Abstract
Special attention needs to be paid to achieve the world’s poverty reduction goal by 2030 in less than ten-year time. The paper aims to investigate the multidimensional poverty in South Asia in the period 2003–2019. It constructs the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) by selecting ten indicators in the fields of health, education and living standards. The research results show that the MPI of South Asia decreases in the research period. Poor people in South Asian countries are still facing several forms of deprivation while cooking fuel, sanitation, housing, nutrition and years of schooling are the main restrictive factors to poverty reduction in this region. Pakistan, India and Bangladesh face the worst poverty situation in terms of health, education and living standards. Targeted poverty alleviation and resilient poverty reduction are proposed in the paper to improve the poverty reduction efficiency and individual/regional capacity against risks to avoid returning to poverty.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Abbas K, Xu D, Li S, 2021. Health implications of household multidimensional energy poverty for women: A structural equation modeling technique. Energy and Buildings, 234: 110661.
Alkire S, Dirksen J, Nogales R et al., 2020. Multidimensional poverty and COVID-19 risk factors: A rapid overview of interlinked deprivations across 5.7 billion people. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Working Paper 53. Oxford: University of Oxford.
Alkire S, Foster J, 2011. Understandings and misunderstandings of multidimensional poverty measurement. The Journal of Economic Inequality, 9(2): 289–314.
Alkire S, Ul Haq R, Alim A, 2019. The state of multidimensional child poverty in South Asia: A contextual and gendered view. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Working Paper 127. Oxford: University of Oxford.
Bader C, Bieri S Wiesmann U et al., 2016. Differences between monetary and multidimensional poverty in the Lao PDR: Implications for targeting of poverty reduction policies and interventions. Poverty & Public Policy, 8(2): 171–197.
Bourguignon F, Chakravarty S R, 2019. The measurement of multidimensional poverty. In: Chakravarty S (eds.). Poverty, Social Exclusion and Stochastic Dominance: Themes in Economics. Singapore: Springer.
Bourguignon F, Fields G, Foster J, 2012. Economic mobility and the rise of the Latin American middle class. Washington DC: LAC Regional Flagship 2012.
Bruno M, Ravallion M, Squire L, 2016. Equity and Growth in Developing Countries: Old and New Perspectives on the Policy Issues. Rochester: Social Science Electronic Publishing.
Cavatassi R, Davis B, Lipper L, 2004. Estimating poverty over time and space: Construction of a time-variant poverty index for Costa Rica. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization.
Cohen A, 2010. The multidimensional poverty assessment tool: A new framework for measuring rural poverty. Development in Practice, 20(7): 887–897.
Dirksen J, Alkire S, 2021. Children and multidimensional poverty: Four measurement strategies. Sustainability, 13(16): 9108.
Dollar D, Kraay A, 2002. Growth is good for the poor. Journal of Economic Growth, 7(3): 195–225.
FAO, 2018. Monitoring food security in countries with conflict situations: A joint FAO/WFP update for the United Nations Security Council. New York: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Food Programme.
Fosu A K, 2017. Growth, inequality, and poverty reduction in developing countries: Recent global evidence. Research in Economics, 71(2): 306–336.
Fosu A K, 2018. The recent growth resurgence in Africa and poverty reduction: The context and evidence. Journal of African Economies, 27(1): 92–107.
Jolliffe D, 2001. Measuring absolute and relative poverty: The sensitivity of estimated household consumption to survey design. Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, 27: 1–23.
Lakner C, Mahler D G, Negre M et al., 2020. How Much Does Reducing Inequality Matter for Global Poverty? Global Poverty Monitoring Technical Note 13 (June). Washington, DC: World Bank.
Li Y, Su B, Liu Y, 2016. Realizing targeted poverty alleviation in China: People’s voices, implementation challenges and policy implications. China Agricultural Economic Review, 8(3): 443–454.
Li Y, Wu W, Wang Y, 2021. Global poverty dynamics and resilience building for sustainable poverty reduction. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 31(8): 1159–1170.
Liu Y, Xu Y, 2016. A geographic identification of multidimensional poverty in rural China under the framework of sustainable livelihoods analysis. Applied Geography, 73: 62–76.
Ravallion M, 2015. The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wood R E, 2008. Survival of Rural America: Small Victories and Bitter Harvests. Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
World Bank, 2018. Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018 Piecing Together Poverty Puzzle. Washington DC: World Bank Group.
World Bank, 2020. Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020 Reversals of Fortune. Washington DC: World Bank Group.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Foundation
National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.42171208; Alliance of Poverty Reduction and Development, No.ANSO-PA-2020-16
Author
Li Yuheng (1983—), Associate Professor
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, Y., Jin, Q. & Li, A. Understanding the multidimensional poverty in South Asia. J. Geogr. Sci. 32, 2053–2068 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-022-2036-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-022-2036-z