Multidimensional Poverty in the Republic of Congo : Being Poor Simultaneously in Many Ways

In this study we show that a multidimensional approach to poverty does not have to be used only for summarizing poverty in a single index or for comparing deprivation rates between dimensions. We argue and illustrate that such an approach can additionally provide a contribution to a better understanding of the relationships between dimensions by studying the prevalence of multiple deprivations at an individual level. More precisely, this study investigates the degree of overlap in deprivations of individuals, and analyzes to what extent persons suffering from multiple deprivations have different characteristics and problems from those suffering from only one deprivation, or none at all. In essence, our method consists of the application and extension of the tools that are typically used in a standard poverty analysis to a multidimensional poverty analysis. We illustrate this approach by taking the Republic of Congo as a case study