https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrideve.24.1.0136 Journal of African Development, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2023 Copyright © 2023 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (Received June 2021; Accepted October 2021) New Framework for Multidimensional Environmental Well-being for Sustainable Development KWAKU ADU, JOHN JOSEPH PUTHENKALAM, AND ANTWI EFFAH KWABENA ABSTRACT | Tis study seeks to develop a Multidimensional Environmental Well-Being Criteria (MEWC) using the censored achievement approach, specifcally the Alkire-Foster counting methodology. Its overall objective is to use MEWC to measure the multiple environmental deprivations. It provides a comparison of empirical evidence of the exist- ing monetary and multidimensional poverty index (MPI) measures and the proposed MEWC. Te MEWC is composed of three indicators: crop productivity, level of perceived environmental knowledge, and agricultural and extension education. For empirical anal- ysis, the authros randomly sample 376 households from 20 communities in the Abuakwa North and South municipalities in Ghana. Te empirical analysis is divided in two parts: part one provides information on existing well-being parameters such as income/pov- erty metrics (upper and lower poverty lines) and multidimensional poverty index (MPI); and the second part analyzes the feldwork element related to the three identifed indica- tors of environmental wellbeing and its implications for sustainable development for the selected regions in Ghana, and how it could be applied to other municipalities/districts and other countries. Te incidence and severity of environmental deprivation, robustness checks, and statistical inference are also analyzed. Results show that MEWC for the two municipalities in Ghana is 0.46 or 46%, which represents the proportion of deprivations that the multi-environmentally poor in the sampled communities experience, as a share of the multi-environmental deprivations that would be experienced if all persons were multi-environmentally poor and deprived in all the dimensions of multiple environmen- tal poverty. From a policy perspective, MEWC could be used to track the sustainable Kwaku Adu, PhD, corresponding author, University of Environment and Sustainable Development, Somanya, Ghana. Email: lordadu18@gmail.com, kwaku.adu@ucaes.edu.gh; John Joseph Puthenkalam, PhD, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan. Email: j-puthen@sophia.ac.jp; Antwi Efah Kwabena, PhD, Natural Resource Canada, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Email: efah.antwi@canada.ca. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/african-development/article-pdf/24/1/136/1785653/jafrideve_24_1_136.pdf by African Finance & Development Assoc, samponsa@tiu.ac.jp on 16 January 2023