Leaving No One Behind: An Individual-Level Approach to Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in Botswana

The Leave No One Behind principle is at the core of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and acknowledges that poverty is multidimensional and should be examined at individual level. Notwithstanding this, most empirical studies use the household as the unit of analysis for multidimensional poverty measurement. However, estimation of poverty levels at household-level underestimates poverty levels of the society and does not capture intra-household inequalities. The objective of this study is two-fold: (1) developing a country-specific individual-level multidimensional poverty measure; and (2) providing estimates of multidimensional poverty for Botswana. This study contributes to the limited literature on individual-level multidimensional poverty measurement. Empirically, this study offers the first attempt to estimate a nationally relevant and context-specific multidimensional poverty index for Botswana using the individual as a unit of analysis. The results reveal that an estimated 46.2% of individuals are considered multidimensionally poor based on individual-level analysis. This figure is higher than the household-level estimate of 36.5%, which indicates that using the household as a unit of analysis leads to underestimating poverty levels in the society. The results show that on average, the multidimensionally poor are deprived in 47.4% of all indicators under consideration. This finding indicates that multidimensional poverty intensity is also a considerable concern in Botswana. These findings warrant policy interventions.