‘Multidimensional poverty’ a worry despite progress

While Thailand has managed to cut the number of people living in poverty by half in just seven years, many Thais still live with substandard living conditions– lacking access to adequate healthcare, education, and sanitation — especially those living in rural areas, according to the 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
Compiled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Institute (OPHI), the index seeks to outline the latest global poverty situation through a multidimensional perspective.
It looks at various factors beyond monetary income, such as nutrition, child mortality, school attendance, access to education, healthcare, adequate housing, sanitation, safe drinking water, and electricity.
According to the 2024 MPI, which examines 112 countries worldwide, about 1.1 billion out of 6.3 billion people live in acute multidimensional poverty.
Thailand has made remarkable progress in addressing the issue of poverty, having halved the number of individuals living in such a state in just seven years — from 909,000 in 2012 to 416,000 in 2019.
As of 2022, the number had dropped further to 352,000.
The report said the progress was made possible by the government’s push to improve access to basic housing, nutrition, and education.
Among Southeast Asian countries covered in the 2024 MPI, Thailand performed the best with a score of 0.0002, followed by Vietnam (0.008), Indonesia (0.014), the Philippines (0.016), Cambodia (0.070), Laos (0.108), and Myanmar (0.176).
However, the rate of multidimensional poverty in Thailand is approximately 0.5% higher than the rate of monetary poverty, according to the 2024 MPI.
This means there are a lot of Thais who live above the poverty line and couldn’t be considered as well-off because they are deprived of basic education, healthcare, nutrition and housing, among other things.
Danucha Pichayanan, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Council, said Narathiwat, Surin, Mae Hong Son, Uthai Thani and Pattani reported the highest rates of multidimensional poverty in the country last year.