<\/p>\n
The 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index recorded 51.5 million more people living in poverty than the previous year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More than half of those affected are children, with 617 million experiencing multidimensional poverty. About 83% of affected people live in rural communities. \u201cThe rise in poverty should be a wake-up call for the world,\u201d United Nations (UN) Development Programme Administrator Alexander De Croo said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBehind these figures are 1.2 billion people facing hardships that reinforce one another: hunger, missed schooling and a lack of clean water or electricity. This is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The UNDP and Oxford University developed the Index to measure poverty beyond income.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The assessment uses 10 indicators covering nutrition, child mortality, schooling and access to electricity, drinking water and sanitation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A person is considered multidimensionally poor when deprived in at least one-third of the indicators.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia account for the overwhelming majority of deprivation across all indicators.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The 2026 update covers 108 countries representing about 78% of the global population.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Population growth contributed to the increase. Revised population estimates added nearly 16 million people to the total in 95 countries where no new household survey data was available.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Egypt, Nepal, Tajikistan, Angola and Zambia reduced the proportion of people experiencing multidimensional poverty.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, population growth exceeded the pace of poverty reduction in Angola and Zambia, resulting in an increase in the total number of affected people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nigeria recorded increases in both the poverty rate and number of people affected, reversing some progress achieved during the 2010s.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
UNDP said 33 countries had halved multidimensional poverty within 15 years, including six in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In eSwatini, the proportion of people experiencing multidimensional poverty declined from nearly 39% to 8%.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know progress is possible,\u201d De Croo said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cCountries that have tackled these challenges together, rather than in isolation, have shown what determined action can achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":45078,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-47722","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Global multidimensional poverty has increased for the first time in 15 years, with 1.2 billion people experiencing overlapping hardship in health, education and living standards.","published_date":"","news_description":"Global multidimensional poverty has increased for the first time in 15 years, with 1.2 billion people experiencing overlapping hardship in health, education and living standards.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47735,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47722\/revisions\/47735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=47722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}