New Framework for Multidimensional Environmental Well-being for Sustainable Development

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study seeks to develop a Multidimensional Environmental Well-Being Criteria (MEWC) using the censored achievement approach, specifically the Alkire-Foster counting methodology. Its overall objective is to use MEWC to measure the multiple environmental deprivations. It provides a comparison of empirical evidence of the existing monetary and multidimensional poverty index (MPI) measures and the proposed MEWC. The MEWC is composed of three indicators: crop productivity, level of perceived environmental knowledge, and agricultural and extension education. For empirical analysis, the authros randomly sample 376 households from 20 communities in the Abuakwa North and South municipalities in Ghana. The empirical analysis is divided in two parts: part one provides information on existing well-being parameters such as income/poverty metrics (upper and lower poverty lines) and multidimensional poverty index (MPI); and the second part analyzes the fieldwork element related to the three identified indicators of environmental wellbeing and its implications for sustainable development for the selected regions in Ghana, and how it could be applied to other municipalities/districts and other countries. The incidence and severity of environmental deprivation, robustness checks, and statistical inference are also analyzed. Results show that MEWC for the two municipalities in Ghana is 0.46 or 46%, which represents the proportion of deprivations that the multi-environmentally poor in the sampled communities experience, as a share of the multi-environmental deprivations that would be experienced if all persons were multi-environmentally poor and deprived in all the dimensions of multiple environmental poverty. From a policy perspective, MEWC could be used to track the sustainable development goals targeting the poor and to design policies and strategies that address the inter-twined environmental deprivations of the poor. The MEWC could also contribute to addressing the technical problems emanating from the multidimensionality of the concept of poverty.