Following our successful project on multidimensional child poverty in Senegal, a SPRI Global research team conducted a one-week training on Multidimensional Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) in Saly, Senegal, from February 13-17.
Senegal’s Plan for an Emerging Senegal (PES) is the policy framework for the country’s economic and social policy over the mid- and long-term. To this end, the Government has initiated the disruptive changes that today allow Senegal to follow a new development path. These changes are reflected in one of the main priorities of the PSE, promoting human capital, social protection and sustainable development. Senegal has set itself the objective to achieve the conditions necessary for sustainable development by ensuring social protection and the empowerment of vulnerable groups, and combating inequality and poverty.
Tying into this grander effort, the training focused on building capacity in the field of research methods, while using concrete and contextualized examples. The audience was composed of representatives of different institutions, such as UNICEF; the General Directorate of Planning and Economic Policies of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning; the National Agency of Statistics and Demography and its School of Statistics and Economic Analysis; and the Operational Office for Monitoring the “Plan Sénégal Émergent”.
Participants were introduced to the theoretical concept of MODA, and the basics of STATA. In second step, the focus was then shifted to data preparation, creating the indicators for the analysis and merging the databases. The final phase of the training focused on the actual analysis as well as visualization and interpretation of the results. Participants were also given the opportunity to present their understanding of different graphs, based on their contextual knowledge and the competences acquired during the training.
Throughout the training, all participants were very actively engaged, leading to lively sessions filled with roundtable discussions and hands-on exercises . The SRPI Global research team also gained more insights from the participants, who had already been directly involved in the design of the survey used for the analysis. We are happy to support UNICEF and the Government of Senegal in this important endeavor as part of their PSE policy framework.