Insight into the Multidimensional Poverty of the Mountainous Ethnic Minorities in Central Vietnam

Abstract

Eliminating extreme poverty and reducing poverty levels among marginalized groups are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite broad national-level studies on multidimensional poverty, there is a lack of specific research focusing on marginalized groups, particularly ethnic minorities. This study aims to identify the multidimensional poverty status and determinants of poverty among ethnic farmers in Thua Thien Hue province, Central Vietnam, based on a survey of 283 respondents. The Alkire–Foster method was utilized to measure multidimensional poverty, and a binary logistic regression model was applied to identify the determinants of multidimensional poverty among farmers. The results showed that about 33.57% of households are in multidimensional poverty. The deprivation in the six poverty dimensions was inconsistent, with income at 68.23%, education and health at 9.69%, housing at 7.19%, information access at 3.65%, and living conditions at 1.56%. Nine factors significantly affect the multidimensional poverty of ethnic minority households, including the age of household heads, family size, number of shocks, labor, farm size, tropical livestock units (TLUs), customers, traded input values, and training participation. Diversifying livelihood activities, building the infrastructure system to have closer access to central markets and main roads, and enhancing the capacity of farmers to cope with shocks are necessary solutions to reduce the multidimensional poverty of ethnic minorities in Central Vietnam.