Multidimensional vulnerability index

On 17 March 2022, the President of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, launched the work of the High-Level Panel on the development of a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) to be submitted to him before the end of the year.

Patrick Guillaumont and Laurent Wagner opened the first session of the High-Level Panel on 28 March and presented the findings of the UN report Possible Development and Uses of Multi-Dimensional Vulnerability Indices. Analysis and Recommendations, of which they were the lead authors and which is to serve as a basis for the Panel's work. In his speech, Patrick Guillaumont stressed that, in order to be an instrument guiding international policy, the multidimensional vulnerability index must meet the following 3 criteria:    1. The index must be truly multidimensional (economic, environmental, and social), 2. It must be universal - if only to be able to compare the vulnerability between countries,  3. It must make it possible to separate what is exogenous or structural from what depends on the current policy of the countries. 

Sosso Feindouno and Laurent Wagner, research fellows at FERDI, were asked by the United Nations to coordinate the work of the High-Level Panel.