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SAGA
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SAGA PUBLICATIONS Included here are Working Papers and Conference Papers. Publications on this page are organized by geographical focus: RETURN TO MAIN PUBLICATIONS BY GEOGRAPHY PAGE WEST AFRICA Early Academic Performance, Grade Repetition, and School Attainment in Senegal: A Panel Data Analysis January 2010 Glick, Peter and David E. Sahn Little is known in developing country environments about how a child’s cognitive skills manifested in the first years of schooling are related to his or her later educational success, because the panel data needed to analyze this question have been lacking. In this study we take advantage of unique data from Senegal, combining test score data for children from the second grade with information on their subsequent school progression from a follow-up survey conducted seven years later. We find that measures of skills from early in primary school, corrected for measurement error using multiple test observations per child, are very strongly positively associated with later school progression. A plausible interpretation is that parents invest more in a child’s education when the returns to doing so are higher. The results point to the need for remedial policies to target lagging students early on to reduce early dropout. A current policy targeting poorly performing students is grade repetition, which is pervasive in Francophone Africa. Using variation across schools in test score thresholds for promotion to identify the effects of second grade repetition, we find that a repeated student is more likely to leave school before completing primary than a student with similar ability who is not held back (and also does not learn more), pointing to the need for alternative measures to improve skills of lagging children. In World Bank Economic Review 24(1): 93-120, January, 2010 Cognitive Skills among Children in Senegal: Disentangling the Roles of Schooling and Family Background June 2007 Glick, Peter and David E. Sahn We use unique data to estimate the determinants of cognitive ability among 14 to 17 year olds in Senegal. Unlike standard school-based samples, tests were administered to current students as well as to children no longer—or never—enrolled. Years of schooling strongly affects cognitive skills, but conditional on years of school, parental education and household wealth, as well as local public school quality, have surprisingly modest effects on test performance. Instead, family background primarily affects skills indirectly through its impacts on years of schooling. Therefore closing the schooling gaps between poor and wealthy children will also close most of the gap in cognitive skills between these groups. Presented at the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 This is an expanded version of a paper published in Economics of Education Review 28(2): 178-188, April, 2009. Growth and redistribution effects of poverty changes in Cameroon December 2006 Francis Baye This paper studies the decomposition of poverty changes in Cameroon. Specifically, it reviews theoretical frameworks for growth-redistribution decomposition analyses, presents the data and poverty measures and estimates the growth-redistribution components of changes in measured poverty by the Shapley value-based approach using Cameroon’s household surveys. By all the P class of measures, poverty increased significantly between 1984 and 1996. The growth components overaccounted for the increase, although shifts in national, rural and semi-urban distributions marginally mitigated the worse effects on the population. A decline in mean incomes as well as adverse distributional shifts contributed to a significant increase in urban poverty during the same period. These findings corroborate the general information in the literature that growth effects tend to dominate the effects of changes in the distribution of income. These results illustrate the potential contribution of distributionally neutral growth in household incomes to poverty alleviation in Cameroon. Although redistribution also has an important role to play, it should be accepted that there must be severe limits to what can be achieved by growth neutral redistribution. Growth in household incomes appears more likely to be essential for long-term poverty reduction and will be more effective if poverty alleviation programmes are targeted disproportionately in favour of rural and semi-urban areas. Paper prepared for the conference “African Development and Poverty Reduction: The Macro-Micro Linkage” Cape Town, South Africa October 2004 In Journal of African Economies 15(4): 543-570, 2006 Income Risk and School Decisions in Burkina Faso December 2005 Kazianga, Harounan There is a large literature which explores how negative income shocks impact human capital accumulation (especially education) when financial markets are incomplete and households can neither insure nor borrow to smooth their consumption. The main conclusion is that households in these circumstances allocate child time to more labor and to less schooling. Such ex-post use of child time as a self-insurance mechanism translates into lower human capital (lower years of education completed) over time which is detrimental to economic growth. There has been, however, little research on the cumulative effects of (perceived) income uncertainty on child education. The intuition is that households that face more a volatile income stream have greater incentives to build up a buffer stock to insure against unforeseen adverse shocks, and non-enrollment can be part of such strategy. This paper fills this gap on the literature which focuses on income shocks and education in developing countries. The empirical work uses data from rural Burkina Faso, an environment where school enrollment rates are low and households face frequent income shocks. Controlling for current economic shocks, household wealth levels and child characteristics, I find that income uncertainty (expressed as income variance) consistently reduces a number of education outcomes, including current enrollment status, education expenditures per child, the number of years of education completed and the probability of having been ever enrolled. The estimation results suggest that income uncertainty might have large welfare costs in terms of human capital. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Impact de la pauvreté sur la scolarisation et le travail des enfants de 6-14 ans au Togo (Effect of poverty on schooling and child labor in Togo) November 2005 Adjiwanou, Vissého Based on “Family, migrations and urbanizations” the survey was carried out on 2000 by the Unity of Research in Demography (University of Lomé). This paper aims to estimate the effect of poverty on schooling and child labor. About 2946 children were interviewed with 46% girls; 28% go only to school, 49% combine school and work, 15% work only, and 7% do neither work nor go school. The obtained results are based upon the bivariate probit model. The results point out that household poverty is one of the factor that discourages parents to send children to school. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Economic Analysis of Private Returns to Investment in Education in Cameroon November 2005 Amin, Aloysius Ajab and Wilfred J. Awung Since 1960, the Cameroon Government has invested very heavily in Cameroon’s educational system—nursery through to higher education level. There has been pressure on the government to put more emphasis on the primary level rather than on tertiary level. The paper’s findings strongly suggest that emphasis should be on all the educational levels, and more so, on the tertiary level. The conclusion is drawn from the earnings function model from which estimates are brought out on the average rate of return to education with the marginal return referring to additional year of education at the different levels. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Improving Schools in a Context of Decentralization: Findings from Research in West Africa – Benin, Guinea, Mali and Senegal November 2005 De Grauwe, A. and C. Lugaz (IIEP); D. Odushina and M. Moustapha (Bénin) ; D. Baldé (Guinée) ; D. Dougnon (Mali); and C. Diakhaté (Sénégal) Discussions on decentralization have increased in complexity in recent years because of the deepened realization that the ‘school’ as an institutional unit is a core actor in ensuring educational quality. A growing number of studies demonstrate that the management of a school, the relationships between the different actors (the head teacher, the teachers and the community) and the school’s own involvement in defining and evaluating its improvement have a profound impact on the quality of education. This ‘autonomization’ of the school in combination with the more traditional forms of decentralization, has led to greater diversity in the policies implemented in different countries. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 L’impact des niveaux de qualification de la main d’oeuvre sur la productivité des enterprises: analyse appliquée au secteur industriel sénégalais November 2005 Dia, Abdoul Alpha Sur la question des effets du capital humain, les études consacrées aux pays africains sont relativement rares, et en grande majorité, il s’agit d’ailleurs soit d’analyses macroéconomiques, soit d’études consacrées au secteur agricole. Dans le cadre de cette étude, nous nous proposons d’analyser l’impact des niveaux de qualification de la main d’oeuvre industrielle sur les performances productives des entreprises. Plus particulièrement, quatre catégories de main d’oeuvre sont ici prises en compte : (i) les cadres, (ii) les techniciens supérieurs, (iii) les techniciens et agents de maîtrise, et enfin (iv) les employés ouvriers et manoeuvres. Les résultats obtenus ici n’indiquent globalement pas un impact considérable de la structure des qualifications (et plus particulièrement des catégories de main d’oeuvre les plus qualifiées) sur les performances productives, et ce quelle que soit la spécification retenue (Cobb-Douglas ou Translog). Assurément, il s’agit ici d’un résultat très largement contre-intuitif, qui s’oppose autant aux postulats de la théorie économique qu’aux résultats de la recherche internationale consacrée à cette question (cf. plus particulièrement les études conduites en France, aux Etats Unis ou en Grande Bretagne). En ce qui concerne les facteurs en mesure d’expliquer un tel résultat, ils sont de plusieurs ordres : la faible qualité des formations dispensées (et donc la forte inadéquation formation/emploi), le poids très minime de la main d’oeuvre qualifiée au sein des entreprises (on serait donc en présence d’un effet de seuil), la répartition très inégale de la main d’oeuvre industrielle (et plus particulièrement l’hypertrophie des services administratifs au détriment des services “productifs”), et enfin les caractéristiques structurelles du secteur industriel sénégalais (cf. notamment le faible niveau de progrès technique caractérisant la plupart des entreprises, lequel aurait donc globalement tendance à limiter le potentiel productif du capital humain). Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 La dimension économique de l’efficacité externe de l’éducation en Afrique de l’Ouest November 2005 Duret, Elsa, Mathias Kuepie, Christophe Nordman, and François Roubaud Les analyses ciblant l’efficacité externe1 des systèmes éducatifs s’intéressent à l’influence de l’éducation reçue par les individus après qu’ils sont sortis des écoles et établissements de formation pour mener à bien leur vie d’adulte au sein de la société. Ces effets sont de deux ordres, économiques dans un sens étroit, sociaux dans une conception plus large, et peuvent être lus à travers deux dimensions complémentaires : individuelle d’une part, collective d’autre part. Le croisement de ces deux perspectives offre un tableau synthétique des différentes analyses qui peuvent être conduites dans ce domaine... Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Causes of low academic performance of primary school pupils in the Shama Sub-Metro of Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly (SAEMA) in Ghana November 2005 Kafui Etsey Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly (SAEMA) is one of the district assemblies in the Western Region of Ghana. It is one of the three metropolitan assemblies in the country. The other two are Accra-Tema and Kumasi. SAEMA is located about 210 kilometres along the coast, west of Accra and is divided into three sub-metro district councils which are Shama, Sekondi and Takoradi. The twin city of Sekondi-Takoradi is both the district capital and the regional capital. The Shama sub-metro is made up of Shama and Inchaban circuits. The poor academic performance of pupils in the Shama sub-metro of the Shama Ahanta Metropolis has been a concern for the metropolitan assembly over the past few years. The schools have shown poor performances in all public examinations and as one director puts it, ‘their BECE results have been appalling’...The purpose of this study therefore is to obtain evidence of the factors that are responsible for the poor academic performance of pupils in the Shama sub-metro... Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Household Level Social Capital and Children’s Schooling Decision in Cameroon: A Gender Analysis November 2005 Johannes, Tabi Atemnkeng This paper re-examines and incorporates household level social capital amongst the determinants of children schooling in Cameroon. Reduced form demand equations of schooling for the entire sample, male and female children as well as for rural and urban children are estimated separately. Results indicate that social capital especially female related, mothers’ education and income strongly influences parental decisions towards a child schooling. However, social capital as well as its female component is more important as both male and female children are equally given the opportunity to school and there is neither gender bias nor rural-urban difference in children schooling outcome when parents participate in groups or associations. Thus, we recommend the building of social capital by strengthening local community networks. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Les dépenses publiques d’éducation sont elles pro pauvres? Analyse et Application au cas du Sénégal November 2005 Niang, Birahim Bouna La lutte contre la pauvreté constitue aujourd’hui une des principales priorités des pouvoirs publics des pays d’Afrique au Sud du Sahara et des partenaires au développement qui apportent leur soutien à cette région du monde. Le Sénégal n’est pas une exception à cette règle. La volonté de faire reculer la pauvreté apparaît àtravers la structure des dépenses publiques qui est caractérisée par un arbitrage en faveur des secteurs sociaux notamment l’éducation. En effet, les dépenses d’éducation représentent le premier poste du budget de l’Etat alors que les dépenses sociales représentent près du tiers des dépenses totales... Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Do Mothers’s Educational Levels Matter in Child Malnutrition and Health Outcomes in Gambia and Niger? November 2005 Oyekale, A. S. and T. O. Oyekale Despite past policy interventions and supports, malnutrition remains one of the major problems confronting children in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). This study analyzed the effect of mothers’ educational levels on child malnutrition. Data from the 2000 End-Decade Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey by the United Nations International Children Emergency Funds (UNICEF) for Gambia and Niger were used. Data were analyzed with Foster-Greer-Thorbeck approach and Probit regression. Results show stunting, wasting and underweight head counts are higher in Niger rural and urban areas, while stunting, wasting and underweight head count, depth and severity are higher among children whose mothers had no secondary education for all the countries. The Probit analysis reveals that attainment of secondary education by the mothers, urbanization, presence of pipe water, presence of mother and father at home, polio vaccination, ever breast fed and access to radio and television significantly reduce the probability of stunting, wasting and underweight, while infection with diarrhea, fever and age at first polio vaccine significantly increase it. It was recommended that to reduce malnutrition and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Gambia and Niger, institutional arrangements for catering for secondary education of girls and ensuring consistency in child health programs must be strengthened, among others. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005. Strategies to Reduce Repetition in Cameroon Primary School November 2005 Fonkeng, George Repetition is one indicator of the internal inefficiency of an educational system. In Cameroon, primary school repetition is high (40%) and as such, constitutes wastage particularly, and of course problematic to the state, parents and individual pupils/victims. It is conceptualized that efficiency as applied to educational achievement combines both qualitative and quantitative variables and relates inputs to outputs. An efficient educational system should enable students graduate within the time frame prescribed. If students spend more time than is required there is wastage. To combat this phenomenon in the primary school system in Cameroon, the government has resorted to experiment on some strategies namely: Compensatory Education, Competency-Based Teaching Approach, Automatic/ Administrative Promotion in addition to the New Pedagogic Approach with apparently, significant results in the reduction of repeating. It is concluded that these strategies based on a pupil-centred philosophy/pedagogy tend to promote learning and consequently, increase promotion in primary schools. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 L’augmentation des budgets suffit-elle à la qualité des systèmes éducatifs? Cas du Gabon (Is a rise of public expenditures enough to improve the quality of educational systems? The Gabonese evidence.) November 2005 Oyaya, Jean Rémy The present survey is a contribution to the means to reach the objective education of quality for all. So it contributes at first to set out the dysfunctions of the Gabonese education system to justify the rise of the budget for the education. Using an econometric model of analysis, it thereafter contributes to the identification of the main determinants of the evolution of these public expenditures. But a rise of these expenditures is not enough to improve the quality of the educational system. So the study pleads subsequently for the stake of a preventive system of education. It concludes while putting the accent on the necessity of the State to fight against the corruption and to hold its liability, the one guarantee to the success of the reforms that a quality system of education for all supposes. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Analyse critique des normes EFA-FT de production de service éducatif dans l’enseignement primaire des pays de l’UEMOA November 2005 Quenum, Célestin Venant C. The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries adopted the program “Education For All Fast Track Initiative” (EFA-FT) to achieve the goal of universal elementary education. Although the EFA-FT deals with some constraints that hinder universal education, it has some shortcomings that should be addressed to avoid any perverse effects in the short to medium run. For instance, the teachers’ pay under the EFA-FT seems unequitable and may even be counterproductive in the national context. Moreover, under the current terms the states will be unable to sustain the funding required for this program beyond the year 2015. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005. Education et développement humain en Afrique de l’Ouest: des hauts et des bas. Les cas du Burkina-Faso, de la Côte d’Ivoire et du Sénégal November 2005 Saha, Jean Claude Nous proposons une estimation de l’apport de l’éducation au processus de développement humain au Burkina-Faso, en Côte-d’Ivoire et au Sénégal. Le développement humain est entendu au sens du Programme des Nations Unies pour le Développement (PNUD). Suivant une approche par la valeur de Shapley, nous décomposons les variations annuelles de l’Indicateur de Développement Humain (IDH) de ces pays. D’après les résultats obtenus, le secteur éducatif ivoirien a contribué pour 146,75% au progrès de développement humain réalisé par ce pays entre 1990 et 2004, celui du Sénégal pour 23,77% et celui du Burkina-Faso pour –13,35 %. Mais on déplore l’absence de synergie entre le secteur éducatif ivoirien et les autres aspects du développement humain dans le pays (la santé et le revenu par tête), tout autant que l’on s’inquiète devant le rôle marginal que joue l’éducation au Sénégal et surtout devant le sort du Burkina-Faso où le secteur éducatif a considérablement freiné le développement humain depuis 1990. Un échange d’expérience entre pays de la sous-région est alors souhaitable. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Earning and Learning in the Rural Area of Sub-Saharan Africa: An Inquiry into the Cocoa Sector November 2005 Nkamleu, Guy Blaise The challenge of a child labor policy is to remove children away from work and toward schooling. To this end, there is a need to better understand the reality of the interplay between work and schooling as well as household’s behavior with respect to child’s time allocation. This paper investigates child labor issue in the cocoa sector in Cote d’Ivoire, with the aim to identify determinant factors that can help to design a multi-angle policy approach towards the elimination of child labor. The present study is based on a survey done in 2002, over a representative sample of more than 11000 cocoa-households’ members. The paper presents model, which portrays the child labor decision as a three-stage sequential process. Study reveals that child labor’s contribution in cocoa farm as well as non-enrollment in school are considerable. More, numerous children are involved in potentially dangerous and/or injurious tasks. Results of econometric analysis using sequential probit model show that child Characteristics, parent characteristic as well as household characteristics are all pertinent in explaining the child work/schooling outcome in the cocoa sector of Cote d’Ivoire. Confirming the need of a multi-angled policy approach towards the elimination of child labor. The important variables highlight in this study should be taken into consideration in efforts to design an array of policy instruments to promote good development of children in the cocoa sector. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Corruption, Croissance et Capital Humain: Quels Rapports November 2005 Seka, Pierre Roche The objective of this paper is to explain some of the reasons of the high rate of dropout observed in the system of higher education. It has been shown theoretically that corruption is one of the major factors. Indeed, very talented students, who otherwise could have pushed further their studies, suddenly drop out when they compare the level of well being of those who are well educated with that of those who are not but enriched through corruption. Where do they go? They join the latter in their corruptive activities. Such practice, that somehow is rational, endangers the whole education system. An econometric model has been estimated to show the negative impact of corruption on the registration rate for higher education. The paper ends by calling for the attention of the public authority that if nothing is done to retribute better well educated people, the education system is at high risk of extinction, endangering development efforts that have been made so far. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Optimiser la participation communautaire au financement et à l’accroissement de l’offre éducative November 2005 Servais Edoh Wallace La situation de l’éducation de base au Togo reste critique. Elle pâtit lourdement des difficultés sociopolitiques de cette dernière décennie. “Aujourd’hui, environ, 30% de la population scolarisable n’a pas encore accès à l’éducation de base.” Le taux net de scolarisation se situe autour de 65% pour le cycle primaire en 2000. Une décadence effroyable quand on sait qu’au début des années 1980, le Togo faisait partie des pays à fort taux de scolarisation de la sous région ouest africaine. En effet, à partir de 1985, les conditions macro-économiques particulièrement difficiles conjuguées aux effets du programme d’ajustement structurel conduisent à un ralentissement de l’expansion du système éducatif. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on “Education in West Africa: Constraints and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 1-2, 2005 Agricultural subsidies removal in North countries: what about the effects in Senegal? July 2005 François Joseph Cabral In this paper, experiments of the impact north countries subsidies removal on Senegal is performed based on a general equilibrium framework. The model that we suggest includes 19 sectors and four factors: capital, labour, land and water. In agriculture, we distinguish two sub-sectors: the set of the irrigated sectors and that of the non-irrigated sectors. An export demand function unable us take into account constraints facing local producers on international markets. A simulation is performed based on ICAC, IFPRI, IADB and Iowa state university predictions on the impact of subsidies removal on world prices. It appears from the experiments carried out that the elimination of agricultural subsidies in developed countries will result in a shift of agricultural supply toward external markets. However, this will induce an increase in the cost of imported cereals, in particular rice and will have an adverse effect on households, worsening their well-being, except those of Delta rural households. Presented at the International Conference on "Shared Growth in Africa," July 21-22, 2005, Accra, Ghana Shared Sectoral Growth: Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Zimbabwe June 2005 Niels-Hugo Blunch and Dorte Verner This paper examines agriculture, industry and service sector growth in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Zimbabwe over more than three decades. The analyses find at least one long-run sectoral relationship in each country. This indicates the existence of a large degree of interdependence in long-run sectoral growth, implying that the sectors “grow together” or, similarly, that there are externalities or spillovers between sectors. This also provides evidence against the basic dual economy model, which implies that a long-run relation cannot exist between agricultural and industrial output. The impulse response and short-run sectoral growth analyses support these results, as both imply the existence of a positive link between growth in industry and growth in agriculture. Policy implications are also discussed; these include directing more attention towards the interdependencies in sectoral growth broadly defined. In particular, our findings have implications for the design of education and health programs, as well. This improved understanding of intersectoral dynamics at all levels may facilitate policy implementation aimed at increasing economic growth—and thereby ultimately improving peoples’ livelihoods—in Africa. Presented at the International Conference on "Shared Growth in Africa," July 21-22, 2005, Accra, Ghana An Analysis of the Impact of HIPC Initiative on Poverty Alleviation in Developing Countries: Evidence from Cameroon June 2005 Arsene Honore Gideon Nkama After independence in 1960, Cameroon’s real economic growth was optimistic. Growth averaged 6 per cent during the 65-86 with agriculture being the main source of growth. When oil production started by the end of the 70s, Cameroon experienced a boom period. Its external resources balance that was negative in 1977 became positive. Gross domestic investment increased from 21% of GDP in 1977 to more than 30% in 1986. GDP per capita increased at about 4 percent during the 65-86. The boom period led to traditional growth sectors carelessness so their productivity declined. Public enterprises created during this period were highly inefficient. The banking system became very dependent on oil revenue as well as on government deposits…. Presented at the International Conference on "Shared Growth in Africa," July 21-22, 2005, Accra, Ghana Costs and Financing of Basic Education and Participation of Rural Families and Communities in Third-World Countries April 2005 Assié-Lumumba, N’Dri This paper focuses on the various types of educational costs, expenses, and financing and the roles of families and communities. It presents a case study of educational costs and financing in rural communities in countries around the world, then focuses on the case of Côte d’Ivoire before the December 1999 Military coup followed by armed conflicts that started in 2002 leading to the de facto division of the country. The paper considers the substantive and more general family and community participation in the educational process beyond material support. The conclusion summarizes the main findings and points to new areas of research using comparative approach. It is however likely that, while the political configuration may change, the administrative structure that constitutes the framework for educational policy will remain the same. Therefore this analysis has relevance even for the post-conflict reconstruction and implementation of education policy implementation including past and new types of community schools. Les écoles communautaires de base au Sénégal: Contribution à la scolarisation universelle, l’éradication de la pauvreté, et la mise en place d’un programme national pour le développement durable April 2005 Assié-Lumumba, N’Dri, Mamadou Mara, and Marieme Lo Buffering Inequalities: The Safety Net of Extended Families in Cameroon December 2004 Eloundou-Enyegue, Parfait M. and David Shapiro Extended family systems play an important role in buffering socioeconomic inequality in African societies, notably through fosterage of children across nuclear family units. Yet, there is concern that this support system would break down under the influence of globalization and recent economic crises. Whereas previous scholarship to address this concern has focused on trends in rates of family extension/ fosterage, we argue in this paper that a full account of trends in the buffering influence of extended families requires simultaneous attention to trends in (a) fosterage rates, (b) the distribution of fosterage opportunities, (c) the ameliorative effects of fosterage. This study focuses on the buffering influence of fosterage on schooling inequalities. Taking Cameroon as a case study and using the retrospective fosterage and schooling histories of 2,257 children, we examine the historical trends in these three proximate determinants of the buffering influence of extended families. Findings suggest that while the ameliorative effects of fosterage (once children are fostered) have not changed over time, both the rates and the distribution of fosterage opportunities have changed in ways that raise concern for children at the bottom quintile of the resource distribution. Structure of Sectoral Decomposition of Aggregate Poverty Changes in Cameroon July 2005 Francis Menjo Baye This paper defines an exact decomposition rule based on the Shapley Value for assigning entitlements in distributive analysis and assesses the within- and between-sector contributions to changes in aggregate poverty. Between 1984 and 1996 poverty remained a rural phenomenon in Cameroon. It became more widespread, deeper and severer in both rural and urban areas, but more so in urban than rural areas. While the within sector effects disproportionately accounted for the increase in poverty in the period 1984-1996, the between-sector contributions in both rural and semi-urban areas played a mitigating role on the worse effects of the increase in poverty. These findings indicate the potential positive feedback effects of migration and the associated remittances as an effective strategy used by migrants to left their families and villages out of the worse effects of poverty. The implication of this interpretation is that decision-makers need to better understand the factors that push or pull potential migrants. Rural-urban mobility could, therefore, be viewed as a strategy used by households to moderate the worse effects of poverty and a vector of shared growth. The implications for public policy, in terms of open unemployment and associated social and insecurity problems at the receiving end, point to the wisdom of addressing the push-factors via targeting more in favour of rural areas. Presented at the International Conference on "Shared Growth in Africa," July 21-22, 2005, Accra, Ghana Progression through School and Academic Performance in Senegal: Descriptive Survey Results March 2005 Dumas, Christelle, Peter Glick, Sylvie Lambert, David E. Sahn, and Leopold Sarr This report provides a preliminary descriptive analysis of some of the data from The Progression through School and Academic Performance in Senegal Study, a joint research project of Cornell University, Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée (CREA), and INRA. This project is based around a nation-wide household survey with a special focus on schooling, complimented by academic and life skills tests and additional surveys of local schools and communities. The topics covered in this report focus on the household survey and test score data and include: enrollment rates; school attainment; grade repetition; dropouts and progression to secondary school; academic and life skills test scores; and perceptions about education and schooling. Intertemporal Female Labor Force Behavior in a Developing Country: What Can We Learn from a Limited Panel? February 2005 Glick, Peter and David E. Sahn We analyze intertemporal labor market behavior of women in urban Guinea, West Africa using two distinct methodologies applicable to a short (two-year) panel. A multi-period multinomial logit model with random effects provides evidence of unobserved individual heterogeneity as a factor strongly affecting labor market sector choices over time. Results from simpler single period models that condition on prior sector choices are consistent with either heterogeneity or state dependence. Both approaches perform equally well in predicting individual labor market behavior conditional on past choices. In terms of observable characteristics, the estimates confirm the heterogeneous structure of the urban labor market: informal and formal employment appear to differ significantly in terms of skill requirements, compatibility with child care, and costs of entry. In Labour Economics 12(1):23-45, February, 2005 Macroeconomic growth, sectorial quality of growth and poverty in developing countries: measure and application to Burkina Faso October 2004 Dorothée Boccanfuso and Tambi Samuel Kabore Economic growth generally refers to GDP growth. The studies on the link between growth and poverty dynamic (Datt and Ravallion, 1992; Kakwani, 1997; Shorrocks, 1999) measure growth by mean household per capita expenditures. Furthermore, many countries experience at the same time economic growth and growing poverty. It is therefore important to establish a link between these two types of growth. This key link allows a formal shift from macroeconomic growth (GDP growth) to mean per capita household expenditure growth. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the link between macroeconomic growth and mean per capita household expenditure growth with the evidence drawn from Burkina Faso data. The paper also analyzes the impact of sectoral growth on poverty using Shapley value-based decomposition approach. National Accounts consumption - which is smaller - gives greater poverty incidences for 1994 and 1998 compared to the incidence from the surveys’ consumption. An annual 3.99% increase in real per capita consumption based on the survey gives a 13.37% decrease in poverty incidence, while a 6.59% annual growth in GDP yields only 6.59% decrease in poverty incidence. Agricultural sector growth accounts for at least 80% of the decline in poverty incidence, gap and severity. Presented at the DPRU-TIPS-Cornell University Forum on "African Development and Poverty Reduction: The Macro-Micro Linkage," October 13-15, 2004, Cape Town, South Africa The conjuncture of poverty microsimulation linked to a macroeconomic forecasting model: A case study in Senegal September 2004 Thierry Latreille Poverty reduction policies have become the main guidelines of economic policies in many Sub-Saharan African countries. Therefore the authorities need new social indicators in order to follow the application and the effectiveness of their policies. In recent years renewed efforts have been made to develop new policy tools aimed at better understanding the channels through which PRSP measures affect the poor. We present an approach to linking macro models with representative households and micro household income data in terms of measuring poverty and the distributional effects of poverty reduction policies. This is a simple micro-accounting method which presents an interesting opportunity for linkage to a macro economic forecasting model, the Jumbo model run by the AFD for the CFA Franc Zone. Our approach consists of using a macroeconomic forecasting model (Jumbo) that integrates several representative household groups. An output of the forecast is introduced into a simple model of microsimulation in order to obtain yearly poverty and income distribution indicators. The interpretation of the results with the help of the macroeconomic environment described in the Jumbo model allows an analysis of the conjuncture of poverty. Presented at the DPRU-TIPS-Cornell University Forum on "African Development and Poverty Reduction: The Macro-Micro Linkage," October 13-15, 2004, Cape Town, South Africa Access to Schooling and Employment in Cameroon: New Inequalities and Opportunities April 2004 Eloundou-Enyegue, Parfait M., Ngoube Maurice, Okene Richard, V.P Onguene,Serge Bahoken, Joseph Tamukong, Moses Mbangwana, Joseph Essindi Evina, and Caroline Mongue Djongoue This report is about recent trends in education and access to employment in Cameroon. It focuses on five questions about (1) current levels of schooling, (2) recent trends in enrolment, (3) recent trends in schooling inequalities, (4) access to employment, and (5) risks and opportunities to improve education and employment outcomes. Based on these analyses, the report discusses several challenges and opportunities in improving education and employment outcomes. The Impact of Family Literacy on the Earnings of Illiterates: Evidence from Senegal January 2004 Sarr, Leopold R. This paper investigates the extent to which the sharing of literacy knowledge within the household affects the labor force participation and the earnings of illiterate workers in Senegal. Using the concept of proximate and isolated illiterates recently developed by K. Basu and J. Foster, I apply an intra-household model of literacy to a Senegalese household dataset. The estimates obtained from different selection bias models provide evidence that parental literacy and education do not capture all sources of external literacy benefits and that illiterate members also benefit from other literate members of the household. It also appears that rural workers and female illiterates tend to participate more in the labor market than their urban and male counterparts. On the other hand, an urban illiterate worker who lives in a household where at least one member is literate is expected to earn a wage that is about 88% higher than that of an isolated illiterate urban worker whereas the earnings of an illiterate female worker are on average 33% higher than the ones of another illiterate female worker whose family’s ratio of literate to illiterate members is one point lower. This suggests that policies targeting isolated illiterate households, in both rural and urban zones as well as illiterate women — who appear to be better recipients of external literacy benefits — within households, are likely to mitigate their vulnerability and thus to reduce the incidence of illiteracy and poverty. RETURN TO MAIN PUBLICATIONS BY GEOGRAPHY PAGE

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