COVID-19 and multidimensional poverty: a spatio-temporal analysis of urban vs. rural areas in Jashore, Bangladesh.

As one of the most severe pandemics in decades, COVID-19 has left lasting impacts on health systems, economies, and social structures across the world. Existing research has documented varied socio-economic effects of the pandemic globally, yet there remains a significant gap in understanding how COVID-19 has affected multidimensional poverty in Bangladesh. This research examines the impact of COVID-19 on the MPI (multidimensional poverty index) in both urban and rural households considering six dimensions: income, health, education, living standards, family and social relationships, and information accessibility taking a total of 29 indicators, each equally weighted. Household surveys using a pre-tested structured questionnaire were conducted in two Upazilas of the Jashore district: Chaugachha (150) and Bagharpara (150) in two strata: urban and rural in two unions per Upazila. The result indicates that MPI has increased drastically by around 172.7% within 2019-2021. The analysis reveals that urban areas showed greater multidimensional poverty index (MPI) growth (40%) than rural areas (28.9%), driven by both rising poverty incidence (+ 8 pp) and intensifying deprivation (+ 8 pp), despite rural areas maintaining higher absolute poverty levels. Health is the most influential factor, followed by education and social capital. The urban faced more difficulties in accessing health facilities due to stricter hospital regulations, and nutrition deficiencies occurred for price hike conditions. Students had limited access to uninterrupted internet facilities which declined the attendance of online classes during the lockdown period and caused poor results and dropouts. Simultaneously, social capital was eroded as lockdowns disrupted community support networks and limited the informal assistance that many vulnerable families rely on during crises. These differential impacts highlight the need for spatially targeted policy responses, with particular emphasis on urban social protection systems and multidimensional poverty alleviation in both domains. This study advances pandemic preparedness by revealing how deprivation dynamics can strengthen sustainable development goals (SDG) synergies (1: poverty, 2: hunger, 3: health, 4: education, 6: water), enabling social protection systems to serve as multi-sectoral shields against multidimensional poverty during health crises.