The research on multidimensional poverty has gathered momentum in the last half-decade and
more remarkably in the aftermath of the global food and financial crises of 2007-2008. It has gathered
further momentum since the UNDP-OPHI launched the 2010 Human Development Report
(HDR) and more recently as part of the continuing debate on the global development agenda
post-2015. Availability of very large and rich datasets on households and individuals from micro
surveys and the advances in survey data analysis have transformed research in multidimensional
poverty. This not only raises new policy questions but it also suggests new policy instruments.
Multidimensional Poverty theories have been vigorously advocated by some of the most thoughtful
and hard-working economists. The Alkire-Forster Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)
measures overlapping multiple deprivations people simultaneously face, is MDGs-compatible, and
has the advantage that it does distil those multiple indicators dashboard into a single score. While
the standardized global MPI model allows for international comparisons to be made for different
countries, numerous caveats exist when using it nationally “as is”. Individual countries can refine
the global MPI model to make it more applicable to their own conditions by expanding the scope
for incorporating national - or subnational - specific dimensions, indicators, weights and cutoffs.
This paper analyzes the 2013 round of the multidimensional poverty and inequality results for
Arab States at the national and sub-national levels using the results from the OPHI’s standardized
global MPI model of Alkire and Forster. It also explores how some countries in the Arab region
can use the MPI as a tool to develop targeted policies aimed at tackling the “hard core of poverty”
at a national and sub national level. Analyses show that the Arab Region has 21.5 million people
vulnerable or at risk of multidimensional (MD) poverty and 18.8 million people in “Severe” MD
poverty representing respectively 9.3 per cent and 7.9 per cent of a total population of 231.1 million
people in 12 Arab States in 2010. Within the Arab Region, data shows that vulnerability rates are
high and less heterogeneous across the sub-regions while in Arab LDCs very high rate of severe
MD poverty prevail. Urban-rural comparisons make the multidimensional inequality obvious.
The MPI at sub-national levels reveals that high social deprivations – and therefore low resilience
- are inflicting much suffering on ordinary citizens in rural and certain geographic areas within
the Arab States. Moreover, it is shown that income poverty and multidimensional poverty measures
typically do not co- move, as the relations between income inequality and multidimensional
poverty measures are spherical. Hence, if income poverty alone is used for policymaking, poverty
mapping and targeting a large proportion of the poor people will remain overlooked. Hence, the
poverty and inequality in the Arab States have been on a trajectory that is unsustainable.
8 MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY INDEX AND POLICIES FOR TACKLING INTERLOCKING DEPRIVATIONS IN THE ARAB STATES
The development of the MPI model for public policymaking is still at a very preliminary stage
in the Arab States, but various international experiences reviewed and assessed in this paper
- namely Mexico, Colombia and Brazil- substantiate the success of using the MPI in policy
making process. While, of course, there are common threads running through all of the MPIs,
it is shown that in the case of Mexico-MPI incorporates both income and non-income aspects
whereas elsewhere, the country-specific MPI complements income measurement. Lessons learned
from international experiences suggest that a change in paradigm is needed to open the door to
opportunities whereby successes can be replicated in the Arab States. In conclusion, it is argued
that when multidimensional deprivations serve as a framework within which all sorts of policies
are conducted, Arab States will start to bend the staggering cost curve of poverty and inequality
and will cease to look ahead to more lost decades for development.