Public sector poverty reduction programmes in Bangladesh frequently focus on rural poverty, despite predictions that, by 2030, the majority of households living in poverty will be in urban areas. Additionally, urban poverty is shaped by unique multidimensional factors beyond income or wealth, such as access to housing, education, healthcare and employment opportunities. Researchers at icddr,b previously addressed these issues by developing a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), to identify the varied dimensions of urban poverty. The researchers will now build on this work by conducting a community-level validation of the MPI – asking community members to rank the index’s poverty measurement domains according to their significance in characterizing urban poverty and identifying and ranking any missing domains. The MPI will be modified and validated in line with the community responses, along with quantitative data from the Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System of icddr,b, allowing the development of more targeted and responsive development programmes to tackle urban poverty.