Poverty in Pakistan: Analyzing causes, definitions, measurement and remedies
Dr. Niaz Murtaza (Lead Researcher) and Shabana Kishwar, PIDE (Research Associate)
The persistence of stubborn poverty in many parts of the world has attracted the attention of world leaders, development practitioners and policy makers. Poverty reduction is one of the main issues in development. Therefore, addressing the root cause of poverty and inequality is a major challenge faced by the governments worldwide. Despite numerous studies, the field of poverty suffers from multiple and conflicting definitions and measurement techniques. There is also a lack of understanding of the common characteristics of the poor and a lack of proper understanding of the root causes of poverty which relate to political factors like marginalization, disempowerment and institutionalized discrimination. Given this lack of clarity, anti-poverty programs often fail to achieve their objectives. With a view to overcoming these problems, a research study is planned with the following objectives:
- to identify the main economic and political root causes of poverty in Pakistan, especially those related to institutionalized discrimination, marginalization and disempowerment
- to review how poverty is defined and measured globally and in Pakistan by academicians, UN, government, civil society etc. and identify the main strengths, weaknesses and gaps in these definitions
- to review the types of people identified as poor in Pakistan by the govt and whether they are the poorest and what are their characteristics and why are they poor?
- to review the main official anti-poverty programs in Pakistan and the suitability of their approach
- to make recommendations about poverty definition, measurement and solutions
- to identify further agenda for related research.
- To undertake advocacy and awareness-raising based on the findings
Time frame: January 1 to Deember 31, 2017
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