Measuring Basic Needs Deprivation Using Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI): A Case Study of Malaysia’s Kesedar

To construct a Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for the purpose of measuring the basic needs deprivation of population living in a Regional Development Area (KESEDAR), which comprises of four districts, namely Gua Musang, Jeli, Kuala Krai and Tanah Merah. The four districts are located in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. The result is in turn compared with the level of basic needs deprivation at the national level. This study employs multistage sampling method to examine data of 2133 respondents whom are all the heads of household. The questionnaires are designed and the index is constructed based on the methods advocated by UNDP and OPHI (2011). The overall result shows that the population in KESEDAR are slightly more deprived than that of the National level, although both are still within tolerable category. Nonetheless, all districts exhibit high intensity of deprivation as it exceeded the cut-off value of 0.333, albeit being slightly lesser than the National level. As the study’s data are drawn from a survey conducted in KESEDAR, the result may reflect the degree of basic needs deprivation that is pertinent to the regional area per se. As such, a generalization of the result to other regional development areas in Malaysia must be done with care. The findings suggest that income and basic needs should be fulfilled within minimum acceptable range in order to bring a person out of deprivation so as to mitigate poverty.