Publication:
Niger Investing in Human Capital, Agricultural Productivity, and Social Protection for Faster Poverty Reduction: A Poverty Assessment

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (15.77 MB)
358 downloads
English Text (547.12 KB)
67 downloads
Published
2021-11-16
ISSN
Date
2021-11-17
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Niger earns its foreign exchange mainly from uranium and gold, which has limited domestic economic linkages. Distant second, livestock export also provide important revenue to the country. Overall, most of the labor force is employed in a low productivity and shock prone rainfed agricultural sector. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic growth slowdown is estimated to have pushed up to an additional people into poverty. Niger is further beset by vast infrastructure gaps, intensifying terrorism attacks domestically, persisting conflict in the Sahel region, and intensifying environmental pressures. Robust poverty reduction and steady gains in shared prosperity will require investments to bolster human capital, interventions to increase agricultural productivity and develop the rural economy, and mitigate vulnerability to shocks both at the household and community levels. The effectiveness of these interventions will hinge on improved governance, successful conflict resolution, and enhanced security. This poverty assessment aims to strengthen the analytical foundation for poverty-reduction policies and interventions in Niger.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2021. Niger Investing in Human Capital, Agricultural Productivity, and Social Protection for Faster Poverty Reduction: A Poverty Assessment. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36590 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Niger : Investing for Prosperity - A Poverty Assessment
    (Washington, DC, 2012-10) World Bank
    This report examines poverty trends and distribution of the poor in this larger context, paying particular attention to the most recent past. The report contributes to our understanding of the progress made in combating poverty in three ways. First, it updates our knowledge of poverty outcomes by examining the trends in poverty and vulnerability, as well as the profile and distribution of the poor and vulnerable across the country. Second it looks at the most common shocks, and their scale and influence on the welfare of the population. Third, it highlights the progress the country has made in improving opportunities for acquiring human capital and increasing incomes in rural areas. In this respect the report examines changes in access to education and health and improvements in productivity and income in small holder agriculture. It also explores the potential impact of public investments in agriculture. The report finds that, the biggest achievement in the last decade has been the substantive improvement in opportunities to acquire human capital.
  • Publication
    Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela : Investing in Human Capital for Growth, Prosperity, and Poverty Reduction
    (Washington, DC, 2001-03-30) World Bank
    This report draws on limited, available data to analyze selected economic, and social issues, which include better understanding of poverty, and inequality in relation to real income, and, improving the allocation of social expenditures, while increasing the effectiveness of social programs. The deterioration of social, and human capital should be prevented, by simultaneously promoting its accumulation. The report reviews the dismal economic performance of the country over the last decade, where the inability of policymakers to cope with the oil cycles, and prices decline prevails. Moreover, the country's dependence on the oil sector has deepened, while the share of agriculture, and manufacturing decreased, aggravated by the lack of export diversification, and the negative impact of the overvalued domestic currency on external competitiveness. Not surprisingly, labor productivity also decreased, reflecting a low real economic growth, which results in higher unemployment, poverty and inequality increases. The needed acceleration of human, and social capital development focuses on education, health, and the decline of crime and violence, suggesting continued implementation of primary education reforms, through the development of new curriculum, improved quality of basic education, and educational financing. Health recommendations include efficient resource allocation, prioritization of high-impact programs, and expanded private participation, and institutional development.
  • Publication
    Zambia : Using Social Safety Nets to Accelerate Poverty Reduction and Share Prosperity
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-03) Tesliuc, Cornelia; Smith, W. James; Sunkutu, Musonda Rosemary
    Despite robust annual growth of 5.7 percent in the recent past, poverty in Zambia remains stubbornly high. The poverty headcount rate is 60 percent (as of 2010), and 39 percent of the population live in extreme poverty, with insufficient consumption to meet their daily minimum food requirements. Chronic malnutrition remains very high, with 47 percent of children under the age of 5 being stunted in 2010, close to the high levels of the early 1990s. The report recommends a unified National Safety Net Program comprising cash transfers and public works to reach the poorest 20 percent of the population. The estimated cost is about US$100 million per year. This is less than 2 percent of public spending and around 15 percent of the current subsidies programs benefiting the non-poor.
  • Publication
    Belarus - Poverty Assessment: Can Poverty Reduction and Access to Services Be Sustained?
    (Washington, DC, 2004-11) World Bank
    Building on the strong poverty analysis conducted by the government for almost a decade, this Poverty Assessment offers a number of improvements to the methodology for measuring poverty and living conditions in Belarus and contributes an in-depth analysis of the multiple dimensions of poverty-particularly the non-income dimensions (education and health). The poverty assessment also indicates concrete options for the government to strengthen its poverty reduction strategy. The main findings can be summed up as follows: Poverty has declined over time and is low compared to other transition countries. The gains in poverty reduction are shallow and fragile. A key source of economic vulnerability is administratively-set real wage growth which has outstripped productivity growth, jeopardizing the sustainability of growth and poverty reduction. The reduction of Russian energy subsidies to Belarus further affects enterprises and their ability to invest while sustaining a social subsidy in the form of high wage levels. In a high cost, low flexibility business environment, the ability of the economy to create new jobs remains elusive. It is thus important for Belarus to take the opportunity to analyze the significant underlying risks the economy faces and the uncertainties it poses for poverty reduction and growth. Income inequality has remained relatively low but significant inequalities are emerging in the ability of different groups of households to access education and health services. The performance-enhancing reforms in education, health and social protection which Belarus has embarked on are in the right direction. These reforms need to be deepened, however, in order to generate the efficiency gains (savings) that can be redirected towards addressing equity concerns. Belarus' poverty monitoring and analysis system has potential to be a "good practice" model for the region.
  • Publication
    OED Review of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Process : Mauritania Case Study
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-07-06) Operations Evaluation Department
    This report analyzes the experience of Mauritania with the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) process. The focus of the report is on evaluating the performance of the World Bank in supporting the PRSP initiative, not on appraising the authorities policies. The report covers the formulation and implementation of the PRSP and encompasses the two PRSP progress reports which have been completed since the initiative was launched in Mauritania. The report is structured as follows: section B describes the country context including, political and economic background, the poverty profile, and key constraints for development. Section C addresses the PRS Process including preparation of the document and the consistency of the process with the underlying principles of the initiative. Section D assesses the World Bank s support to the process. Finally, section E summarizes the main points of the assessment and attempts to draw lessons of more general applicability.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022
    (Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022) World Bank
    Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course provides the first comprehensive analysis of the pandemic’s toll on poverty in developing countries. It identifies how governments can optimize fiscal policy to help correct course. Fiscal policies offset the impact of COVID-19 on poverty in many high-income countries, but those policies offset barely one quarter of the pandemic’s impact in low-income countries and lower-middle-income countries. Improving support to households as crises continue will require reorienting protective spending away from generally regressive and inefficient subsidies and toward a direct transfer support system—a first key priority. Reorienting fiscal spending toward supporting growth is a second key priority identified by the report. Some of the highest-value public spending often pays out decades later. Amid crises, it is difficult to protect such investments, but it is essential to do so. Finally, it is not enough just to spend wisely - when additional revenue does need to be mobilized, it must be done in a way that minimizes reductions in poor people’s incomes. The report highlights how exploring underused forms of progressive taxation and increasing the efficiency of tax collection can help in this regard. Poverty and Shared Prosperity is a biennial series that reports on global trends in poverty and shared prosperity. Each report also explores a central challenge to poverty reduction and boosting shared prosperity, assessing what works well and what does not in different settings. By bringing together the latest evidence, this corporate flagship report provides a foundation for informed advocacy around ending extreme poverty and improving the lives of the poorest in every country in the world. For more information, please visit worldbank.org/poverty-and-shared-prosperity.
  • Publication
    Philippines Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    Climate change poses major risks for development in the Philippines. Climate shocks, whether in the form of extreme weather events or slow-onset trends, will hamper economic activities, damage infrastructure, and induce deep social disruptions. Adaptation to the risks of climate change, including both extreme events and slow-onset problems, is thus critical for the Philippines. Policy inaction would impose substantial economic and human costs, especially for the poor. Adaptation cannot eliminate the costs of climate change, but it can substantially reduce them. Many adaptation responses also contribute to mitigation; conversely, many mitigation measures generate local co-benefits, such as reduced air pollution. Although the Philippines is a relatively low emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG), it can contribute to global mitigation efforts through an energy transition, including a shift away from coal. The investment costs of such adaptation measures and an energy transition are substantial but not out of reach. The Philippines Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) comprehensively analyzes how climate change will affect the country's ability to meet its development goals and pursue green, resilient, and inclusive development. The CCDR helps identify opportunities for climate action by both the public and private sectors and prioritizes the most urgent development challenges impacted by climate change in the Philippines.
  • Publication
    Poverty and Equity Assessment for El Salvador 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-12) World Bank
    This report proposes an agenda for building on gains to re-accelerate poverty reduction among Salvadorans. The last World Bank Poverty Assessment for El Salvador, from 2015, proposed two key policy recommendations: (a) effective pro-poor spending and (b) reduction of crime and violence through better access to jobs and education. Nine years later, the authorities have managed to achieve a substantial reduction in crime and violence and have indicated an intent to build on such progress to establish a path toward an El Salvador where shared prosperity is achievable. In this report, we propose a three pillar structure to address poverty and inequality reduction: jobs, services, and social protection, with a cross-cutting set of primary conditions that articulates this structure.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Panama Poverty and Equity Assessment 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-02-12) World Bank
    Panama has been one of the fastest-growing countries in the region, with rapid economic expansion accompanied by significant poverty reduction. Driven by public and private investment as well as labor accumulation, the Panamanian economy grew by an annual average of 5.7 percent between 1990 and 2023, much higher than the regional average of 2.5 percent. This growth contributed to a significant reduction in poverty. Using the poverty line of US$6.85 per day per capita (2017 PPP), the share of Panamanians affected by poverty improved from one in two in 1989 to only one in ten lived in 2023. Nevertheless, Panama remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. While poverty in urban areas was 4.8 percent in 2023, poverty in indigenous regions (comarcas) reached 76 percent—15 times higher. Limited progress in reducing inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, contrasts with Panama’s achievements in other areas. Globally, Panama ranked 11th in inequality in 2000, with a Gini coefficient of 53.8. Two decades later, it ranked 8th, with a Gini coefficient of 50.9 as of 2022. This report examines Panama’s achievements and challenges in reducing poverty and inequality to inform policy options. With a special focus on the 2008–2023 period the report documents progress in poverty and equity in recent decades, highlighting access to basic services, expansion of quality jobs, improvement of human capital, and promotion of household resilience as critical policy priorities.