Household income alone doesn’t accurately reflect levels of rural poverty, because measuring economic hardship is much more complex than recording a bank account balance. In a bid to truly capture the unique challenges faced by the rural poor, FAO has developed a new system that it says is a more accurate assessment.
The rural multidimensional poverty index, or R-MPI, includes additional metrics to provide a fuller picture of a family’s status. It measures food security, nutrition quality, education, living standards, agricultural assets, and exposure to environmental and other risks.
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The index expands on UNDP’s global multidimensional poverty index, which was launched in 2010, by using survey and geospatial data to quantify climate-related risks. These include potential exposure to floods, drought, or heat waves that could affect agricultural productivity and therefore household income, food security, and nutrition.
FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero tells me his agency realized geospatial data could provide key information about the challenges faced by the rural poor, which differ from those in urban areas.
“To date, we are not aware of rural poverty measures that attempted to capture this particular aspect,” Torero says.
One hurdle for the index, Torero tells me, is the availability of data for more countries and time periods. FAO plans to calculate and release R-MPI findings when possible, but poverty comparisons can only go so far without more standardized information.
“To address this limitation, surveys will have to be promoted that collect more homogeneous information on rural areas,” he says.
FAO says R-MPI could eventually be used as a monitoring tool for projects, with index readings collected before efforts begin and then again after their conclusion to determine the level of impact.
Catch up via Devex Pro: FAO partnered with the European Space Agency to help countries use satellite data to enhance global food security.
What do you think? How important is distinguishing constraints on the rural poor when measuring global poverty? Will this index give the world a better shot at eliminating hunger and poverty by 2030? Write me with your thoughts at dish@devex.com.
During the opening session of last weekend’s African Union summit, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pointed to COVID-19, as well as “floods, drought, desert locusts, and other climate-related natural disasters,” as the root causes of food insecurity on the continent.
One cause he didn’t mention? Conflict. Abiy said that his country has made significant progress in improving food security — but declined to mention that more than 9 million people in the northern part of his country are currently in need of food aid as armed conflict continues.
“Over the past year, acute food security in Africa has increased by over 60%,” he said. “With 60% of the world's arable land in Africa, it is of utmost importance that we need to use our natural assets to maximize agricultural output and feed our people without reliance on external assistance.”
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Throughout the civil war in the country’s north, the Ethiopian government has routinely prevented WFP and humanitarian aid convoys from delivering lifesaving supplies to people in the region. The latest situational update from U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found that “constant” humanitarian food assistance will be needed in 2022 — in addition to conflict, the Horn of Africa region is gripped by drought, facing the driest conditions in 40 years.
Ethiopia: Food security a priority, despite Tigray's famine-like conditions
More on conflict and hunger: The COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and violent conflicts have formed a “toxic cocktail” reversing progress on eliminating hunger.
70%
—That’s the approximate contribution from the Malawian government toward the price of fertilizer and goats under its Affordable Inputs Program for farmers, who then pay the remainder.
But Madalitso Wills Kateta reports for Devex that the initiative has faced several hiccups such as low supply, accusations of corruption, and a lack of support from suppliers, leading policy experts to question the program's effectiveness. It accounts for over 45% of Malawi’s agriculture budget, which critics say could be better spent in other ways to increase yields.
Malawi: Can its agricultural inputs program improve food security?
Building resilience: Leaders in Africa must focus on building resilience to a broad range of issues in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Vera Songwe, the executive secretary at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa.
The African Union and OECD are encouraging African countries to build regional value chains to ensure that the continent rebounds from the pandemic.
The 2022 Africa’s Development Dynamics report — produced by the agencies — found that African countries' participation in regional value chains lags far behind other regions compared with global value chains, though regional chains focus more on processed and semi-processed goods as opposed to the raw materials that dominate exports bound outside the continent.
“Exports of basic commodities and low-value products cannot be the future for Africa,” says Gerd Müller, director general at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization at the launch of the report. “The future must be for the processing of coffee, cocoa, and many other products to take place in the producer countries.”
Devex Pro on Africa’s rebound: AU and OECD say regional value chains are key
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Plant-based meat products are getting so good that even (cartoon) cows are chowing down.
ICYMI: A previous Dish edition looked at how gene-edited cows could reduce pastoralism’s vulnerability to climate change.
Farmers in Southeast Asia are letting fruit rot in the field because COVID-19 restrictions in China have drastically affected their ability to export their crops. [The New York Times]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to invest $1 billion in farming-related pilot projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or store carbon. [Reuters]
Agriculture emissions could be reduced by more than 40% if governments repurpose some spending for emission-efficient technologies for crops and livestock. [IFPRI and the World Bank]
Agency and sustainability must be included in the formal definition of food security, researchers argue. [Food Policy]
Rumbi Chakamba contributed to this edition.