Analysis of incidence, intensity, and gender perspective of multidimensional urban poverty in Kenya

Abstract

Poverty continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing many economies worldwide, and its incidences and intensities are very high in developing economies. This paper utilized the Alkire-Foster (AF) method to compute the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) and analyze the incidence and intensity of multidimensional poverty among urban households in Kenya. The findings indicated that 8.7 % of urban households are multidimensionally deprived in 33.3 % of the selected dimensional indicators. Also, the results showed that over 50 % of urban households are deprived of drinking water and sanitation services. In addition, the findings revealed that higher poverty incidence, intensity, and urban multidimensional poverty exist among female-headed households, old household headships, and households residing in peri-urban regions. The Probit regression analysis indicated that large household size, number of children under five years, household head age, gender, marital status, urban food insecurity, health status, and residing in Malaria endemic zone are significant positive predictors of urban multidimensional poverty. On the other hand, an increase in the number of educated women, owners of insurance coverage, agricultural land, and wealthy and home-owning households is linked to a decline in urban multidimensional poverty. The paper professes that policymakers should cautiously consider household socioeconomic differences while designing poverty alleviation policies.