Oxford University study suggests world poverty is rapidly shrinking Poverty levels in Nepal, Rwanda and Bangladesh have dropped Report predicts some of the poorest countries in the world could see acute poverty eradicated within 20 years World poverty is shrinking and developing countries are becoming less poor according to a new study by Oxford University. Nepal, Rwanda and Bangladesh were the 'star performers' of the 22-country study carried out by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), followed by Ghana, Tanzania, Cambodia and Bolivia. The report predicts that some of the poorest countries in the world could see acute poverty eradicated within 20 years. The department measured poverty by using a new term called the Multidimensional Poverty Index, or MPI. It measures the intensity of different deprivations that poor people face including nutrition, education and sanitation and not just income. Researchers have devised a new term for measuring poverty called the Multidimensional Poverty Index which is shown along the bottom of the graph. The lighter bar shows the original MPI and the darker bar shows the current MPI If people are deprived in a third or more of ten indicators, the global index identifies them as 'MPI poor'. The study was carried out by Dr Sabina Alkire and Dr Jose Manuel Roche. Dr Alkire said: 'Using this measure, we found that reductions in intensity - the percentage of deprivations people experience at the same time - were strongest in relatively poorer countries, such as Ethiopia, Malawi and Senegal.' In some countries, if progress continues at the same rate, current generations may see the end of acute multidimensional poverty. If people are deprived in a third or more of ten indicators, the global index identifies them as 'MPI poor' For example, if the study's 'star' countries, Nepal, Rwanda, and Bangladesh, continue to reduce poverty at the current rate, they will halve MPI in less than 10 years and eradicate it in 20. However, the future for other countries does not look as positive. "At the current rate of reduction, it will take Ethiopia 45 years to halve multidimensional poverty; in other words, to achieve poverty levels equivalent to those Nigeria has now," said OPHI's Dr José Manuel Roche, who calculated the predictions. Based on the same assumptions, it will take India 41 years and Malawi 74 years to eradicate acute poverty as measured by the MPI. But we hope that by providing a more complete and balanced picture, these measures will help spur the eradication of multidimensional poverty. Improvements: Nepal did the best in areas like nutrition and child mortality Nepal did the best in areas like nutrition, child mortality, electricity, improved flooring and assets. Rwanda showed the biggest improvement in sanitation and water, and Bangladesh did best in improving sanitation and school attendance. The MPI can also be broken down to reveal the varying rates of progress in different regions of a country or among different social groups. For example, in Nepal, although it had an outstanding overall performance, three of the 13 regions lagged behind the rest of the country, with no statistically significant reduction in MPI poverty. By contrast, Rwanda and Bangladesh achieved significant reductions in both the scale and intensity of multidimensional poverty in every one of their regions. "This ability of the MPI to reveal inequalities at a regional level, as well as between social groups, makes it a vital tool for policymakers," said Dr Suman Seth, one of OPHI's research team. The global MPI allows us to compare people's poverty and see in what ways they are deprived, in order to address these interconnected deprivations and target interventions more accurately. The release of the report on changes in poverty over time follows the publication of the MPI in the UN Development Programme's Human Development Report 2013. In 2013, OPHI found that a total of 1.6billion people are living in multidimensional poverty - more than 30 per cent of the combined populations of the 104 countries analysed. It is the first time research has tracked overlapping deprivations in health, education and living standards.