Main Article Content

Abstract

This study employed an explanatory sequential design involving quantitative and qualitative methods to highlight the different dimensions of poverty and explain their importance. This study aimed to rank the importance of the dimensions of poverty with people living in poverty participating as co-researchers on an equal footing with academics and practitioners. The quantitative section of the study used a pairwise “pair-wise comparison,” and the qualitative section was a focused-group discussion that provided insights into the findings from the comparison. The comparisons revealed that the different dimensions of poverty have different impacts on people’s lives. While some dimensions shape the experience of poverty more than others, some make life most intolerable, and some have the greatest impact on improving the quality of life if addressed first. This study recommends that poverty be understood and addressed as a multifactor issue. Second, since different dimensions have different impacts on people’s lives and not all dimensions can be addressed at once, they need to be addressed according to their importance. 

Keywords

Ranking people in poverty poverty dimensions participation Tanzania

Article Details

How to Cite
Wetengere, K. K., & Saasita, C. . (2023). Ranking the Importance of Dimensions of Poverty with People Living in Poverty. Pan-African Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 3(2), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.56893/pajes.2022-v3i2.251 (Original work published December 29, 2022)

References

  1. Addae-Korankye, A. (2014). Causes of poverty in Africa: A review of literature. American International Journal of Social Science 3 (7), 147-153.
  2. All Together in Dignity (ATD), Fourth World USA, (2013). What is Merging Knowledge? https://4thworldmovement.org/what-is-merging-knowledge/
  3. All Together in Dignity (ATD), Fourth World Tanzania, (2019). A New Perspective of Poverty in Mainland Tanzania: A Case of Five Regions. ATD Report, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
  4. Bessell S. (2015). The Individual deprivation measure: measuring poverty as if gender and inequality matter. Gender & Development, 23(2): 223-240.
  5. Bray, R., de Laat, M., Godinot, X., Ugarte, A., & Walker, R. (2020). Realising poverty in all its dimensions: A six-country participatory study. World Development, 134, 105025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105025
  6. Chakamba, R. (2020). Witchcraft accusations and cataracts: The effects of open-fire cooking in Tanzania. https://www.devex.com/news/witchcraft-accusations-and-cataracts-the-effects-of-open-fire-cooking-in-tanzania-98419
  7. Commission for Human Rights (CHR) (2012). Guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights, Geneva: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/OHCHR_ExtremePovertyandHumanRights_EN.pdf .
  8. CONCERN, (2022). The top 11 causes of poverty around the world. https://www.concernusa.org/story/causes-of-poverty/
  9. ENGAGE, (2021). Merging of knowledge: A dynamic process enabling sharing of knowledge. https://engageplus.org/en/croisement-des-savoirs.asp
  10. Fricker, M. (2007) Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press.
  11. Godinot, X., & Walker, R. (2020). Poverty in all its forms: Determining the dimensions of poverty through merging knowledge. In V. Beck, H. Hahn, & R. Lepenies (Eds.), Dimensions of poverty: Measurement, Epistemic Injustices, Activism (pp. 263–279). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31711-9_15
  12. Godinot, X., & Wodon, Q. (2006). Participatory Approaches to attacking extreme poverty: Cases studies led by the International Movement ATD Fourth World. World Bank Working Paper No. 77. World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1037/e596662012-001
  13. Narayan, D., Chambers, R., Shah, M. K., & Petesch, P. (2000). Crying out for change: Voices of the poor. The World Bank.
  14. Ministry of Finance and Planning - Poverty Eradication Division (MoFP- PED) [Tanzania Mainland] and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) (2019). Tanzania Mainland Household Budget Survey 2017-18, Key Indicators Report. Dodoma, Tanzania. https://data.unwomen.org/publications/key-indicators-report-tanzania-household-budget-survey-2017-18
  15. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), (2021). History of the MPI. https://ophi.org.uk/background-to-the-mpi/
  16. Patrick, R. (2020). Unsettling the Anti-Welfare Commonsense: The Potential in Participatory Research with People Living in Poverty. Journal of Social Policy, 49(2), 251–270. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279419000199
  17. Skelton, D., & Kalisa, M. (2017). People in extreme poverty act for change. In A. von Kotze & S. Walters (Eds.), Forging Solidarity (pp. 71–81). Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-923-2_7
  18. UNICEF, (2017). How to halve poverty in all its dimensions by 2030. https://blogs.unicef.org/evidence-for-action/halve-poverty-dimensions-2030/
  19. United Nations Statistics (2019). End poverty in all its forms everywhere (Sustainable Development Goals Overview). https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-01/
  20. United Nations (UN), (2019). Poverty eradication. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/povertyeradication
  21. Wetengere, K., Kashaga, F., and Saasita C. (2022). Applying “merging of knowledge” to disclose the hidden dimensions of poverty in mainland Tanzania. University of Arusha Academic Journal, 1(1), 1-19.
  22. Wisor, S., Bessell, S., Castillo, F., Crawford, J., Donaghue, K., Hunt, J., Jaggar, A., Liu, A., & Pogge, T. (2016). The individual deprivation measure: a gender-sensitive approach to poverty measurement. Individual Deprivation Measure. http://www.individualdeprivationmeasure.org/resources/arc-report/
  23. Wodon, Q. (2018). Faith and spirituality informing public policy: Joseph Wresinski and our understanding of extreme poverty: The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 16(2), 1-14.
  24. World Bank, (2018). Tanzania Mainland Poverty Assessment. World Bank, Washington DC. https://www.nbs.go.tz/nbs/takwimu/hbs/Tanzania_Mainland_Poverty_Assessment_Report.pdf .
  25. Wresinski, J. (1980). A knowledge that leads to action, pp. 13-21 in Godinot, X and Wodon, Q (Eds.) 2006. Participatory Approaches to Attacking Extreme Poverty: Cases studies led by the International Movement ATD Fourth World, Washington D.C.: World Bank Working Paper N 77.