Has poverty decreased in Cameroon between 2001 and 2007? An analysis based on multidimensional poverty measures.

This paper uses the Alkire Foster methodology for multidimensional poverty measurement to analyze the evolution of multidimensional poverty for Cameroon for the period 2001-2007. This approach seeks to overcome the limitations of the income-based poverty measures by combining income with five other dimensions: education, health, electricity, water and sanitation. The identification step employs two forms of cutoff: for each dimension there is a cutoff which identifies individuals deprived in that specific dimension; across dimensions, a second cutoff gives the minimum number of dimensions that an individual must be deprived to be considered poor. For the aggregation step, the Alkire Foster methodology uses a dimension-adjusted Foster Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) measure. The results show that the reduction in income poverty which Cameroon experienced over the study period was accompanied by a significant increase in multidimensional poverty.