What do national poverty lines tell us about global poverty?

The basic question about ‘how many poor people are there in the world?’ generally assumes that poverty is measured according to international poverty lines (IPLs). Yet, an equally relevant question could be ‘how many poor people are there in the world, based on how poverty is defined where those people live?’ In short, rather than a comparison based on monetary values, the latter question is germane to estimates based on a concept – ‘poverty’ – as defined by countries’ specific circumstances and institutions. Estimates of poverty by national poverty lines (NPLs) and international poverty lines (IPLs) may vary in terms of technical grounds. But how similar are they? How different is poverty captured by comparable (in PPP monetary value) cross-country measures as embodied by the IPL compared to that viewed in NPLs? This paper offers a new perspective on global poverty. It does so by estimating the distribution of poverty across countries, regions and income categories based on national poverty lines (NPLs). Even though comparing NPLs across countries means comparing poverty lines of different monetary value, we argue that exploring “poverty” as a nationally defined concept by countries at different stages of development unveils important and often unnoticed findings. By addressing the question of poverty as defined where those poor people live, this paper seeks to offer a new perspective on global poverty and at the same time extend thinking on the ‘middle-income countries poverty paradox’ – meaning that most of the world’s poor do not live in the world’s poorest countries Using data from 160 countries covering nearly 92 per cent of world population, we estimate that globally 1.5 billion people live in poverty as defined within their own countries (by NPLs), a billion of which are in middle-income countries (MICs) and - surprisingly perhaps - one in ten of world’s poor live in high-income countries (HICs). Our analysis shows that NPL and IPL-based estimates lead to similar poverty estimates only in a limited number of cases. In particular, we conclude that (i) there is a considerable difference between regional and national poverty estimates based on IPLs and NPLs – that is, differences for a same country could be as high as 55 percentage points in poverty rates, or about 45 million in the number of poor people; (ii) NPLs may be particularly important for analysis of poverty in MICs: indeed, their NPLs don’t feed into the construction of IPLs. Hence, poverty at national level may not be adequately captured by IPLs themselves; (iii) NPLs are not substitutes for IPLs, but instead enrich and complement international analyses. Yet, there could be trade-offs between the two, especially in terms of different development actors tracking different poverty estimates. Our findings also have implications for debates about global poverty targets and international assistance. Keywords: poverty; inequality; aid; Middle-Income; Low-Income Countrie

Seed system security assessment : Southern Sudan : November-December 2010

Juba, South Suda

Prevalence of severe mental distress and its correlates in a population-based study in rural south-west Uganda

BACKGROUND: The problem of severe mental distress (SMD) in sub-Saharan Africa is difficult to investigate given that a substantial proportion of patients with SMD never access formal health care.This study set out to investigate SMD and it's associated factors in a rural population-based cohort in south-west Uganda. METHODS: 6,663 respondents aged 13 years and above in a general population cohort in southwestern Uganda were screened for probable SMD and possible associated factors. RESULTS: 0.9% screened positive for probable SMD. The factors significantly associated with SMD included older age, male sex, low socio-economic status, being a current smoker, having multiple or no sexual partners in the past year, reported epilepsy and consulting a traditional healer. CONCLUSION: SMD in this study was associated with both socio-demographic and behavioural factors. The association between SMD and high risk sexual behaviour calls for the integration of HIV prevention in mental health care programmes in high HIV prevalence settings

Health sector recovery in early post-conflict environments: experience from southern Sudan

Health sector recovery in post‐conflict settings presents an opportunity for reform: analysis of policy processes can provide useful lessons.1 The case of southern Sudan is assessed through interviews, a literature review, and by drawing on the experience of former technical advisers to the Ministry of Health. In the immediate post‐conflict phase, the health system in southern Sudan was characterised by fragmentation, low coverage of health services, dismal health outcomes and limited government capacity. Health policy was extensively shaped by the interplay of context, actors and processes: the World Bank and the World Health Organization became the primary drivers of policy change. Lessons learned from the southern Sudan case include the need for: sustained investment in assessment and planning of recovery activities; building of procurement capacity early in the recovery process; support for funding instruments that can disburse resources rapidly; and streamlining the governance structures and procedures adopted by health recovery financing mechanisms and adapting them to the local context