Are we there yet? Poverty in sub-Saharan Africa

Nandy, Shailen (2018). Are we there yet? Poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852557

This project will use high quality, nationally representative, individual level data from over 140 household surveys conducted between 1990 and 2015 in 40 sub-Saharan African countries, to produce national, sub-regional and regional estimates of absolute poverty for the years 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015.

Age appropriate and gender relevant indicators of severe deprivation of basic human needs will be operationalised, and an internationally recognised peer reviewed methodology (the ‘Bristol Approach’) used to show how poverty is patterned across Africa, and how it has changed over 20 years. It will show if rural populations have been left behind as urban areas develop, or if with increased rural to urban migration, poverty in Africa has evolved into a primarily urban problem. It will address important issues about gender and geographic disparities in poverty, which until recently have only been assessed in monetary terms.

The application of the Bristol Approach, to reflect non-monetary dimensions of poverty, will reveal a more meaningful picture of poverty in Africa and how it has changed over time.

Links will be developed with researchers across Africa, including academics at the Universities of Cape Town and the Western Cape.

Data description (abstract)

This data collection consists of aggregate population data by age and sex (for post-stratification population weighting) derived from a UN Population Division file (referred to in the report attached, under the section on post-stratification population weighting) as well as a detailed report which sets out how indicators of deprivation of basic human needs for water, sanitation, shelter, information, education, health and food were developed and used to form summary indicators of severe deprivation and absolute poverty. The report also provides information on how post-stratification population weights were derived to modify the sample weights to make samples more representative of the population as a whole.

The data used for this project are from the Demographic and Health Surveys and UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (see Related Resources).

Data creators: