Poverty, Vulnerability, and Welfare in Bhutan : Progress and Challenges

World Bank

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH SURVEY;    POVERTY ASSESSMENT;    POVERTY REDUCTION;    SHARED PROSPERITY;    EQUITY;   

RP-ID  :  145913

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This note uses data from the Bhutanliving standards survey (BLSS) for 2007, 2012, and 2017 toexamine trends in poverty reduction and shared prosperityand to assess the drivers of poverty reduction in the lastdecade. The note documents the remarkable progress thatBhutan has made in reducing poverty, sharing prosperity, andimproving other measures of well-being. To this end, itfirst establishes a poverty trend that is measured in aconsistent manner over time. The resulting poverty trenddeviates from official poverty rates for mainly two reasons:(a) the consumption aggregate is being measured in aconsistent way over time, resulting in a differentdistribution of consumption in each survey year; and (b) the3.20 dollars World Bank poverty line for lower middle-incomecountries is used as the cut-off to define poverty. Povertyreduction was helped by improved earnings in the commercialagriculture sector. Moreover, vulnerability has remainedhigh, partly because farmers are exposed to variousuninsured risks, including price shocks, but also becausethe social protection system is weak overall and nonfarmdiversification is low. Going forward, it will be importantto continue increasing agricultural productivity andcreating productive jobs outside of the agriculture sector.Proper prioritization and sequencing of policies may alsohelp in this regard.