Poverty In Sub-Saharan Africa Research Articles

Road Fatalities and Extreme Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: How Fatal Is It for the Breadwinners?

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the relationship between extreme poverty and road fatalities in sub-Saharan Africa using a panel of 42 countries over the period 1990–2014. We adopt the two-step system GMM method and a two-stage estimation framework to check for robustness of the relationship between road fatalities and extreme poverty. Our study finds a positive and significant relationship between deaths from road accidents and extreme poverty for overall road fatalities and only the age group between 15 and 49 years when considering the different age groups. Extreme-poverty-road fatality elasticity post higher values when we adopt the two-stage estimation framework.

Alleviating Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Inclusive Business Models

Abstract The study aimed to analyze the ability of inclusive business (IB) models to sustainably contribute to efforts made in alleviating poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on the cases of Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya. Data collected on these two countries revealed a clear opposite stream in the integration pattern of the populations at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) in IB models. In Côte d'Ivoire individuals at BoPs integrate IBs mainly through the agricultural sector, getting busy with the supply of raw material, and with the distribution and/or sale of products in the value chain; thus, supporting an upstream integration. In Kenya, individual at BoPs rather are concentrated in manufacturing, with a first choice on non-permanent employees as activity in the value chain, followed by permanent employees; hence, downstreaming the integration ladder. In both countries, IB contributes positively and significantly to welfare at BoPs, especially when the IB model is implemented as part of a specific program.

Poverty eradication in sub-Saharan Africa: a government-led or private sector-driven approach?

PurposeThe paper contributes to the literature on investment and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Specifically, the study examined the separate role of private and public investment in poverty reduction in a panel of 40 sub-Saharan African countries.Design/methodology/approachFor robustness, the study adopts a variety of estimation techniques. These include the fixed effect (within) regression model, the two-step system generalised method of moments (GMM) and the pooled OLS with Driscoll-Kraay robust standard errors to account for the well-known problems of endogeneity, heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence inherent in panel data.FindingsThe empirical results show that the reducing impact of public investment on poverty is marginal, while private investment has a significant reducing impact on poverty. The study also found that access to social services, such as water and sanitation, and credit are important determinants of investment in SSA. The research and policy implications are discussed.Originality/valueThe study investigated the separate effect of private and public investments on poverty in SSA, unlike the existing studies that adopted total investment.

Trends in fertility intentions and contraceptive practices in the context of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa: insights from four national and regional population-based cohorts

ObjectivesStudies in several sub-Saharan geographies conducted early in the COVID-19 pandemic suggested little impact on contraceptive behaviours. Initial results may mask widening disparities with rising poverty, and changes to women’s...

The Role of Mobile Money Innovations in the Effect of Inequality on Poverty and Severity of Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Role of Mobile Money Innovations in the Effect of Inequality on Poverty and Severity of Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

Rich in the dark: Natural resources and energy poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

Despite the abundant resources with which Africa is endowed, this region of the world is also, paradoxically, the least enlightened, with a low rate of access to electricity and a high propensity to use fuels for cooking. Based on this paradoxical observation, this study proposes to analyse the effect of natural resources on energy poverty in a panel of 45 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1997–2018. Energy poverty is measured mainly by access to electricity and the following results are established. First, natural resource-dependent countries in sub-Saharan Africa are associated with greater energy poverty. Second, point resources (oil, gas and mineral rents) accentuate energy poverty, unlike diffuse resources (forest rents). However, we show that this situation is not irreversible, as democracy, especially liberal, participatory and egalitarian democracies, mitigate the effect of natural resources on energy poverty.

Infrastructure and poverty reduction: Assessing the dynamic impact of Chinese infrastructure investment in sub-Saharan Africa

Infrastructure investment is essential for African countries to enhance economic activities and reduce poverty; however, the conclusions from national-level studies remain ambiguous. Combining geo-coded Chinese infrastructure project data from 2000 to 2014 and Demographic and Health Surveys information, we employ a spatiotemporal estimation strategy and explore the dynamic effectiveness of Chinese infrastructure investment on local multidimensional poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and its mechanisms. Our findings demonstrate that infrastructure projects can continuously alleviate local multidimensional poverty following project completion, primarily by improving living standards through local industrialization and increasing individual employment stability. Further investigating heterogeneities, we determine that Chinese infrastructure projects are more effective for self-dependent recipients, in rural areas, and when overseen by state-owned enterprises. Our findings provide insights into the long-term effectiveness for underdeveloped countries to reduce local poverty with Chinese infrastructure investment.

Information and communication technologies role in alleviating poverty in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Impacts and transmission channels

AbstractResearch has continued to indicate that the proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has the potential to alleviate poverty in developing countries. While theoretically, there are several mechanisms through which ICT may reduce poverty, they have not been empirically tested sufficiently. The present study aimed to recognize the mechanisms through which ICT may reduce poverty for a sample of 37 economies in the Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) region during the period 2003–2019. Altering the income distribution, improving the ecological system, increasing the employment rate, increasing per capita income, and improving institutional quality were the assumed mechanisms through which ICT may reduce poverty. The results of the two‐step system GMM technique showed that while an increase in the per capita income and employment rate contributed positively to poverty reduction, improvement in the environmental quality increased the poverty rate. The causal mediation analysis findings showed that ICT strengthened the negative impact of worsening the quality of the environment on poverty. However, the strengthened positive impact of ICT on poverty through employment and per capita income was greater than the negative influence through the environmental mechanism. Thus, all national strategies or initiatives aimed at reducing poverty in SSA must incorporate pro‐poor ICT policies.

With the Continuing Increase in Sub-Saharan African Countries, Will Sustainable Development of Goal 1 Ever Be Achieved by 2030?

The poor in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are in a worse predicament than their counterparts in other regions. The goal of this study was to establish the key drivers of poverty in SSA by looking at how economic variables affect growth and poverty. Data from ten SSA nations—upper-middle-income countries (UMIC), lower-middle-income countries (LMIC), and low-income countries (LIC)—were analyzed based on historical values from 2015 to 2019. From the six economic variables studied, the best model reveals that 78% of the differences in poverty can be accounted for using a methodical, statistical approach. Poverty and unemployment rates have a substantial positive relationship (p = 0.001662). The gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate and poverty have a slight link, which is significant at the 10% level (p = 0.067) but is not a significant contributor to poverty alleviation. The secondary school enrolment rate has no bearing on poverty variation (p = 0.33). Increased GDP does not necessarily correspond to poverty reduction. Unemployment, on the other hand, is a major contributor to poverty in the region. Moreover, education (secondary school ennoblement) plays a less important role in reducing poverty, whereas per capita personal consumer spending and GDP growth rate have a bigger impact on poverty reduction. The proposed theoretical and numerical model works on general indicators and trends; it does not guarantee that people in the UMIC, LMIC, and LIC countries may not fall below the international poverty line ($1.90 per day). The poverty rates are predicted to climb by more than 2% by 2030, postponing poverty elimination in the SSA region by almost five years. This signifies that more than half of the SSA population will remain poor.

Urbanization and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from dynamic panel data analysis of selected urbanizing countries

Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is generally highlighted as a puzzle that deviates from the stylized facts in the literature. Using data from a panel of 29 urbanizing countries in SSA from 1985 to 2019, the study employs the two-step system generalized methods of moments to investigate the effect of urbanization on the Poverty Headcount ratio and Poverty Gap. The estimated urbanization elasticities of poverty indicate that at growth rates, a 1 percentage point increase in urbanization rate induces 0.04 and 0.05 (0.07 and 0.09) percentage points decrease in the Poverty Headcount ratio and Poverty Gap in the short-run (long-run), respectively. Similarly, at levels, a 1 percent increase in urbanization level induces 0.22 and 0.32 (0.60 and 0.68) percent decrease in the Poverty Headcount ratio and Poverty Gap in the short-run (long-run), respectively. Consistently, these results show stronger effect of urbanization on the depth of poverty relative to the incidence of poverty. These findings reappraise the literature on the urbanization of poverty in SSA as well as provide a nuanced understanding of the effect of urbanization on the different class of poverty measures. Notwithstanding, the poverty reduction potential of urbanization is not automatic and requires enormous investment in public infrastructure to achieve.

The nexus between ecological footprint, economic growth, and energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: a technological threshold approach

The nexus between ecological footprint, economic growth, and energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: a technological threshold approach

Labor calendars and rural poverty: A case study for Malawi

The persistence of rural poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa is a major challenge for meeting the Sustainable Development Goal on poverty eradication. Using detailed data for Malawi, we investigate the association between seasonality in labor calendars and low consumption. We find that (1) seasonality in rural labor calendars runs deep, accounting for 2/3 of total rural underemployment, (2) we do not observe activities with labor requirements that run clearly counter-cyclical to the main agricultural season, (3) gaps in rural–urban annual consumption are strongly associated with differences in time worked due to seasonality differentials. The implication is that reducing rural seasonality in labor calendars should be a major objective in seeking to increase rural consumption levels. Methodologically, we show that labor calendars can be constructed from standard annual rural household survey data with information on labor use by crop and task.

Editor’s Note: Polarisation and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

In this issue of the Journal of African Economies (JAE) we are publishing two papers concerned with the role of polarisation in explaining the link between poverty reduction and growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. The first paper, by Fabio Clementi (and co-authors), claims there has been an increase in polarisation in most Sub-Saharan African countries and this increase in polarisation is linked to why poverty reduction has been slower than what would be expected given the higher growth rates of recent decades. The second paper, by Fraser Partridge, argues that there is no evidence of distributional changes unaccounted for by standard measures of inequality and mean consumption. The implication is that there is no distinct role for the chosen measure of polarisation in accounting for the evolution of poverty in the region. The papers, therefore, draw exactly opposite conclusions as to the relevance of polarisation for understanding the link...

Regional cooperation for mitigating energy poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: A context-based approach through the tripartite lenses of access, sufficiency, and mobility

Persistent low electricity access continues to plague Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and has been made more obvious due to the precarious nature of adopted energisation schemes across the region. The absence of resilient electrification schemes within most countries in SSA portends grave danger for the region. Regional cooperation (like the integrated European Union (EU) electricity market) can guarantee stable, secure, and affordable electricity supply across regions when properly regulated. However, such a template as is obtainable in Europe may be impossible to replicate within SSA owing to the peculiar problems, local controversies and very wide variation in regional electrification statistics that exist within the region. This research work pertinently examines the power pools within SSA and argues that improved regional cooperation, especially in tackling the issue of energy poverty and achieving “universal energy access (SDG 7)”, should be pursued on the platform of national energy sufficiency. This argument draws extensively from the geopolitics within the region by different actors and the impact of national interests on regional cooperation. While we do not seek to oppose regional cooperation in electricity trading, we emphasize the need for nations within the region to strive for some level of national energy security through carefully crafted policies and road maps that resonate with their local realities. Regional cooperation should strive to standardise electricity access benchmarks and facilitate technology transfer through existing or improved instruments rather than pushing for more integrated electricity networks.

The Relationship between Malaria and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Relationship between Malaria and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

Implications of Climate Change on Agricultural Productivity: A Review

Global warning and thus climate change is a global issue and its consequences are being felt at varying degrees in different parts of the world. The developing countries are more vulnerable to its effects because of their poor economic status and political instability. In recent times, experiences of more flooding, erosion, drought, storms, rise in sea level and other extreme weather conditions resulting in poverty, degraded environment and low agricultural productivity. It’s devastating impact on various dimension of human endeavours and socio-economic income of nations and individual cannot be over emphasized. Climatologically, has an extremely variable rainfall distribution, which will be exacerbated by climate change. This will inevitably impact on agriculture and the availability of water to sustain human activities. These future climate change impacts are likely to aggravate the harmful effects of poor land use; practices, especially deforestation, soil degradation and water pollution. Communities that have been made vulnerable by economic hardship and disease will find it even harder to cope. Climate change is perhaps the most serious environmental threat to the fight against hunger, malnutrition, diseases and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa mainly through its impact on agricultural productivity

Revisiting the Relationship between Poverty and Environmental Sustainability in Sub-Saharan African Countries using Dynamic Econometric Models

Sustainable development remains an important issue in the quest to achieve a safe and a better world. The expansion of the 8 millennium development goals into the 17 sustainable development goals is a testament of the conscious desire to improve the human environment to ensure better quality of life for its citizens. This study assembles a collection of four sophisticated econometric models to determine the impact of poverty and other variables on two indicators of environmental sustainability. Beside, economic development, the study confirmed the negative impact of poverty on both indicators of sustainable development. The results prove that poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is a threat to environmental quality and its consequential challenges. The call to promote environmentally responsible behaviours should not be focused on developed countries alone. Poverty is also associated with high levels of pollution and poor countries including countries in sub-Saharan Africa contributes must equally restrategise for effective environmental goals. The study further discloses that poverty is one of the strongest factors that affect environmental sustainability. This observation is not a contradiction to the well-established fact that prosperity or economic growth is a major precursor of unsustainable environment. On the contrary the evidence in this paper amplifies a consequence of a social crisis if they fester at both ends. In one breath, whereas economic growth or economic prosperity can compromise the quality of the environment. In conclusion, this result implies that African countries in their pursuit of economic growth, education and effective healthcare to ameliorate poverty must incorporate other aggressive strategies to hasten poverty reduction.

Remittances, financial development and poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for post-COVID-19 macroeconomic policies

To design and implement effective post-COVID-19 macroeconomics policies to tackle poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), policymakers need to understand the factors shaping poverty in the region. This paper investigates the effect of international remittances and financial development on poverty alleviation in 44 sub-Saharan African SSA countries from 2010 to 2019. The instrumental variable generalised method of moment technique results indicated that while remittances increase poverty, financial development contributes significantly to poverty reduction. The results consistently revealed that remittances increase both male and female poverty rates, while financial development significantly reduces male and female poverty rates. Other factors such as economic growth, foreign direct investment, and trade openness contributed significantly to reducing poverty. In contrast, government expenditure and foreign aid were found to increase poverty rate in SSA. These results are robust to the Lewbel two-stage least squares estimator. The practical implications of these findings for post-COVID-19 macroeconomic policies in SSA are discussed.

The impact of foreign direct investment and international remittances on poverty: evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries in 1996–2017

This paper investigates the causal relationship between Foreign Direct Investment, remittances and poverty in Sub-Saharan African countries using simultaneous equations models over the period 1996–2017. Global panel results showed that there is a bi-directional causal relationship between remittances and poverty as well as FDI and remittances. However, there is unidirectional causality from FDI to poverty. The results suggest that there is a bidirectional causality between remittances and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, West, East and South Africa, while unidirectional causality from remittances to poverty in Central Africa. Other results show that in Central, East and South Africa, there is a bidirectional causality between FDI and poverty, while unidirectional causality from FDI to poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa. Policy implications of this study suggest that essential for governments in Sub-Saharan Africa give great importance to increase the inflow of remittances to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

Addressing the severity and intensity of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: how relevant is the ICT and financial development pathway?

The study examines the effectiveness of ICT diffusion and financial development in reducing the severity and intensity of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using data from the World Development Indicators and the Global Consumption and Income Project (1980–2019), we provide evidence, robust to several specifications from the dynamic system GMM and the panel corrected standard errors estimation techniques, to show that, compared to financial access, ICT usage, and ICT access, ICT skills is remarkable in reducing both the severity and intensity of poverty. The results further revealed that, though ICT skills reduce poverty, the effect is more pronounced in the presence of enhanced financial development. Policy recommendations are provided in line with the region's green growth agenda and technological progress.