Sugeng Harianto
Despite significant progress in reducing monetary poverty, many households in Indonesia continue to experience persistent non-income deprivations that are not captured by conventional income-based indicators. This study examines the dynamics of multidimensional poverty in Indonesia using nationally representative data from the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) for the period 2022–2024. Applying the Alkire–Foster methodology, a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is constructed across four dimensions: education, health, living standards, and economic conditions. The findings reveal a clear divergence between trends in monetary and multidimensional poverty during the post-pandemic recovery. While income-based poverty declined steadily, multidimensional poverty decreased at a considerably slower pace, indicating that improvements in household consumption did not automatically translate into broader gains in non-income dimensions of well-being. Multidimensional deprivation remained particularly persistent in rural areas, reflecting enduring spatial inequalities in access to basic services, infrastructure, and human capital development. Living standards and education emerged as the largest contributors to overall poverty intensity, underscoring the structural and path-dependent nature of deprivation in Indonesia. These dimensions show strong resistance to short-term economic recovery because they depend primarily on long-term public investment and institutional capacity rather than income growth alone. Consequently, post-pandemic poverty reduction has been incremental rather than transformative. It has alleviated immediate vulnerability without substantially addressing the core structural drivers of deprivation. Overall, this study highlights the importance of adopting multidimensional poverty measurement to complement monetary indicators in assessing welfare progress and monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Target 1.2. The findings provide robust empirical evidence supporting the need for integrated, place-based, and multidimensional policy interventions that align short-term income recovery with sustained improvements in living standards, education, and long-term human capabilities. © 2026, Malque Publishing. All rights reserved.
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia
