The Government of Panama launched its first official measure of poverty in June 2017 in a ceremony presided by the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela.

• Citation: Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas, Ministerio de Desarrollo Social, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo (2017). Índice de Pobreza Multidimensional de Panamá: Año 2017 

To complement the national MPI, Panama also launched an MPI for boys, girls and adolescents in September 2018.

• Citation: Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas, Ministerio de Desarrollo Social, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo (2018). Índice de Pobreza Multidimensional de Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes en Panamá – IPM-NNA 

At a Side Event at the UN General Assembly in September 2023 which was co-hosted by Panama, the Minister of Social Development, Ms María Inés Castillo, described how Panama had created a corregimiento-level MPI that analyses poverty at the level of the smallest political territorial unit and that has fed into the Plan Colmena responsible for more than 7,000 interventions nationwide. 

Poverty Cut-Off for the National MPI: A person is considered poor if they are deprived in 30% or more of the 17 weighted indicators.  

Poverty Cut-Off for the Child MPI: A child aged 0-18 years is considered poor if they are deprived in 30% or more of the 10 weighted indicators. For more details see Child MPI for Better Design and Implementation of Policies in Panama | MPPN

Official institutions responsible for poverty statistics  

• Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo de Panamá (INEC)
• Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas
• Ministerio de Desarrollo Social (URL broken)
• Gabinete Social

Events  

• 27 September 2015: Intervention by H.E. Mrs. María Luisa Navarro, Deputy Minister for Multilateral Affairs and Cooperation at UNGA 70 Side Event 
• 19 September 2017 | Intervention by H.E. Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, Vice-President of Panama at UNGA 72
• 25 September 2018 | Intervention by host H.E. Juan Carlos Varela, President of Panama at UNGA 73 Side Event
• 20 September 2023 | Intervention by H.E. Ms María Inés Castillo, Minister of Social Development, Panama

News/Press Releases

• 29 June 2017 | Panama Launches its First MPI and Adopts the Annual Measurement

Dimensions articles  

• September 2018 | Panama Launched a National Child MPI | MPPN
• March 2017 | Multidimensional Poverty in Panama | MPPN
• August 2019 | Child MPI for Better Design and Implementation of Policies in Panama | MPPN

VNRs   

• July 2017 | Objetivos de Desarrorollo Sostenible Erradicar la Pobreza y Promover la Prosperidad en un mundo cambiante