Multidimensional Poverty and Spatial Disparities in Solomon Islands 2009-2019

Overview & Synopsis

This report attempts to provide a snapshot of the living standards of the population from multidimensional poverty perspectives and assess the progress made between 2009 and 2019. Given the outdated official monetary poverty data in the 2012/13 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), this report utilizes more recently collected data from the Population and Housing Census 2019, and compares it to data in the previous one in 2009, to investigate non-monetary well-being of Solomon Islanders. Multidimensional poverty, measured by applying a global methodology to the population censuses, is a composite index of the nine indicators capturing three dimensions of welfare: health, education, and living standards. Child mortality is the indicator of health; school enrollment and educational attainment are the indicators for education; and housing, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, and asset ownership are the indicators for living standards.2 The report compares the multidimensional poverty levels in Solomon Islands with other countries, examines changes in multidimensional poverty during the decade with an emphasis on spatial aspects, and discusses what needs to be done to accelerate poverty reduction and improve spatial equality in the future.