Multidimensional Vulnerability Index

About Multidimensional Vulnerability Index:

• It is a new international quantitative benchmark to measure structural vulnerability and the lack of structural resilience across multiple dimensions of sustainable development at the national level.
• It is set to act as a complement to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other development metrics.
• Aim: It aims to capture exogenous vulnerabilities and lack of resilience to exogenous shocks of all developing countries, so as to ensure credibility and comparability.
• Background
  • Since the 1990s, small island developing states (SIDS) that are not poor enough in terms of GDP per capita to access low-interest development financing but nonetheless face vulnerability to external shocks like climate change have been calling for such a measure.
• It incorporates indicators linked to a state’s structural vulnerabilities and lack of economic, environmental and social resilience.
• These factors include import dependency, exposure to extreme weather events and pandemics, impacts of regional violence, refugees, demographic pressure, water and arable land resources and mortality of children under five.
• Significance: It is a vital tool to help Small Island nations gain access to the concessional financing that they need to survive the climate catastrophe, to improve their long-term national planning, service their debts, and sign up to insurance and compensation schemes that may be their last hope when the waters rise.

Q1: What Is Gross Domestic Product (GDP)?

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. As a broad measure of overall domestic production, it functions as a comprehensive scorecard of a given country’s economic health.

Source: UN launches new way to measure nations' economic vulnerability