Poverty alleviation in southern Sudan : the case of Rank county

Abstract EN

The main objective of this study is to investigate the poverty status and its determinants in Rank County, Upper Nile State-Southern Sudan.

Both primary and secondary data were used.

The sample size reached 245 urban and rural households.

Different analytical methods were used, namely: Foster, Greer and Thornback (FGT) and inequality measures, poverty profiling, and multivariate regression analysis.

The study also conducted simulation scenarios of selected variables.

The results revealed that about 87 and 73 percent of the urban and rural household fall below a calculated poverty line of SDG 3.5 / person / day for urban and 2.38 for rural.

The estimated Gini coefficient was 17.6 percent for urban and 19.7 percent for rural.

In general, poverty incidence, gap and severity are more prevalent among urban than rural households in the County.

The poorer households in Rank are more likely to belong to: large family size, younger household heads in the rural areas with no livestock ownership (cows, sheep and poultry) but have small plots for crop cultivation, female headed households who do not have access to land and seasonal labor opportunities, household heads engaged in small private sector employment, petty trading and unskilled and landless labor (termed as Ganges) operations.

The results of the determinants analyses indicated that secondary education, widow household heads, female household heads, government and private sector employees, petty traders, Ganges, dysentery infection, mixed source of water are the main poverty determinants in the urban area.

On the other hand, rural poverty determinants are: university education, married household heads, household size, female household heads, farmers, Ganges, petty traders, idle crop production plots, goats ownership and numbers of chicken per households.

Simulation results showed that it is imperative to involve the government more closely in providing the social amenities especially the supply of drinking water, health, and education and electricity services to relieve pressure on the poor in both urban and rural societies.