Cote d'Ivoire conducted household surveys between 1985 and 1995, making it possible to trace changes in urban and rural poverty and changes in poverty among different socioeconomic groups. During the decade surveyed, the country experienced a major recession. Poverty increased substantially and...

This note explores some of the factors that need to be taken into account in designing surveys, and in comparing poverty indicators over time for effective poverty monitoring. Cote d'Ivoire presents a number of household surveys that should, in principle, allow monitoring changes in poverty over...

The 1994 World Bank study,"Adjustment in Africa: reforms, results, and the road ahead,"assessed the extent of, and economic payoffs from, policy reform in 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the mid-1980s and 1990s. Here, the authors update the results of that report with 1992 macroeconomic...

The authors present evidence that in Burkina Faso, certain high-performing local institutions contribute to equitable economic development. They link reduced levels of poverty, and inequality to a high degree of internal village organization. The structure of these high-performing local...

Using primary data from the health and education ministries, and household survey data from the Ghana Statistical Service, the authors analyze equity, and efficiency issues in public spending on health, and education in Ghana in the 1990s. Public expenditures in the education sector, declined in...

Using three rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey, conducted between 1988 and 1992, the authors present findings that shed light on the structure of inequality among different socioeconomic groups in different geographic areas, in the context of poverty reduction. First, poverty reduction...