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Poor no more?

A new report from Oxford University’s poverty and human development initiative says some of the world’s most impoverished people are becoming significantly less poor.

The study also predicts that countries with the most poor, including Nepal, Rwanda and Bangladesh, could see acute poverty erased within 20 years if development continues at current rates, the Guardian reports.

Oxford University’s study uses a measure called the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which includes indicators such as years of schooling, water availability, nutrition and child mortality.

"As poor people worldwide have said, poverty is more than money – it is ill health, it is food insecurity, it is not having work, or experiencing violence and humiliation, or not having health care, electricity, or good housing,” said Dr. Sabina Alkire, who co-developed the system for the organization in 2010. “Maybe we have been overlooking the power of the people themselves, women who are empowering each other, civil society pulling itself up."

Last week, the UN’s latest development report said the world is experiencing a “global re-balancing,” with higher growth in at least 40 poor countries, the Guardian reports.

Click for more from The Guardian.