The counting approach to multidimensional poverty. The case of four African countries

Abstract This paper investigates the levels and evolution of poverty in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe using the decomposability properties of poverty measures based on a counting approach. We compare poverty measures such as the Alkire and Foster index with alternative poverty indices that are sensitive to inequality. Poverty is estimated using Demographic and Health Surveys for different years for Malawi (2004, 2010 and 2015), for Mozambique (2003 and 2011), Tanzania (2004, 2010 and 2015) and for Zimbabwe (2005, 2010 and 2015). Our findings show that one obtains insightful information when looking at the breadth and inequality components of multidimensional poverty.