Illustrative: a hexagonal population grid where a wave rises, peaks and recovers from seeded outbreaks

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Health and Society

Human Development, Work and Social Policy

Human development, poverty and inequality

Human development, poverty and inequality, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Human development, poverty and inequality: foundations and practice

This area covers how risks and shocks affect people's health, livelihoods, education and capabilities across the life course, and how poverty, inequality and exclusion shape who is harmed.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
In authoring
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

Indicates reversal in deprivation trends, raising baseline vulnerability for health, climate and economic shocks. United Nations Development Programme, 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index: Statistical Update, 12 October 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Define human development and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain poverty and vulnerability to shocks and inequality and exclusion with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against demographic transitions, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Poverty and vulnerability to shocks
    • Poverty and vulnerability to shocks
    • Inequality and exclusion
    • Demographic transitions
  2. Education and capabilities
    • Education and capabilities
    • Social cohesion
    • Urban social vulnerability
  3. Measuring human development
    • Measuring human development
    • Life-course risk
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • The share of a population below the international poverty line is set by its mean income and its inequality together; a shock that cuts mean income pushes a number of people across the line that depends on how many were standing just above it, and a transfer of a stated size pulls a computable number back.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-D2 Society, inclusion and human development risk
  • NRS-H116 Hazard family: Population structure and movement

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-D3 Humanitarian response and resilient recovery

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

Open now in this discipline

References

  1. United Nations Development Programme, 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index: Statistical Update, 12 October 2026
  2. Ravallion, The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy, 2016
  3. Alkire and Foster, Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement, 2011
  4. Haushofer and Shapiro, The short-term impact of unconditional cash transfers to the poor: experimental evidence from Kenya, 2016
02Live map

Hazards and exposure in the contiguous United States

Flood water, active fires and surface heat beside population and night-time lights, over the contiguous United States.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 3

Hazards and exposure

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Hazards and exposure, framed on the contiguous United States.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONET · U.S. Geological SurveySources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
  • VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS and VIIRS atmosphere products, NASA LANCE and LAADS DAAC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
  • Live: U.S. Geological Survey Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • River discharge forecast, 30 days with range (GloFAS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Emergency Management Service information 2026; not a flood warning.
  • Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
  • Optional layers (10 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Aerosol optical depth, daily: VIIRS NOAA-20 Deep Blue AOD, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

Frontier course · L3 advanced, programme courses and standards

Human development, poverty and inequality: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed human development, poverty and inequality between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Human development, poverty and inequality: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

Indicates reversal in deprivation trends, raising baseline vulnerability for health, climate and economic shocks. United Nations Development Programme, 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index: Statistical Update, 12 October 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in human development, poverty and inequality since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce multidimensional poverty rises for the first time since 2010 on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. Multidimensional poverty rises for the first time since 2010
    • The 2026 Global MPI update finds 1.2 billion people, 18.9% across 108 countries, in multidimensional poverty, the first increase since the index launched, with children over half of poor people.
    • Indicates reversal in deprivation trends, raising baseline vulnerability for health, climate and economic shocks.
    • United Nations Development Programme, 12 October 2026
  2. Global MPI 2025 overlays poverty with climate hazards
    • UNDP and OPHI find 887 million of the 1.1 billion people in multidimensional poverty live in regions exposed to heat, drought, floods or air pollution, and 309 million face three or four hazards.
    • Locates overlapping deprivation and hazard exposure at subnational scale for targeting adaptation and protection.
    • Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, 17 October 2025
  3. World Bank raises international poverty line to $3.00 a day
    • Using 2021 purchasing power parities, the World Bank set the extreme poverty line at $3.00, raising its 2022 estimate to about 838 million people, with the largest upward revision in Sub-Saharan Africa.
    • Changes the baseline for measuring who is poor and exposed, and comparisons with earlier estimates.
    • World Bank, 5 June 2025
  4. Human Development Report 2025 finds progress slowing sharply
    • UNDP reports the weakest projected rise in the Human Development Index since 1990 outside crisis years, a widening gap between high and low HDI countries, and argues AI's effect depends on policy choices.
    • Signals stalled resilience gains and growing divergence that shape vulnerability to future shocks.
    • United Nations Development Programme, 6 May 2025
  5. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist
  6. Technology that helps and the risks it carries
    • Digital public infrastructure and digital identity.
    • Exclusion, surveillance and the automation of work.

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-D2 Society, inclusion and human development risk
  • NRS-H116 Hazard family: Population structure and movement

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-D3 Humanitarian response and resilient recovery

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 6 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

Open now in this discipline

References

  1. United Nations Development Programme, 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index: Statistical Update, 12 October 2026
  2. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, Global MPI 2025, 17 October 2025
  3. World Bank, June 2025 Update to Global Poverty Lines, 5 June 2025
  4. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development progress slows to a 35-year low according to UN Development Programme report, 6 May 2025
  5. Ravallion, The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy, 2016
  6. Alkire and Foster, Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement, 2011
  7. Haushofer and Shapiro, The short-term impact of unconditional cash transfers to the poor: experimental evidence from Kenya, 2016
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Human development

The expansion of people's freedoms and capabilities to live lives they value.

Term

Multidimensional poverty

Poverty measured across several deprivations, such as health, education and living standards.

Term

Vulnerability to poverty

The likelihood that a household falls into or stays in poverty after a shock.

Term

Demographic transition

The shift from high to low birth and death rates as societies develop.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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