Ending energy poverty is vital for ending poverty globally
Today we launched a new report with The Rockefeller Foundation ‘Interlinkages between multidimensional poverty and electricity: A study using the global Multidimensional Poverty Index’, which explores the relationship between electricity deprivation and other indicators related to health, education and living standards.
Nearly 1 billion people are deprived of electricity and are classified as energy poor. Of the energy poor, three quarters are also multidimensionally poor. No other indicator of the living standards dimension in the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) shows higher percentages of deprivations and multidimensional poverty. 99% of the people who are deprived in electricity also experience one or more additional deprivations simultaneously, emphasizing the breadth of interlinkages between electricity access and poverty.
The report was launched in a #RFBreakthrough conversation ‘The Power to Break the Poverty Cycle’, which discussed the findings and the critical role electrification can play in ending poverty globally. The event featured opening remarks from Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for SEforALL, and a panel discussion with President Juan Manuel Santos, Former President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Laureate, Raj Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation, and Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI, moderated by Sundaa Bridgett-Jones, Managing Director of Policy and Coalitions at The Rockefeller Foundation.