Geography of Poverty in Pakistan – 2008-09 to 2012-13 Distribution, Trends and Explanations

In: http://hdl.handle.net/11540/9295

Abstract

This report presents the analysis of multidimensional poverty in Pakistan across the first five years of democratic transition from 2008-09 to 2012-13 and its distribution at sub-provincial level. The analysis of multidimensional poverty goes beyond evaluating data on household income or consumption expenditures and describes a complex interplay of multiple dimensions such as education, health, living conditions, and asset ownership. This affords a deeper understanding of how well economic growth translates into human welfare, and how the gains of economic growth, whatever low they might be1, are distributed across population groups and geographic regions. This report is presented at a time when development discourse in the country leaves behind the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — along with many unfulfilled promises — to embrace the new paradigm offered by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the new SDGs, come new ambitions, aspirations and commitments. This transition calls for reflection on the past and a more detailed and in-depth evaluation of poverty over time, both for accurately estimating the extent to which poverty was alleviated under the MDGs, and for assessing the critical challenges lying ahead of SDGs.