Kathmandu, Nepal, July 21, 2020: United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) have shown that multidimensional poverty level of some countries including Nepal has significantly reduced in the past 20 years.
The Human Development Reports published by the UNDP, which was prepared on the basis of the new study on the multidimensional poverty index developed at the University of Oxford, states that Nepal has made significant strides in reducing multidimensional poverty almost by half over the last one and a half decades.
According to the report, Nepal and Bangladesh have become able to reduce poverty level faster than India between the years 2000 and 2019. Nepal and Bangladesh have become success to reduce poverty level despite their relatively low income, states the report attributing to the effectiveness of social policy investment and civil society engagement.
The report, however, raised the question over the fate of such a progress made in the front of poverty reduction due to the recent global pandemic of coronavirus. Although the progress made against the multiple dimensions of poverty was before the pandemic, there are concerns that all the gains made over the past several years are now at risk, the report has raised questions.
The coronavirus pandemic could set back the fight to reduce global poverty by between eight and 10 years, states the report further adding that at least 131 million people could be pushed into non-monetary poverty across 70 countries. Despite these grim forecasts, the firm hope is that this will not happen and progress is possible, the report has added.
