CPRC West Africa
The CPRC’s partners in West Africa are found in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Senegal. The regional network is coordinated by Bara Gueye of IED Afrique in Senegal.
- Introduction to chronic poverty in West Africa
- Key CPRC publications
- Contact details for CPRC partners in West Africa
Introduction to chronic poverty in West Africa
West Africa is one of the poorest parts of the world, where poverty is quasi-endemic, despite steady economic growth over the least decade. The economy of the region is still based on agriculture, which contributes 30-50% of GDP and represents the most important source of income for 70-80% of the population. In most countries, agriculture’s share of the economy has continued to grow over the last 15 years. In addition, the sahelian sub-region has faced a chronic rainfall deficit for more than half a century, with a drop of 20-30% over the period 1930-1990, increasing the pressure on increasingly scarce fertile land. This hostile geography, in conjunction with unstable and inappropriate agricultural policies, has led to a fall in agricultural production.
Per capita GDP was less than US$400 in 10 out of the 15 countries making up the region in 2000, and the proportion of people living on less than $1/day varied from 15% in Senegal to over 60% in Burkina Faso, Niger, Sierra Leone and Togo. The poverty rate has declined since the mid-1990s in some countries, e.g. Senegal and Ghana, but it remains high. In others, e.g. Burkina Faso, it has even risen slightly. The panel surveys which would allow detailed measurement of chronic poverty over recent years mostly do not exist; however, estimates using other means suggest that at least 25% of the population in many countries may be chronically poor. The high level of illiteracy, maternal and infant mortality, and incidence of HIV/AIDS also indicate this. Despite this, population growth rates across the region are some of the world’s highest.
This overview hides some important differences between and within countries. Some countries, notably Liberia and Sierra Leone, were devastated by conflict in the 1990s and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and lost their livelihoods: other countries have seen relative political stability. In Ghana, the incidence of poverty varies considerably between the relatively better off urbanised and coastal areas, and the rural north. Senegal, for example, is relatively urbanised and has a chemicals sector that contributes up to 20% of GDP. In contrast, some Sahelian countries, like Niger or Burkina Faso, face particular natural constraints that considerably heighten the vulnerability of their populations. The food crisis that hit Niger in 2005 is a good illustration. While it was highly publicised, it was not a particularly new or unique phenomenon for the Sahel zone, even if it was on a bigger scale than the crises affecting neighbouring countries at the same time. These recurring crises are not the product of chance climatic shocks, but of structural causes which also underlie the chronic poverty of much of the population. These include economies overdependent on agriculture, low prices of agricultural products in domestic and international markets, lack of domestic and regional infrastructure, and heavy foreign debt burdens. Social inequality and poor public provision of social services also contribute to the persistent poverty and vulnerability to poverty suffered by much of the population.
What is being done? Public action to tackle chronic poverty in the region
Countries across the region have been adopting explicit poverty-reduction policies in recent years, driven by the PRSP and HIPC initiatives, and trends in international development policy. However, in general these policies do not discuss chronic poverty as a particular phenomenon, or make use of research on poverty dynamics.
- In Ghana, the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), while in macro-economic terms similar to structural adjustment, does include an expanded focus on social protection programmes aimed at the “vulnerable and excluded”. This includes strategies in the employment, health, and environment sectors, and social assistance for particular groups in difficult circumstances e.g. orphans and vulnerable children, single mothers, and older people. The strategies focus on livelihood promotion through training and microfinance; however, some transformative social protection measures are present in the second GPRS – e.g. strengthening regulations against child labour and promoting the dissemination of information on rights. While the GPRS does not mention chronic poverty as a particular phenomenon, or engage with poverty dynamics analysis, its strategies have scope for addressing some of the causes of chronic poverty. A challenge is to resource them adequately.
- In Burkina Faso, from the 1960s to the 1990s poverty was seen as a by-product of under industrialisation and poor economic management, with poverty reduction an inevitable result of development. This has changed in recent years, and state policy now attempts to tackle poverty directly through a multi-dimensional strategy. This consists of programmes promoting equitable economic growth (including better sub-national regional integration), improved access to social services and social protection by the poor, expanding employment and livelihood opportunities for the poor, and good governance. Other actors are local governments, which generally confine themselves to a mix of general employment promotion, education, and some social measures targeted at destitute people; and a large number of NGOs, who mostly concern themselves with grassroots infrastructure creation and empowerment. Thus, although policy and action to tackle poverty is not lacking, there is an absence of any strategy specifically aimed at people in chronic poverty.
- Niger’s PRS also has four main themes – macroeconomic stability, infrastructure development (particularly for transport and tourism), improved access to social services for the poor, and good governance. In addition, the country has a food security programme based on grain stockpiles and a famine early warning system – the functioning of which has been criticised in the light of the 2005 crisis. Unfortunately, the PRS and food security strategies tend to be seen in isolation from each other, when a more ‘joined up’ approach is surely called for. Other weaknesses of the PRS are: its prioritations of growth with little thought to how the poorest will participate or benefit; and taking little account of the livelihood strategies and coping mechanisms actually employed by poor people. Again, the ‘safety net’ approach to food security does not address the fundamental causes of recurrent food crises.
- While poverty has risen slightly in the 1990s in Benin, official thinking about poverty has tended to view it as the widespread lack of ““basic needs”, with the solution lying in general development policy and little attention to the existence of chronic poverty. What understanding there is of chronic poverty is that it is a problem of a minority of “destitute” people – the mentally ill, etc. Nevertheless, it is estimated that there is also a significant number of working people dependent on uncertain casual labour markets (e.g. landless rural dwellers, fishing boat labourers, urban labourers) who live in chronic poverty. There has been an increasing focus on poverty in government policy recently, partly due to a shift in donor priorities: Benin has had strong donor involvement with development policy, from structural adjustment in the late 1980s to PRSPs today. The first PRSP (2002-2006) again had four themes, with a multidimensional approach and some broad progress on social service provision, but implementation suffered from poor funding and coordination, and a lack of state capacity and ownership: 39% of civil servants were apparently unaware of the existence of the strategy. The second PRSP (2007-2011) places growth centre stage, while attempting also to target the Millennium Development Goals. There are many local initiatives on agricultural diversification and community-based development that have promise for reaching the poorest and chronically poor, but are not included in the PRSP – greater depth and detail in its proposals would strengthen it.
CPRC’s work in West Africa
CPRC in West Africa is initially concerned addressing the lack of attention to poverty dynamics in statistics and policy to date. Partners are undertaking research to develop a robust baseline of knowledge on the extent, characteristics and causes of chronic poverty in the region, and build up a more detailed and disaggregated picture of “the poor” than official documents tend to have currently.
In terms of policy analysis, we focus on the impact of PRSP processes, global economic processes on poor farmers, governance, and poverty and social protection. Immediate priorities to be covered in all countries include social protection, agricultural growth and migration. Social protection is a major policy development in the region with a number of countries producing social protection strategies. From 2008 governance and economic growth will be prioritised. The outputs will feed into PRS reviews (2008-11), PRS monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and the launching of regional economic agreements and policies including the West Africa PRS. Researchers in the region are also particularly interested in participatory video making for social change and policy influencing.
Key CPRC publications
CPRC working papers
Oduro, A. D. and Aryee, I. (2003) Investigating chronic poverty in West Africa, CPRC Working Paper 28.
Conference papers
Shepherd, A., Jebuni, C., McKay, A. and Kanbur, R. (2007) Improving the performance of weakly integrated regions: Lessons from Northern Ghana, paper prepared for the international workshop “Understanding and addressing spatial poverty traps: an international workshop” 29 March 2007, Spier Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Oelbaum, J. (2007), Liberalisation or liberation?: Economic reform and the paradox of conflict in Ghana’s northern region, paper prepared for the international workshop “Understanding and addressing spatial poverty traps: an international workshop” 29 March 2007, Spier Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Sabates-Wheeler, R., Natali, C. and Black, R. (2007) Migration, legal status and poverty: Evidence from return to Ghana, paper prepared for the international conference Living on the Margins: Vulnerability, social exclusion and the state in the informal economy, Cape Town, South Africa, 26-28 March 2007
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Contact details
CPRC West Africa coordinator / Coordination régionale |
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Mamadou Bara Gueye |
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IED Afrique |
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Senegal |
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Contact : Abdou Salam FALL |
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Laboratoire Paupérisation et Transformations |
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Burkina Faso |
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Contact : Claude Wetta |
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CEDRES |
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Niger |
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Contact : Seyni HAMA |
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Réseau MARP |
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Benin |
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Roch Mongbo |
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FIDESPRA (Forum International pour le Développement et l'Echange de Savoir et de Savoir-Faire au Service d'une Promotion Rural Auto Entretenue) |
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Ghana |
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Ms. Abena D. Oduro |
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Department of Economics
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