This report presents the first update of Pakistan’s national MPI based on the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2019-20 and was prepared by the Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives in partnership with UNICEF and OPHI. Pakistan’s official national MPI gives a comprehensive picture of multidimensional poverty aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is reported as SDG indicator 1.2.2, and complements Pakistan’s national monetary poverty data. The results analysed in this report represent poverty levels just before and at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis offers an evidence-based guide for shaping poverty alleviation policies and can be used by students, journalists, and civil servants to develop and accelerate participatory action plans in which poor people are empowered to escape poverty.

• Citation: MPDSI Pakistan, UNICEF and OPHI (2024).  Multidimensional Poverty Index Report 2019-20, Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Government of Pakistan (MPDSI Pakistan), UNICEF, and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

This report presents Pakistan's first official national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and was published by the Ministry of Planning, Development & Reform in Pakistan in collaboration with OPHI to provide evidence and a basis for public policy and resource allocations, especially under the National Finance Commission and the Provincial Finance Commission.

Based on data from the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey for 2014/15, the report provides estimates of multidimensional poverty at the national, provincial and district levels and includes a trend analysis spanning 2004-2015. It establishes a baseline for Pakistan's Vision 2025 and the SDGs. 

• Citation: Ministry of Planning, Development & Reform (2016). Multidimensional Poverty in Pakistan. 

Poverty Cut-Off: A person is considered poor if they are deprived in a third or more of the 14 weighted indicators.  

Ideally the questions used for the official national MPI should not change between survey waves. However, changes in the PSLM 2019-20 necessitated changes in two indicators used in the previous MPI for Pakistan. The former indicator of access to health facilities had to be dropped, and the definition of ‘educational quality’ was adjusted to improve the accuracy. Due to changes in these two indicators the 2019-20 results are not directly comparable to those of 2014-15, hence, Chapter 3 of the 2024 report presents the strictly harmonised and rigorous analyses of change.

The annual global MPI produced by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative in partnership with the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme is an internationally comparable index of acute multidimensional poverty. OPHI publishes Country Briefings summarising poverty statistics of the global MPI for each country.     

Visit the most recent Global MPI Country Briefing for Pakistan based on DHS year 2017-2018.   

Official institution responsible for statistics  

• Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives

Events:  

• 20 June 2016 | Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal - Report Launch on Multidimensional Poverty in Pakistan
• 23 September 2022 | Intervention by H.E. Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives at UNGA 77 Side Event 
• 23 September 2021 | Intervention by H.E. Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant of Pakistan’s Prime Minister and Federal Minister, Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Ministry at UNGA 76 Side Event
• 24 September 2020 | Intervention by co-host H.E. Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan at UNGA 75 Side Event 
• 24 September 2020 | Intervention by H.E. Sania Nishtar, Minister of Poverty Alleviation, Pakistan at UNGA 75 Side Event
• 25 September 2019 | Intervention by H.E. Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Pakistan at UNGA 74 Side Event

Dimensions articles:  

• The Insights From a Comparable Child Poverty Measurement: The Case of South Asia | MPPN

Press Releases/News:  

• 22 April 2014 | Pakistan signs agreement to develop a national Multidimensional Poverty Index
• 20 June 2016 | Pakistan’s new poverty index reveals that 4 out 10 of Pakistanis live in multidimensional poverty