Urban-rural inequality in Africa

Demographic and health survey data are used to shed light on the urban- rural disparities in welfare indicators for up to 24 African countries. In light of the growing emphasis on multidimensional aspects of poverty, the study analyzes the levels and trends of seven non-money metric indicators of well-being (primary school enrollment, gender disparities in primary and secondary education, infant mortality, neonatal care, use of reproductive health services, and child and women"s malnutrition), in addition to a wealth index based on household assets. More specifically, it present the levels and the urban-rural differences in these indicators for each country for which data are extant. The report then examines the relative rates of change for urban and rural areas, using an improvement index that adjusts for the base level of living standards. Next, simple cross-country regression analysis is used to examine how some potential covariates (e.g., purchasing power parity GDP per capita) affect urban-rural disparities in well- being. Finally, the study conducts urban-rural decompositions of inequality, examining within versus between (urban and rural) group inequality for asset inequality, education inequality, and health (height) inequality. Major findings are that rural living standards lag urban standards dramatically, and that there is no overall evidence that the differences are declining, despite the fact for nearly two decades, the past decade in particular, rural development has been the central strategy employed by development practitioners to generate sustainable growth and reduce poverty.