Zanzibar recorded an important decline in urban poverty, while rural poverty did not change, and poverty increased on the island of Pemba Basic needs poverty and extreme poverty both declined by 4.5 and 1 percentage points, respectively, at the national level in Zanzibar since 2010.
... See More + Consumption also increased disproportionately among the poor, yet the absolute gains accruing to the poor and people in the bottom 40 percent remained limited. Poverty reduction was concentrated in urban areas, which was the main driver for Zanzibar’s overall poverty reduction. The main drivers of such a reduction in poverty were increases in returns to both the education and economic activity of the poor. Despite these improvements, households with large families and dependents employed in agriculture, and with lower education and lower access to infrastructure, continued to suffer from prevalent poverty. Basic needs poverty rates showed higher poverty in Zanzibar than in Mainland, but poverty measures based on the international line revealed lower poverty in Zanzibar. The services sector (including trade and public administration) accounted for a significantly larger share of employment in Zanzibar than in Mainland, while employment in agriculture was considerably higher in the latter. Besides being more diversified than in Mainland, the labor market in Zanzibar also offered higher incomes. In both Zanzibar and Mainland, less-educated workers were generally concentrated in agricultural employment, while those with superior education were engaged in the services sector. Middle skilled workers with lower secondary education were more engaged in trade, the private services sector, and manufacturing; while higher educated workers, with upper secondary and university degrees, were more involved in wage employment, mainly in public administrations.
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Poverty Assessment 120689 OCT 26, 2017
Belghith,Nadia Belhaj Hassine; De Boisseson,Pierre Marie AntoineDisclosed
This study discusses the impact of economic geography and (low) population density on development outcomes in Mali and explores how policies to reduce poverty can be made more effective by taking these two factors into account.
... See More + The crisis in north Mali which started in 2012 and continues to date has brought questions of economic geography to the center of attention. To help answer such questions, and to analyze how to reduce poverty in Mali as a whole, this study uses different sources of information to analyze the diversity of livelihood patterns, in access to services and in living standards. The study uses quantitative information from household surveys, population and firm censuses, administrative and geographic data, and qualitative information about livelihoods. This study argues that the authorities will need to employ all three policy instruments, while emphasizing that if the objective is poverty reduction, most attention should be focused on spatially blind approaches. The study is organized as follows: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two emphasizes differences in population density which allows distinguishing between types of agglomeration from villages, to rural town, to large cities. Chapter three categorizes the country into various livelihood zones and considers how the agro-physical environment affects the way people live. In chapter four authors turn to household welfare. Chapter five considers access to services. Chapter six is forward looking.
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Since the early 2000s, Tanzania has seen remarkable economic growth and strong resilience to external shocks. Yet these achievements were overshadowed by the slow response of poverty to the growing economy.
... See More + Until 2007, the poverty rate in Tanzania remained stagnant at around 34 percent despite a robust growth at an annualized rate of approximately 7 percent. This apparent disconnect between growth and poverty reduction has raised concerns among policy makers and researchers, leading to a consensus that this mismatch needed to be addressed with a sense of urgency. Over the past few years, the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUKUTA) in Tanzania has given high priority to eradicating extreme poverty and promoting broad-based growth. Achieving pro-poor growth has also been widely recognized by the World Bank as a critical strategy for accelerating progress toward its twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty at the global level by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity by fostering income growth among the bottom 40 percent in every country. The official poverty figures announced by the government in November 2013 have revealed that the national strategy against poverty has begun to facilitate reductions. The basic needs poverty rate has declined from around 34 percent to 28.2 percent between 2007 and 2012, the first significant decline in the last 20 years. Identifying the policy mechanisms that have helped to increase the participation of the poor in the growth process and to speed pro-poor growth is therefore important for present and future decision-making in Tanzania on how best to eradicate poverty. Such task requires a rigorous analysis of the evolution of poverty and of the linkages between poverty, inequality, and economic growth. This report uses the availability of the new Tanzanian Household Budget Survey (HBS) for 2011 and 2012, as well as the new rebased GDP figures released in December 2014, as an opportunity to address these issues. More specifically, the report examines the recent trends in poverty and inequality and their determinants and explores how responsive poverty reduction was to economic growth and the obstacles to achieving it.
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Since the early 2000s, Tanzania has seen remarkable economic growth and strong resilience to external shocks. Yet these achievements were overshadowed by the slow response of poverty to the growing economy.
... See More + Until 2007, the poverty rate in Tanzania remained stagnant at around 34 percent despite a robust growth at an annualized rate of approximately 7 percent. This apparent disconnect between growth and poverty reduction has raised concerns among policy makers and researchers, leading to a consensus that this mismatch needed to be addressed with a sense of urgency. Over the past few years, the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUKUTA) in Tanzania has given high priority to eradicating extreme poverty and promoting broad-based growth. Achieving pro-poor growth has also been widely recognized by the World Bank as a critical strategy for accelerating progress toward its twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty at the global level by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity by fostering income growth among the bottom 40 percent in every country. The official poverty figures announced by the government in November 2013 have revealed that the national strategy against poverty has begun to facilitate reductions. The basic needs poverty rate has declined from around 34 percent to 28.2 percent between 2007 and 2012, the first significant decline in the last 20 years. Identifying the policy mechanisms that have helped to increase the participation of the poor in the growth process and to speed pro-poor growth is therefore important for present and future decision-making in Tanzania on how best to eradicate poverty. Such task requires a rigorous analysis of the evolution of poverty and of the linkages between poverty, inequality, and economic growth. This report uses the availability of the new Tanzanian Household Budget Survey (HBS) for 2011 and 2012, as well as the new rebased GDP figures released in December 2014, as an opportunity to address these issues. More specifically, the report examines the recent trends in poverty and inequality and their determinants and explores how responsive poverty reduction was to economic growth and the obstacles to achieving it.
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Over the seven years from 2004 through 2011, Cambodian economic growth was tremendous, ranking amid the best in the world. Moreover, household consumption increased by nearly 40 percent.
... See More + And this growth was pro-poor, not only reducing inequality, but also proportionally boosting poor people's consumption further and faster than that of the non-poor. As a result, the poverty rate dropped from 52.2 to 20.5 percent, surpassing all expectations. However, the majority of these people escaped poverty only slightly: they remain highly vulnerable, even to small shocks, which could quickly bring them back into poverty. The main drivers of poverty reduction were better prices of rice for farmers, better wages for agricultural workers, increases in salary jobs for the urban labor force, and better income for non-agricultural businesses for rural households. Improvements in health and education, as well as government investment in infrastructure, provided a favorable environment for the poor, allowing many of them to pull themselves out of poverty. Looking forward, some of these drivers of poverty reduction are likely to stall. Coupled with increased vulnerability, the present conditions create new challenges for the Royal Government of Cambodia. Furthermore, most of the improvements in Cambodia originated at very low values, thus leaving much work to better the well-being of many Cambodian households. Outstanding gains have been achieved, but it will take focus and further actions to maintain Cambodia's future growth. Most poverty in Cambodia is found in the countryside: about 90 percent of Cambodia's poor live in rural areas. To generate the maximum impact, government policies should concentrate on the productivity of the rural poor's major assets: their labor and their land.
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Over the seven years from 2004 through 2011, Cambodian economic growth was tremendous, ranking amid the best in the world. Moreover, household consumption increased by nearly 40 percent.
... See More + And this growth was pro-poor, not only reducing inequality, but also proportionally boosting poor people's consumption further and faster than that of the non-poor. As a result, the poverty rate dropped from 52.2 to 20.5 percent, surpassing all expectations. However, the majority of these people escaped poverty only slightly: they remain highly vulnerable, even to small shocks, which could quickly bring them back into poverty. The main drivers of poverty reduction were better prices of rice for farmers, better wages for agricultural workers, increases in salary jobs for the urban labor force, and better income for non-agricultural businesses for rural households. Improvements in health and education, as well as government investment in infrastructure, provided a favorable environment for the poor, allowing many of them to pull themselves out of poverty. Looking forward, some of these drivers of poverty reduction are likely to stall. Coupled with increased vulnerability, the present conditions create new challenges for the Royal Government of Cambodia. Furthermore, most of the improvements in Cambodia originated at very low values, thus leaving much work to better the well-being of many Cambodian households. Outstanding gains have been achieved, but it will take focus and further actions to maintain Cambodia's future growth. Most poverty in Cambodia is found in the countryside: about 90 percent of Cambodia's poor live in rural areas. To generate the maximum impact, government policies should concentrate on the productivity of the rural poor's major assets: their labor and their land.
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This report examines the lives of poor men, women, and children and explores the constraints and opportunities they face today in rising out of poverty.
... See More + It builds on a rich body of poverty analysis and an excellent base of knowledge from previous reports and aims to do three things. First, it proposes revisions to Vietnam's poverty monitoring system - via better data, updated welfare aggregates, and new poverty lines - to bring these more in line with economic and social conditions in present-day Vietnam. Second, it revisits the stylized facts about deprivation and poverty in Vietnam, and develops an updated profile of poverty using data from the 2010 Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) and new qualitative field studies. Third, it analyzes some of the key challenges for poverty reduction in the next decade, including changing regional patterns of poverty and wealth, high and persistent poverty among ethnic minorities, and rising inequality in outcomes and opportunities.
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This report examines the lives of poor men, women, and children and explores the constraints and opportunities they face today in rising out of poverty.
... See More + It builds on a rich body of poverty analysis and an excellent base of knowledge from previous reports and aims to do three things. First, it proposes revisions to Vietnam's poverty monitoring system - via better data, updated welfare aggregates, and new poverty lines - to bring these more in line with economic and social conditions in present-day Vietnam. Second, it revisits the stylized facts about deprivation and poverty in Vietnam, and develops an updated profile of poverty using data from the 2010 Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) and new qualitative field studies. Third, it analyzes some of the key challenges for poverty reduction in the next decade, including changing regional patterns of poverty and wealth, high and persistent poverty among ethnic minorities, and rising inequality in outcomes and opportunities.
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Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b) expanding access to social services for the poor; c) increasing employment and income-generating activities for the poor; and d) promoting good governance.
... See More + Increased public expenditure and targeted social service provision also led to improved access to basic services. In the area of education, progress has been made in terms of school infrastructure. Over the period of 2003-2008, substantial expansion (around 40 percent) of both the number of schools and the number of classrooms was achieved. Controlling and treating epidemic diseases also had good results, thanks to prevention and public awareness efforts and improved hygiene. Meanwhile, the country has been through several exogenous shocks and crises likely to have affected the pattern of poverty outcomes. In the past two decades, Burkina Faso's income per capita growth has been positive and less volatile relative to the past. Recent growth trends appear to be anchored by a general recovery in the primary sector. Household consumption was just as volatile as income per capita in the 1980s, but recovered substantially after the country gained competitiveness in the latter half of the 1990s following devaluation. However, since then, consumption has exhibited much more volatility than output. Finally, most the social indicators show an improvement in Burkina Faso since the early 1980s. Burkina Faso has kept pace with the overall positive trends observed in Sub-Saharan Africa and low income countries.
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Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b) expanding access to social services for the poor; c) increasing employment and income-generating activities for the poor; and d) promoting good governance.
... See More + Increased public expenditure and targeted social service provision also led to improved access to basic services. In the area of education, progress has been made in terms of school infrastructure. Over the period of 2003-2008, substantial expansion (around 40 percent) of both the number of schools and the number of classrooms was achieved. Controlling and treating epidemic diseases also had good results, thanks to prevention and public awareness efforts and improved hygiene. Meanwhile, the country has been through several exogenous shocks and crises likely to have affected the pattern of poverty outcomes. In the past two decades, Burkina Faso's income per capita growth has been positive and less volatile relative to the past. Recent growth trends appear to be anchored by a general recovery in the primary sector. Household consumption was just as volatile as income per capita in the 1980s, but recovered substantially after the country gained competitiveness in the latter half of the 1990s following devaluation. However, since then, consumption has exhibited much more volatility than output. Finally, most the social indicators show an improvement in Burkina Faso since the early 1980s. Burkina Faso has kept pace with the overall positive trends observed in Sub-Saharan Africa and low income countries.
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This report aims to provide an update of the profile of the poor and describe the dynamics of poverty and inequality in the Kyrgyz Republic during 2007-2011.
... See More + This period was marked by economic and political volatility which adversely impacted the country's capacity to achieve some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The lack of progress in indicators related to maternal and child health and combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases continues to be of concern. However, in comparison to other low-income countries, non-monetary indicators of poverty in the Kyrgyz Republic fare relatively well in such areas as health, education, and access to basic infrastructure services. The report finds that at the micro-level the leading factors associated with poverty are household demographic characteristics. Larger and younger households with relatively fewer income-generating members and more net consumers, such as children, are more prone to poverty. Female-headed households have lower consumption per capita all other things held equal.
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This report aims to provide an update of the profile of the poor and describe the dynamics of poverty and inequality in the Kyrgyz Republic during 2007-2011.
... See More + This period was marked by economic and political volatility which adversely impacted the country's capacity to achieve some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The lack of progress in indicators related to maternal and child health and combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases continues to be of concern. However, in comparison to other low-income countries, non-monetary indicators of poverty in the Kyrgyz Republic fare relatively well in such areas as health, education, and access to basic infrastructure services. The report finds that at the micro-level the leading factors associated with poverty are household demographic characteristics. Larger and younger households with relatively fewer income-generating members and more net consumers, such as children, are more prone to poverty. Female-headed households have lower consumption per capita all other things held equal.
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Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b) expanding access to social services for the poor; c) increasing employment and income-generating activities for the poor; and d) promoting good governance.
... See More + Increased public expenditure and targeted social service provision also led to improved access to basic services. In the area of education, progress has been made in terms of school infrastructure. Over the period of 2003-2008, substantial expansion (around 40 percent) of both the number of schools and the number of classrooms was achieved. Controlling and treating epidemic diseases also had good results, thanks to prevention and public awareness efforts and improved hygiene. Meanwhile, the country has been through several exogenous shocks and crises likely to have affected the pattern of poverty outcomes. In the past two decades, Burkina Faso's income per capita growth has been positive and less volatile relative to the past. Recent growth trends appear to be anchored by a general recovery in the primary sector. Household consumption was just as volatile as income per capita in the 1980s, but recovered substantially after the country gained competitiveness in the latter half of the 1990s following devaluation. However, since then, consumption has exhibited much more volatility than output. Finally, most the social indicators show an improvement in Burkina Faso since the early 1980s. Burkina Faso has kept pace with the overall positive trends observed in Sub-Saharan Africa and low income countries.
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Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b) expanding access to social services for the poor; c) increasing employment and income-generating activities for the poor; and d) promoting good governance.
... See More + Increased public expenditure and targeted social service provision also led to improved access to basic services. In the area of education, progress has been made in terms of school infrastructure. Over the period of 2003-2008, substantial expansion (around 40 percent) of both the number of schools and the number of classrooms was achieved. Controlling and treating epidemic diseases also had good results, thanks to prevention and public awareness efforts and improved hygiene. Meanwhile, the country has been through several exogenous shocks and crises likely to have affected the pattern of poverty outcomes. In the past two decades, Burkina Faso's income per capita growth has been positive and less volatile relative to the past. Recent growth trends appear to be anchored by a general recovery in the primary sector. Household consumption was just as volatile as income per capita in the 1980s, but recovered substantially after the country gained competitiveness in the latter half of the 1990s following devaluation. However, since then, consumption has exhibited much more volatility than output. Finally, most the social indicators show an improvement in Burkina Faso since the early 1980s. Burkina Faso has kept pace with the overall positive trends observed in Sub-Saharan Africa and low income countries.
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Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b) expanding access to social services for the poor; c) increasing employment and income-generating activities for the poor; and d) promoting good governance.
... See More + Increased public expenditure and targeted social service provision also led to improved access to basic services. In the area of education, progress has been made in terms of school infrastructure. Over the period of 2003-2008, substantial expansion (around 40 percent) of both the number of schools and the number of classrooms was achieved. Controlling and treating epidemic diseases also had good results, thanks to prevention and public awareness efforts and improved hygiene. Meanwhile, the country has been through several exogenous shocks and crises likely to have affected the pattern of poverty outcomes. In the past two decades, Burkina Faso's income per capita growth has been positive and less volatile relative to the past. Recent growth trends appear to be anchored by a general recovery in the primary sector. Household consumption was just as volatile as income per capita in the 1980s, but recovered substantially after the country gained competitiveness in the latter half of the 1990s following devaluation. However, since then, consumption has exhibited much more volatility than output. Finally, most the social indicators show an improvement in Burkina Faso since the early 1980s. Burkina Faso has kept pace with the overall positive trends observed in Sub-Saharan Africa and low income countries.
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Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b) expanding access to social services for the poor; c) increasing employment and income-generating activities for the poor; and d) promoting good governance.
... See More + Increased public expenditure and targeted social service provision also led to improved access to basic services. In the area of education, progress has been made in terms of school infrastructure. Over the period of 2003-2008, substantial expansion (around 40 percent) of both the number of schools and the number of classrooms was achieved. Controlling and treating epidemic diseases also had good results, thanks to prevention and public awareness efforts and improved hygiene. Meanwhile, the country has been through several exogenous shocks and crises likely to have affected the pattern of poverty outcomes. In the past two decades, Burkina Faso's income per capita growth has been positive and less volatile relative to the past. Recent growth trends appear to be anchored by a general recovery in the primary sector. Household consumption was just as volatile as income per capita in the 1980s, but recovered substantially after the country gained competitiveness in the latter half of the 1990s following devaluation. However, since then, consumption has exhibited much more volatility than output. Finally, most the social indicators show an improvement in Burkina Faso since the early 1980s. Burkina Faso has kept pace with the overall positive trends observed in Sub-Saharan Africa and low income countries.
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As in many countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and around the developing world, poverty in Zambia is overwhelmingly a rural phenomenon. In 2010 the moderate poverty rate in rural areas was 74 percent, more than double the urban poverty rate of 35 percent.
... See More + The economic growth continued throughout the decade, reaching an impressive annual average of 5.7 percent, and by 2011 the World Bank recognized Zambia as a middle-income country. Rising incomes have been densely concentrated among a relatively small segment of the urban workforce, while extremely high urban unemployment rates effectively block the rural labor force from participating in the country's more dynamic economic sectors, a phenomenon that is discussed in detail in this analysis. The principal challenge faced by Zambian policymakers and the international donor community will be to extend the returns to growth throughout the country and especially to the rural poor. Marginal improvements in economic and social indicators can be accomplished through targeted interventions in the rural economy, but enduring, structural income growth and the widespread reduction of poverty will only be achievable through broad-based employment creation in the urban industrial and service sectors. This report is organized as follows: chapter one discusses poverty and inequality; chapter two gives poverty profile; chapter three discusses labor market, employment, and wages; and chapter four focuses on poverty and social spending.
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Poor governance and nearly fifteen years of brutal conflict have made Liberia one of the poorest countries in the world. An important objective for the democratically elected government of post-conflict Liberia is to reduce poverty.
... See More + As part of its long-term vision plan, the Government is preparing a second Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) to set out its medium-term approach to poverty reduction. The current climate of peace and security, as well as continued improvements in the economy, offer the Government a unique opportunity to improve on the gains that it has made in reducing poverty under its previous PRS. However, as cross-country evidence has shown, growth alone is not sufficient for poverty reduction. The Government must also take steps to break the cycle of chronic poverty by ensuring that the poor are given opportunities and support to emerge from poverty, and that those who have emerged from poverty do not fall back into poverty. This poverty note is intended to assist the Government in formulating evidence based policies aimed at poverty reduction. This policy note draws from rich information provided by the 2007 and 2010 Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaires (CWIQs). It also benefits from qualitative data from a relatively large number of focus groups on gender and youth. In addition, the note benefits from the analysis contained in the 2011 human opportunities report for Liberia, which focuses in particular on access to education.
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This report examines poverty trends and distribution of the poor in this larger context, paying particular attention to the most recent past. The report contributes to our understanding of the progress made in combating poverty in three ways.
... See More + First, it updates our knowledge of poverty outcomes by examining the trends in poverty and vulnerability, as well as the profile and distribution of the poor and vulnerable across the country. Second it looks at the most common shocks, and their scale and influence on the welfare of the population. Third, it highlights the progress the country has made in improving opportunities for acquiring human capital and increasing incomes in rural areas. In this respect the report examines changes in access to education and health and improvements in productivity and income in small holder agriculture. It also explores the potential impact of public investments in agriculture. The report finds that, the biggest achievement in the last decade has been the substantive improvement in opportunities to acquire human capital.
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Panama is one of the richest and fastest growing economies in Latin America; however it is considered a country of stark contrasts and, for some of its citizens, abysmal poverty.
... See More + Large disparities in extreme poverty, poverty, and in other measures of human development exist among its citizens. This chapter examines the trends in economic growth, inequality and poverty in Panama between 1997 and 2008 at both the national level and by region, ethnicity and gender. It presents characterization of the patterns of consumption growth across the consumption distribution (including whether the growth is 'pro-poor'). Next, it examines the role of internal migration flows in explaining shifts in poverty and extreme poverty between rural and urban areas. Lastly, the chapter begins to analyze the inequality of access to basic opportunities among children using the Human Opportunity Index (HOI). The Human Opportunity Index (HOI) is an operational measure of opportunities that takes into account both coverage and the distribution of access to basic goods and services by children, who cannot be held accountable for pre-determined circumstances at birth such as their race, gender, family income, parents' education level, or place of residence. The study is based on nationally-representative Living Standards Measurement Surveys (LSMS), which were conducted in 1997, 2003 and 2008. The LSMS household questionnaire includes quantitative data on various aspects of living conditions, including household structure, housing, infrastructure, health, nutrition, education and training, economic activity (labor), migration, spending and consumption, income, savings, credit, independent business activities, and agriculture. Since the latest available information is for 2008, the poverty numbers presented here reflect the Panamanian situation after the end of the period of high growth but before the impact of the 2008-09 global financial crises. With this latest dataset, there are now three comparable household surveys that allow for the study of the evolution of poverty in Panama between 1997, 2003, and 2008.
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