This brief is an invitation for poverty reduction practitioners and policymakers to revisit multidimensional poverty metrics, such as the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) from a risk and resilience lens. We show that the COVID-19 crisis has in many ways pushed the boundaries of multidimensional poverty measurements, including through the development of ad hoc Multidimensional Vulnerability Indices (MVIs) to better guide the immediate response to the crisis. However, as shocks are likely to become the “new normal” and considering the potentialities of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and its adoption by a growing number of countries, we suggest that in addition to measuring acute deprivations in health, education and living standards, the most used dimensions of the MPI, a new generation of national MPIs could further capture people’s exposure to shock and deprivation through their resilience capacities. Since today’s vulnerability may well result in tomorrow’s deepened poverty, this would help turn MPIs into more inclusive and powerful policy tools. This would allow governments to better anticipate who and where shocks and crises might hit hardest and the areas where action is required to prevent reversals in poverty and human development outcomes.