Application of Expanded Alkire and Foster Multidimensional Poverty Index to Nigeria

H. Sallawu, A. A. Abduljelil, D. D. Adekunle, A. P. Adesakin, A. E. Adeseun, A. Auru, R. O. Bomodeoku, B. W. Dakay, A. Jibrin, J. Moses, G. T. Oguntebi, F. O. Okafor, E. O. Oshin, A. O. Peters, J. N. Nmadu

Abstract


An improved Alkire and Foster Multidimensional Poverty Index (MDPI) with 20 indicators clustered into seven dimensions, namely, Social Security, Water and Sanitation, Living Standard, Employment and Income, Health, Nutrition, and Education was developed and implemented with ‘mdpi function’ deployed in R Programming Language. The function computes MDPI along with useful associated measures at sub-national or context-specific levels. It was applied to data collected from 1614 respondents from 13 selected Nigerian states and the results compare favourably with existing studies. From the results obtained, the national MDPI is 0.418 but computing MDPI at National, sub-national or context-specific levels does not always give the same trend. Also, the results further reveal that states in Northern Nigeria (0.420) are more multidimensionally deprived in most of the dimensions although there are instances where states in the South (0.415) also show severe deprivation despite their level of development. In line with the findings, it is recommended that UNDP should implement this new MDPI strategy to ensure that every sector of the society is covered by development interventions. The interventions should be region and context-specific, addressing the North’s educational and employment deprivation and the South’s urban living and social protection deficiencies as well as sex, gender and religious disparities in deprivation.


Keywords


Expanded poverty indicators; Poverty measurements; Poverty dimensions; National data sample; Social security

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abdulsamad, B. (2024). _mpindex: Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)_. R package version 0.2.1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=mpindex.

Adewuyi, A. O., & Ogunleye, O. S. (2020). ‘Multidimensional Poverty Index: Application in Nigeria’. African Journal of Economic Policy.

Adeoti, A. I., & Akinwande, A. L. (2020). The impact of social protection programs on poverty in Nigeria. African Development Review, 32(2), 198–209.

Adetoro, A., Ashamu, O. & Lawan, M. (2019). Women, religion and contemporary public transport service in Kano metropolis. IFRA-Nigeria Working Papers Series, No 49.

Alkire, S. & Foster, J. (2011). Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement. Journal of Public Economics 95(7-8): 476–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.11.006.

Alkire, S., J. Foster, S. Seth, M. E. Santos, J. M. Roche & P. Ballon. (2015). Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199689491.001.0001.

Alkire, S., Kanagaratnam, U., & Suppa, N. (2021). The global multidimensional poverty index (MPI) 2021 (methodological note No. 51. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford.

Alkire, S., U. Kanagaratnam, R. Nogales & N. Suppa. (2022). Revising the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index: Empirical Insights and Robustness. Review of Income and Wealth 68 (S2). https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12573.

Alkire, S. & Santos, M. E. (2010). Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Working Paper No. 38.

Alkire, S. & Santos, M. E. (2010a). Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries. Human Development Research Paper 2010/11.

Alkire, S. & Santos, M. E. (2014). Measuring Acute Poverty in the Developing World: Robustness and Scope of the Multidimensional Poverty Index. World Development 59:251-274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.01.026.

Alkire, S. & S. Seth. (2015). Multidimensional poverty reduction in india between 1999 and 2006: where and how. World Dev 72:93–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.02.009.

Ajakaiye, D. O. & Adeyeye, V. A. (2001). Concepts, Measurement and Causes of Poverty. CBN Economic and Financial Review. 39(4), 8-44.

Arancibia, R. G. & I. Girela. (2024). Graphical Representation of Multidimensional Poverty: Insights for Index Construction and Policy Making. Social Indicators Research 172:595–634. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-024-03325-8

Batana, Y. M. (2013). Multidimensional measurement of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Social Indicators Research, 112(3), 337–362.

Berenger, V. (2019). The counting approach to multidimensional poverty: The case of four African countries. South African Journal of Economics Vol. 87(2):200-227. doi: 10.1111/saje.12217.

Bourguignon, F., & Chakravarty, S. R. (2019). Multidimensional Poverty Orderings: Theory and Applications. In: Chakravarty, S. (eds) Poverty, Social Exclusion and Stochastic Dominance. Themes in Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3432-0_10.

Chakravarty, S. and D’Ambrosio, C. (2006). The measurement of social exclusion. Review of Income and Wealth, 52(3): 377-398. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4991.2006.00195.x

Chan, S. M. & H. Wong (2024): Measurement and determinants of multidimensional poverty: the case of Hong Kong. Journal of Asian Public Policy 1:21. DOI: 10.1080/17516234.2024.2325857

Edeh, H. O., & Sulyman, A. (2021). Beyond Income: An Expanded Multidimensional Poverty Index for Nigeria. African Development Review.

Epskamp, S., A. O. J. Cramer, L. J. Waldorp, V. D. Schmittmann & D. Borsboom. (2012). qgraph: Network Visualizations of Relationships in Psychometric Data. Journal of Statistical Software, 48(4), 1-18. http://www.jstatsoft.org/v48/i04/.

Foster, J., Greer, J., Thorbecke, E. (1981). A class of decomposable poverty measures. Working Paper No. 243, Department of Economics, Cornell University.

Foster, J., Greer, J., Thorbecke, E. (1984). A class of decomposable poverty measures. Econometrica. 52, 761–776.

Girela, I. (2025). _mpitbR: Calculate Alkire-Foster Multidimensional Poverty Measures_. R package version 1.0.1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=mpitbR.

Kukiattikun, K. & Chainarong, C. (2022). _MPI: Computation of Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)_. R package version 0.1.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=MPI.

Laderchi, C. R., Saith, R., & Stewart, F. (2003). Does it matter that we do not agree on the definition of poverty? A comparison of four approaches. Oxford Development Studies, 31(3), 243–274. https:// doi.org/10.1080/1360081032000111698

National Bureau of Statistics (2019). Poverty and Inequality Report in Nigeria.

Nmadu J (2025). Sequential Computation of Dynamic Multidimensional Poverty Indices (MDPI) in _Dyn4cast: Dynamic Modeling and Machine Learning Environment_. R package version 11.11.24, https://jobnmadu.github.io/Dyn4cast/.

Ogunniyi, A., & Olagunju, K. (2020). Multidimensional Poverty in Nigeria: A Regional Analysis. Journal of Development Studies.

Ogwumike, F. O., & Ozughalu, U. M. (2018). Multidimensional Poverty Analysis in Nigeria. African Development Review.

Oyekale, A. S. (2019). Impact of Access to Water and Sanitation on Multidimensional Poverty in Rural Nigeria. Journal of Development Studies.

Rippin, N. (2010). Poverty Severity in a Multidimensional Framework: The Issue of Inequality between Dimensions. Courant Research Center: PEG, Discussion Paper 47. Göttingen: University of Göttingen.

Santos, M. E., & Ura, K. (2008). ‘Multidimensional Poverty in Bhutan: Estimates and Policy Implications’. Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative.

Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press.

Silver, H. (1994). Social Exclusion and Social Solidarity. International Labour Review.

Streeten, P. (1981). First Things First: Meeting Basic Human Needs in Developing Countries. Oxford University Press.

UNDP. (2010). The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development. Human Development Report 2010, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

UNDP. (2014). Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience. Human Development Report 2014, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

UNDP. (2020). The 2020 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index Report. United Nations Development Programme.

van Borkulo, C. & S. Epskamp. (2023). Network estimation using the eLasso method in IsingFit: Fitting Ising Models Using the ELasso Method_. R package version 0.4. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=IsingFit>.

Wang, Q., L. Shu & X. Lu. (2023). Dynamics of multidimensional poverty and its determinants among the middle-aged and older adults in China. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 10(116):1-9. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01601-5.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/13786

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2025 Canadian Social Science

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Reminder

  • How to do online submission to another Journal?
  • If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

Submission Guidelines for Canadian Social Science

We are currently accepting submissions via email only. The registration and online submission functions have been disabled.

Please send your manuscripts to css@cscanada.net，or css@cscanada.org for consideration. We look forward to receiving your work.

 Articles published in Canadian Social Science are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 

Canadian Social Science Editorial Office

Address: 1020 Bouvier Street, Suite 400, Quebec City, Quebec, G2K 0K9, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail:caooc@hotmail.com; office@cscanada.net

Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture