Introduction: Over recent years, the studies related to poverty have not been limited to income poverty and depend on other dimensions including health, education and living standards as well. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is one of the most important indicators in poverty investigations. Poverty depends not only on monetary indicators such as income, but also involves non-monetary dimensions including nutrition, housing, education, employment, health care, access to good quality infrastructure, human rights, social security, social deprivation, etc. Considering the importance of poverty reduction in maintaining the country's national security, one of the ideals pursued by the Islamic Revolution of Iran was to establish social justice and increase the level of welfare, especially among low-income individuals in the society. Also, poverty alleviation is an important part of the goals in sustainable development, and removing any kind of deprivation has been emphasized in the Constitution of Iran. In this regard, reducing poverty and inequality is one of the important policies of the country's economic development programs. So, this study mainly aimed at estimating the multidimensional poverty in the sixth development plan by separating urban and rural areas of Iran. In addition, considering that one of the important goals of development programs is to reduce poverty in different dimensions, this study sought an answer to the question of whether the sixth development plan of Iran has reduced poverty in different dimensions?
Materials and Methods: In this research, the multidimensional poverty index was calculated in Alkire-Foster method during the sixth five-year economic, social and cultural development plan of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2017-2021) using the raw data of household income and expenditure of Statistical Center of Iran (SCI), which was conducted in two stages. In the Alkire-Foster method, first, the deprived people are identified from each dimension using deprivation thresholds and second, the number of poor people is summed up to calculate the index for the whole society. Therefore, firstly, to identify the poor people, the set of dimensions based on which the deprivation of people would be measured was determined according to the dimensions available in the household income cost data. For this purpose, three dimensions of education, health and living standard were considered.
Results and Discussion: Reviewing the performance of the sixth development plan showed that during the studied years, the poverty headcount ratio, the intensity of poverty and also the multidimensional poverty in urban and rural areas had increased. Also, the headcount ratio in the urban areas was higher than that of the rural areas in all the studied years, but the intensity of poverty was higher in all years in the rural areas, rather than in the urban areas. In addition, the study results showed that the sixth five-year development plan had reduced deprivation in various sub-indices, but in some sub-indices such as suitable nutrition and health insurance, the desired results had not been achieved. According to the results, during the studied years, the dimensions of suitable nutrition and health insurance have the largest contribution to the country's multidimensional poverty. The indicators of the two indexes/dimensions including education and living standard had smaller shares in the multidimensional poverty index, respectively.
Conclusion and Suggestions: The estimation of Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in the urban and rural areas of Iran showed that the level of MPI in Iran had increased during the sixth five-year development plan. In fact, Iran still needs prudent and accurate planning to eradicate extreme poverty in the society, especially on the sub-indices (indicators0 associated to more deprived people. The study results showed that the sixth five-year development plan reduced deprivation in various sub-indices, but in some indicators such as suitable nutrition and treatment, the desired results were not achieved. Also, the results showed that in the period of 2017-2021, the MPI had an upward trend and the percentage of deprived people in the country increased. Based on the study results, during 2017-2021, the extent and intensity of multidimensional poverty had increased, and the dimension of suitable nutrition and health insurance had the largest contribution to Iran’s MPI, in the urban and rural areas. Therefore, in order to reduce the multidimensional poverty among households, it is suggested to develop a policy program in different dimensions of poverty with respect to, among others, a food basket plan containing the calories and protein required by the body for vulnerable households in order to reduce food insecurity, making necessary arrangements regarding the health insurance for households and creating suitable incentives to encourage households to continue their education at higher levels as well as creating the necessary facilities for more households to enjoy the high living standards should be considered. It is also suggested to give priority to the indicators of suitable nutrition and health insurance, which have the largest share in the MPI of households in Iran's future development plans.