We are pleased to announce that Mr. Charlyndon Novio Ligaya (Class of 2023), a graduate of our program, has been awarded the Best Thesis Award and First Place in the Human Development Cluster at the ADB-JSP Thesis of the Year Award 2026.
Mr. Ligaya received this distinction for his thesis, "Developing a Localized Multidimensional Poverty Index in the Philippines," completed at our program. His thesis addresses a key gap in poverty measurement by developing a localized Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for the Philippines. Using detailed household-level data from the 2022 Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) across 604 municipalities and the Alkire-Foster method, the study identifies poverty by considering education, health, living standards, and employment rather than just income. The work provides evidence-based insights to support targeted interventions by local governments.
The awards were presented during the ADB-JSP Conference 2026, held in Nagoya, Japan, on 9 July 2026, where outstanding achievements by ADB-JSP scholars were celebrated.
In addition to Mr. Ligaya's achievement, three current ADB-JSP scholars from Hitotsubashi University participated in the conference, gaining valuable opportunities to network with ADB-JSP alumni and students from other partner institutions. Among them, Mr. Luqmonjon Abdulkhodiev was awarded the Best Poster Award in the Social Science Track, highlighting the high quality of research conducted by current scholars in the program.
