Trends in poverty and inequality in seven African countries

Inequality in Africa: a multidimensional perspective

By: Booysen F, Burger R et al
Published by: Poverty and Economic Policy Network, 2007
Via: Eldis

Conventional approaches to measuring poverty and inequality that use money-metric data overlook social aspects of poverty. This paper uses the multidimensional, asset index, approach to analyse trends in poverty and inequality in seven African countries including Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Based on quantitative analysis on data from the late 20th century, the authors identify:

• improvements are largely driven by progress in the accumulation of private assets, while access to public services has deteriorated
• overall poverty and inequality has declined in most countries, with Zambia being the exception
• rural poverty and inequality in all cases exceeded urban poverty
• within-group inequality explains the greater share of total inequality.

(http://132.203.59.36/NEW-PEP/Group/papers/papers/PMMA-2007-06.pdf)