On Friday November 11, 2022, IPED had the honor to cohost Pope Francis’ World Day of the Poor with Caritas Internationalis and Catholic Relief Services at the United Nations (UN) Church Center.
The event featured professor Henry Schwalbenberg, Director of IPED at Fordham University and Maria Hincapié, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ’22 who presented 2022 issue of the Fordham’s Pope Francis Global Poverty Index showing statistics and trends related to the seven poverty indicators through the past six years. “Due to declines in access to food, employment, gender equity, and religious freedoms, this year’s Global Poverty Score is the worst score we have seen since 2016, when the index was first created.” Schwalbenberg explained.
The event also featured Permanent Observer of the Holy See Mission to the U.N. Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, keynote speaker Mr. Bill O’Keefe, executive vice president for advocacy and mobilization at Catholic Relief Services, and Brianna Fitzpatrick, liaison to the UN for Caritas Internationalis who moderated the panel.
The World Day of the Poor was first established by Pope Francis and is marked as an annual event to commemorate the poor around the globe. Inspired by Pope Francis initiative, the International Political Economy and Development (IPED) Program have created an annual index called Fordham Francis Index (FFI) since 2016. The index presents a measurement tool of poverty through gauging seven dimensions of wellbeing, four of which are material wellbeing indicators; water, food, housing, employment, and the other three are non-material wellbeing indicators; education, religious freedom, and gender equality.
Click here to watch the full event.
After the event, IPED students took a guided tour of the UN headquarters where they learned about the history and the work of UN.
