Despite long working hours, for many household members, and especially women, underemployment is nevertheless affecting a large share of the population in many developing countries. Using data on time use, wages, and consumption levels from a recent household survey for Guinea, this paper...

The devaluation of the CFA Franc in 1994 generated a public investment boom in Senegal. The increase in public investment was made possible thanks to an improved budgetary situation related to the reduction in real terms of the public wage bill which had been too large for some time. The rise in...

Rwanda is facing a severe electricity crisis. Higher demand and production cost as well as a reduction in revenues in real terms have led to large operating losses for the electricity operator Electrogaz. In order to deal with this crisis, a doubling of electricity tariffs was recently approved,...

This short dissemination note provides a synthesis of key results from a recent study on access to infrastructure services in Africa. Using Demographic and Health Surveys from 22 countries that have conducted at least two such surveys between 1990 and 2005, we provide comparable estimates over...

World cotton prices have been declining in the past decade and farmers in West and Central Africa have been especially hard hit. This has led to heated policy debates and difficult trade-offs for governments, as their desire to help producers is constrained by the need to avoid large subsidies...

This paper provides an analysis of the modes of livelihood of Guinea-Bissau’s population. The country is poor and highly dependent on agriculture and extractive activities such as fishing. Yet beyond such general statements, it is useful to describe in qualitative terms the main activities...

This article analyses the impact of the economic crisis (including the increase in food prices) on the well-being of household in the Central African Republic, relying on both a quantitative analysis of the latest household survey available and a qualitative analysis through focus groups. Three...

This article assesses the importance of risk in the measurement of rural poverty in Burkina Faso. The analysis is based on longitudinal data collected as part of monitoring and evaluation activities for the PNGT-2 project on community development in the country. The first part of the study is...

Cape Verde has enjoyed rapid economic growth over the past twenty years. Existing studies suggest hat the proportion of the population in poverty declined from 49.0 percent in 1988-89 to 36.7 percent in 2001-02. The results presented here suggest a continuation of this trend with only 26.6...

Since 2003, Guinea has been affected by a deep economic crisis that has contributed to exacerbating already high levels of poverty. This paper documents poverty trends in Guinea using the last three household surveys available, implemented in 1994/95, 2002/03, and 2007. The estimates suggest...