Rwanda, Nepal and Bangladesh are the most rapidly improving countries as far as poverty reduction is concerned, according to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index published by Oxford University’s Poverty and Human Development Initiative. The Index measures “multidimensional” poverty, rather than the more normal income poverty. The percentage of people in Rwanda who were multidimensionally poor reduced by 3.4 percentage points per year.
Tanzania has also been identified as experiencing some success in reducing poverty, although at a less impressive rate. The percentage of Tanzanians identified as multidimensionally poor reduced by 2.7 percentage points per year. On the other hand, Kenya, while it has experienced economic growth over the past decade, has made very limited progress in reducing the multidimensional poverty rate.
In absolute terms, Kenya is still doing better than its neighbours. The percentage of Kenyans identified as being multidimensionally poor is 47.8 percent, compared with figures of 69.0 percent for Rwanda, 69.9 percent for Uganda, and 65.6 percent for Tanzania. In Somalia, by way of contrast, some 81.2 percent of people are classified as multidimensionally poor.