Poverty Dynamics: the case of the Maldives

Poverty dynamics research leads to a better understanding of poverty than point-in-time studies. We have executed a comprehensive longitudinal poverty study based on 3 large-scale household surveys carried out on all 200 inhabited islands in the Maldives. The first wave was conducted in 1997 with follow-ups in 2004 and 2005. We have followed more than 1,000 of the same households over time to get insight in poverty dynamics and in the characteristics of households that managed to escape from poverty and of households that fell back to poverty. This thesis presents the results and introduces some conceptual and methodological innovations, such as a new poverty indicator, the Multidimensional Poverty Index with 12 dimensions: income, health, education, employment, housing, transport, electricity, communication, food security, environmental security, drinking water, and consumer goods. Policy implications of our results are not only relevant at government level but also at household level. Poverty reduction strategies of the government should be designed not just to lift the poor out of poverty, but also to prevent the non-poor from falling into poverty. In the Maldives case, the government may consider paying more attention to the North, further stimulating access to good quality education and health care, and further stimulating the development of (private sector) tourism across the country. As for poverty reduction strategies of the households themselves, our results point to more education, remittances, taking a loan to invest, and increasing the household labour force participation rate, especially in the public sector and in the tourism sector.

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