivations. The report demonstrates the descriptive analyses that multidimensional poverty indices enable, such as subgroup decomposition and dynamic analysis of poverty, according to the MPI constituent indicators.