Unravelling the Depths of Deprivation in Tajikistan: Multidimensional Poverty

Tajikistan, a former member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the smallest country in Central Asia with a geographically sensitive location, has made impressive development progress and continuous advancement in poverty alleviation. It has managed to reduce the poverty rate (at the national poverty rate of $3.2 per day) from 83% of the population in 1999 to 22.5% in 2022. Notwithstanding this fact, the country remains the poorest in the Central Asian region in terms of extreme poverty rate ($2.15 per day). It is puzzling why, despite significant progress made by the country, poverty is still widespread and persistent. The paper seeks to answer this question by distancing itself from income poverty and focusing on multidimensional poverty. Multidimensional poverty gives a more thorough perspective of the lives of the poor; thus, it provides a clearer picture of the incidence and dimensions of poverty on various levels and among different groups and communities. The concept of multidimensional poverty is even more significant for a remote, landlocked country such as Tajikistan, as the analysis within this paper reveals that non-income poverty indicators hardly improved in Tajikistan. Therefore, the intention of this research is to uncover the nature of multidimensional poverty in Tajikistan by developing further recommendations for policymakers on why and how to consider multidimensional poverty while designing and implementing poverty reduction policies. The article concludes that (1) integrating multidimensional poverty metrics into national development plans and poverty reduction policies enhances political commitment to ensure sufficient funding and effective implementation of these policies and (2) applying multidimensional poverty measurements allows policymakers to identify and target regions and demographic groups which should be prioritized while implementing poverty reduction policies.