According to a new study more people live in poverty in eight Indian states than in 26 of sub-Saharan Africa's poorest countries. The creators of the new study said the level of poverty in South Asia compared to Africa was a surprising discovery.
根据一项新研究，印度八个邦的贫困人口比撒哈拉以南非洲最贫穷的26个国家的贫困人口总数还要多。美国之音记者采访了这项新研究的发起者之一。 她说，南亚与非洲贫困程度的对比是一项惊人的发现。
The Multidimensional Poverty Index takes into account issues such as health and education and whether or not people have access to clean water and electricity.
多维贫困指数参考的问题包括健康、教育以及人们是否能获得清洁水和电力等。
Sabina Alkire is director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and she co-created the new index.
牛津贫困和人类发展项目负责人阿尔凯尔参与创建了这个新指数。
"One striking feature is that most of the poor people live in South Asia – 51 percent of the 1.7 billion people that we have identified as poor are resident in that continent," says Alkire. "And it is not only the number, but also the intensity."
阿尔凯尔说：“一个显著的特点是，贫困人口中大部分都居住在南亚。换句话说，被我们认定为贫困人口的17亿人中，51%都居住在亚洲。这不仅仅是指人口的数量，还包括人口密度。
She says about one-quarter of the world's poor live in Africa, according to the MPI.
她说，根据多维贫困指数，世界贫困人口中大约有四分之一居住在非洲。
"When we compare the 26 poorest countries of Africa with states in India that have the same intensity of deprivation, we find there are more poor people with this intensity of deprivation in India than in sub-Saharan Africa. And that is quite striking," Alkire adds.
阿尔凯尔说：“当我们对比非洲26个最贫穷的国家和印度同样贫困程度的邦时，我们发现生活在这样贫困程度的人口中，居住在印度的人要多于居住在撒哈拉以南非洲国家的人。这是一个很惊人的发现。”
Alkire says the new Index paints a different and sometimes surprising picture of poverty than studies that look at income alone.
阿尔凯尔说，与单纯参考收入水平的研究相比，新的多维贫困指数反映出一种不同的、有时甚至令人惊讶的贫困情况。
For example, in Ethiopia 90 percent of people are 'MPI poor' compared to the 39 percent who are classified as living in 'extreme poverty'. And 1.7-billion people living in the countries covered by the Index live in poverty according to the MPI – that is higher than the 1.3-billion people who live on $1.25 a day or less.
比如说，90%的埃塞俄比亚人在多维贫困指数统计中属于“贫困”，而按收入统计只有39%的人被列为“极度贫困”。在多维贫困指数统计的国家里，有17亿人生活在贫困中。而按照日均收入1.25美元或以下的方法计算，这些国家的贫困人口是13亿。
Alkire says a benefit of the new index is that it shows how poverty affects people living in different regions of a country.
阿尔凯尔说，新的多维贫困指数的一个优点是它可以显示出一个国家内不同区域人口的贫困情况。
"So we looked at Kenya, where Nairobi has the poverty of the Dominican Republic – not too much poverty – whereas the northeastern rural area of Kenya is worse than our poorest country, Niger, with more than 90 percent of people poor," Alkire said.
“我们来看肯尼亚，肯尼亚首都内罗毕的贫困指数和多米尼加差不多，贫穷人口不是太多。但是肯尼亚东北部农村地区比世界上最贫困的国家尼日尔更加贫困，那里90%以上的人被列为‘贫困’。”
She says it also shows the range of poverty amongst different ethnic groups – she says in some countries the variety is tremendous.
她说，新指数还显示了不同民族之间的贫困差异，在一些国家，这个差异非常大。
The Multidimensional Poverty Index was developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative with support from the United Nations. It will be featured in the upcoming UNDP Human Development Report, replacing the Human Poverty Index.
多维贫困指数是由联合国支持的牛津贫困与人类发展发起的。在联合国开发计划署即将发表的人类发展报告中，多维贫困指数将取代原来使用的人类贫困指数。
Researchers analyzed data from 104 countries with a combined population of 5.2 billion – just under 80 percent of the world's total population.
研究人员分析了104个国家总共52亿人的数据，占全世界人口的80%。 |