Abstract

Assessing Multidimensional Poverty Measures in Sri Lanka on an innovative approach to tracking progress towards the SDGs
Abstract
Poverty is a multifaceted and prevalent social issue that affects millions of people worldwide. Poverty is not merely a lack of wealth but a cycle of disadvantages with limited opportunities and social exclusion influenced by various factors. As in many countries, Sri Lanka has been emphasizing measuring poverty through a multidimensional approach. The traditional tools used to measure poverty often focus solely on wealth and conditions set in the past to measure current status. The innovative approach called the Synthesis method applied for this analysis leverages more accurate and up-to-date poverty measures in a multidimensional approach. This study aims to recognize the accuracy of poverty measures to recognize the respective strengths and limitations of existing methods. To achieve these objectives the application of the method was employed to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey data-2019 conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) in Sri Lanka. This analysis includes three main dimensions; education, health and living standards with ten comprehensive indicators. The analysis shows the national multidimensional poverty headcount at 32.8 percent with an average deprivation of 45.6 percent among the poor. Comparatively, the official multidimensional poverty headcount of 16 per cent and average deprivation of 41.6 per cent experienced by poor persons published by the DCS shows a difference emerge. Further, the official monetary poverty headcount of 14 per cent paints a less comprehensive picture of poverty. This comparison highlighted the significance of the innovative approach of multidimensional poverty measures providing a more comprehensive picture of holistic measures to address poverty effectively. This innovative lens equips policymakers to monitor and achieve Sustainable Development Goals by assessing and tracking poverty progressively.

Keywords: Multidimensional approach, Fuzzy set, Poverty, Deprivation
JEL Classification C38 C43, I31, I32