UN body to unveil simple tool to assess rural poverty

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised agency of the United Nations, is coming up with a simple and innovative tool that will assess poverty in rural areas.
"The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool (MPAT) is the result of a collaborative, international initiative started in 2008 and led by IFAD," the agency said in a release.
IFAD will unveil the tool in Rome tomorrow.
The tool provides a clear picture of rural poverty's key dimensions by taking into account the complex realities on the ground.
Based on household and village surveys, the tool aggregates people's perceptions and opinions into 10 different indicators, which reflect the many interrelated dimensions of rural lives and livelihoods, such as housing, food security and empowerment.

Based on this data, MPAT produces a clear picture of the situation in a given household, village or project. This can then be used to inform all levels of decision-making in development programmes and projects.

"As a result, MPAT can significantly strengthen planning, design, monitoring and evaluation of a project, and in doing so can contribute to rural poverty reduction," the IFAD said.
Throughout its development, the tool underwent extensive and rigorous field testing in real project and poverty situations in Bangladesh, China, India and Mozambique, taking into consideration the input from poor rural women and men.
The beta version of the tool, which was released in 2010, was productively used by non-governmental organisations, government departments and UN agencies in Africa and other regions.

The tool shines a spotlight on problem areas so that all stakeholders can see where deficiencies lie and can begin to discuss which interventions may be most appropriate based on the local context.
"The importance of measuring - and then in turn reacting to - levels of poverty in rural areas should not be overlooked at this critical time as the post-2015 development agenda takes shape," Adolfo Brizzi, acting Associate Vice-President, IFAD said.