What Explains Differences in Early Child Development Between Urban and Rural Areas in Cameroun?

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to identify factors that determine the difference in early child development between urban and rural areas of Cameroon. We have used the Fairlie (2005) decomposition method and the data collected as part of the 5th MICS survey conducted in Cameroon in 2014, which provides information for children aged 36 to 59 months. This database indicates that among these children, 68% of those living in urban area enjoy good early child development, against 56.5% of those living in rural area. This difference is significant at 1% threshold. Results of the global decomposition reveal that only 48% of this difference is due to difference in characteristics between the two areas, so can be explained, and 58% is non- explainable and not significant. Results of the detailed decomposition show that five factors contribute to the explanation of this explainable difference: ‘Having more than two learning books’ contributes to the explanation of 46.29% of it; ‘Following an educational program’ to the explanation of 43.69%; ‘Living in a household whose head comes from the Center, South and East regions of Cameroon’ to the explanation of 16.58%; ‘Carring out counting activities, spelling words and / or drawing with a parent or another adult’ to the explanation of 10.59% and ‘Living in an average living standard household’ to the explanation of 7.84%. We suggest government should give children of the two areas the same chance to access these factors.