Estimating Multidimensional Poverty in Zambia

Abstract This chapter applies the first-order dominance (FOD) approach to assess spatial and temporal multidimensional welfare in Zambia from 1996–2010. Additionally, it extends the methodology to evaluate welfare by rural agricultural strata and urban housing cost areas. This modification is particularly insightful in rural areas, where monetary poverty has made only modest gains over the study period. Finally, it considers the sensitivity of FOD results to indicator definitions in the context of data limitations. FOD analyses indicate broad-based gains in multidimensional rural welfare driven by small-scale farm and non-agricultural rural households. Despite these welfare gains, rural households, particularly small-scale farm households, continue to lag significantly behind their urban counterparts.