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What do the World Bank's Poverty Assessments teach us about Poverty in Sub‐Saharan Africa?

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  • Lucia C. Hanmer
  • Graham Pyatt
  • Howard White

Abstract

As part of the World Bank's poverty reduction strategy, Poverty Assessments have been carried out for a number of countries which analyse who the poor are, the causes of poverty and poverty reduction policies. This article reviews what can be learnt from the twenty‐five Assessments prepared for countries in sub‐Saharan Africa up to 1996. Whilst other factors are acknowledged in identifying the poor, the Assessments over‐emphasize income‐poverty defined against an inevitably arbitrary poverty line. The Assessments are shown to be weak in addressing the causes of poverty, often ignoring the historical perspective, political context, and international dimensions such as debt and commodity price trends, focusing instead on the lack of growth in recent years as the main cause of poverty. Weak understanding of the causes of poverty undermines the basis for country‐specific poverty reduction strategies: policy recommendations are usually an uncritical presentation of the World Bank's three‐pronged strategy of growth, investment in human capital and social safety nets. Although the Assessments do not explicitly acknowledge the point, they suggest that the number of poor people in Africa will continue to rise; nor is there any basis for confidence that policies are being put in place to redress the situation.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucia C. Hanmer & Graham Pyatt & Howard White, 1999. "What do the World Bank's Poverty Assessments teach us about Poverty in Sub‐Saharan Africa?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(4), pages 795-823, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:30:y:1999:i:4:p:795-823
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-7660.00138
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    Cited by:

    1. Yul Davids & Amanda Gouws, 2013. "Monitoring Perceptions of the Causes of Poverty in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 1201-1220, February.
    2. Heeks, Richard & Duncombe, Richard, 2001. "Ethical Trade, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Self-Regulation," Centre on Regulation and Competition (CRC) Working papers 30675, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    3. Esther O. Lamidi, 2019. "Household composition and experiences of food insecurity in Nigeria: the role of social capital, education, and time use," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(1), pages 201-218, February.
    4. White, Howard & Leavy, Jennifer, 2000. "Economic Reform and Economic Performance: Evidence from 20 Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 6594, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Carlos de la Espriella, 2009. "A Technique for Small-area Poverty Analyses," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(11), pages 2399-2421, October.
    6. Steve Yaw Sarpong & Murad A. Bein, 2021. "Effects of good governance, sustainable development and aid on quality of life: Evidence from sub‐saharan Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(1), pages 25-37, March.
    7. Matthias Grossmann (SKOPE) and Mark Poston (DFID), "undated". "Skill Needs and Policies for Agriculture-led Pro-poor Development," QEH Working Papers qehwps112, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    8. Robert Lensink & Howard White, 2000. "Aid allocation, poverty reduction and the Assessing Aid report," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(3), pages 399-412, April.
    9. White, Howard, 2002. "Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches in Poverty Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 511-522, March.
    10. Sara Stevano & Suneetha Kadiyala & Deborah Johnston & Hazel Malapit & Elizabeth Hull & Sofia Kalamatianou, 2019. "Time-Use Analytics: An Improved Way of Understanding Gendered Agriculture-Nutrition Pathways," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 1-22, July.

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