Measuring Multidimensional Poverty Among Farm Households in Rural Pakistan Towards Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Poverty is multidimensional and presents a great threat to achieving the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the world. This study makes contribution to the ongoing debate regarding capability, social exclusion, and participatory approaches as measuring strategies for farm poverty. This study was designed to develop a new methodological framework to measure multidimensional poverty that builds on the previous index for measuring three dimensions of poverty at the micro level, and a method to calculate the extent of poverty by using the Alkire and Foster model. The expanded dimensions of multidimensional poverty identified are wealth status, participation/empowerment, environment, health, education, and standard of living. We apply the methodology to a study in northern Pakistan. The index of multidimensional poverty demonstrates that alongside the other dimensions there is severe poverty in terms of environment, empowerment/ participation, and wealth dimensions. The measure of intensity of the poverty shows that 55% of the population was severely poor while the MPI value demonstrated that 54% of the population was severely poor. The regional and resource-related causes contributing to this poverty include isolation and remoteness of the area, low infrastructure, and poor access to markets and to social and communal services. The study suggests that multi-sectorial interventions and investment in terms of education, infrastructure, environment, financial services and agriculture development are necessary to overcome the situation and improve the likelihood of achieving the targets of the SDGs.