Abstract
Rural women are important agents of development and they are the backbone of achieving sustainable development in any society. However, rural women in Nigeria, like in most developing countries, disproportionately bear the burden of poverty due to poor access to productive resources, information and services. There is growing evidence that prioritizing measures for ending poverty among rural women represents an important gateway to the achievement of other global goals. This study therefore seeks to determine the extent of multidimensional poverty among rural women in Nigeria and to also identify its critical risk factors. Using secondary data obtained from 2018/2019 Harmonized Nigeria Living Standard Survey (HNLSS), findings from the study reveal that more than three-quarters of the rural women in Nigeria are multidimensionally poor and they experience multiple deprivations in the weighted indicators across the poverty dimensions. The living standard dimension accounted for the largest share of deprivation suffered by rural women while health dimension contributed the least. However, further analysis across the sub-indicators of poverty dimensions revealed security shocks, unemployment and time to health care services as the biggest contributors to multidimensional poverty of rural women in Nigeria. Results also show that age, household size, years of education, household expenditure, ownership of cropland, credit access and access to safety nets are the main determinants of multidimensional poverty among rural women. The study recommends the need to focus on policy options that provide more primary health care services, increase employment opportunities and strengthen shock-preventive or shock-responsive social protection systems of rural women.