Republic of Niger : Trends of Poverty, Inequality, and Growth, 2005-2011
The ability to accurately monitor poverty trends is crucial to ensure the adoption of effective antipoverty policies and to assess progress toward the achievement of national development goals. In Niger, efforts to assess poverty dynamics between 2...
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Format: | Report |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
Washington, DC
2015
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/08/24932878/niger-trends-poverty-inequality-growth-2005-2011 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22823 |
Summary: | The ability to accurately monitor
poverty trends is crucial to ensure the adoption of
effective antipoverty policies and to assess progress toward
the achievement of national development goals. In Niger,
efforts to assess poverty dynamics between 2005 and 2011 are
complicated by methodological differences in the three
household surveys conducted over the period, in 2005,
2007-08 and 2011. While Niger’s overall poverty rate has
dropped significantly between 2005 and 2011, changes in the
poverty incidence are highly uneven across location types.
Among the major causes of persistent poverty are the
country’s minimal economic diversification and extremely
limited agricultural infrastructure, which leave the
majority of Nigerien households dependent on highly
vulnerable farming and livestock production. In addition,
the country’s extremely high rate of population growth
presents a serious obstacle to sustainable poverty
reduction. Not only does Niger have one of the highest
population growth rates in the world, but fertility
correlates inversely with income level. In other words, the
fastest-growing segments of the population are also the
poorest, and as a result, the declining trend in the
national poverty rate is continuously offset by a steady
increase in the absolute number of Nigeriens living in
poverty. In addition, the relationship between population
growth and rural-urban migration has important implications
for poverty trends. Urban fertility rates are lower than
rural rates and have been declining over time, while rural
fertility rates remain both extremely high and relatively
stable. Over the long run urbanization may have the added
benefit of slowing nationwide population growth. However,
this dynamic will be greatly accelerated by an independent
improvement in conditions associated with lower birth rates
in rural areas, including sustained increases in household
incomes, broad improvements in education indicators,
especially among women, and expanded access to healthcare
facilities and family planning services. |
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