 Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, friends of the UN, ladies and gentlemen. It's a really great pleasure for me and also a great privilege on behalf of UNU-Wider to welcome you warmly to the 2017 Wider Annual Lecture. And a special welcome to today's lecturer, Professor Sabina Akira. Each year, UNU-Wider hosts the Wider Annual Lecture delivered by an imminent scholar or policymaker who has made a significant contribution to the field of development and social sciences. We are most grateful that Professor Akira accepted our invitations to be the 2017 Annual Lecture. Sabina is the director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, OPA HI, and in her lecture today, she will discuss the implications of using the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index and other poverty measures for achieving the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Focus will be on Sustainable Development Goal Number One, ending poverty in all its forms everywhere. In other words, Professor Akira will be lecturing on a top international development priority and on how we go about measuring progress towards its achievement. The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, which Professor Akira heads, is an internationally recognized research center within the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. Here, Professor Akira has been working consistently at the forefront of the theory and measurement of poverty and well-being in a way that goes beyond the traditional focus on income and growth only. With her colleague, James Foster, who is both a OPA HI Research Associate and Professor of Economics at George Washington University, has been a devised the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, as a new and inspiring method for measuring multidimensional poverty. And the approach has, to give just three illustration, been adopted by the Mexican government, the Bhutanese government in their Gross National Happiness Index, and by the UNDP. Over the years, Professor Akira has been called upon to provide input and advice to many initiatives, seeking to take a broad approach to well-being. Examples include the Commission on Measurement of Economic Performance on Social Progress, instigated by President Sarkozy, the UN Human Development Report Office, the European Commission, and the UK's Department for International Development. Sabina was also involved in 2016 in drafting the Stockholm Statement on the Set of Principles for Economic Policymaking in the Contemporary World. You will find this statement at the wider website translated into about 25 languages. Professor Akira's research interests include Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis, Welfare Economics, Amartya Sense Capability Approach, and the Measurement of Freedoms and Human Development. So, Professor Akira is a researcher that does not shy away from the hard and difficult questions and issues that we are facing, both in our profession and more generally. With these introductory words about today's speaker and the theme, I wish to conclude my welcoming remarks by noting that I'm delighted that the wider annual lecture 21 will be delivered today on 24 October as part of the UN Day celebrations organized jointly by UNU-Wider and the UN Association of Finland. Seven UN entities and related organizations, the UN Association of Finland, UNDP, IOM, Finland Committee for UN Women, the Finnish National Committee for UNICEF, Pakulai Appu, and FIN partnership have all joined the celebrations by exhibiting their work outside in the foyer. I think this is one of the best ways of going about celebrating UN Day. Now to today's speaker, Sabina, a warm welcome to you. The floor is yours. We look forward to your lecture.