Climate change and variability in South East Asia (SEA) has been remarkable in the past 20 years. In this study we focus on Vietnam and Indonesia, two countries that are among the fastest growing lower-middle income countries in the region. They are also among the worst affected by climate extreme in the past decades, ranking 6th and 50th in the Climate Risk Index (2017), respectively. However, their poverty and inequality patterns and trends are remarkably different. Although reducing at a significant pace, poverty in Indonesia persists at much higher rate than in Vietnam (ADB, 2019).

Inequality patterns also differ and have specific country level peculiarities that makes each of these countries an interesting case study. A recent UNESCAP report suggests that, between 1990-2014, despite the similar economic growth, inequality has been increasing steadily in Vietnam and even more in Indonesia. Finally, inequality driving factors are also quite dissimilar, with ethnicity and remoteness, and rural-urban divide and migration, being predominant factors respectively in Vietnam and Indonesia. 

The main purpose of this study will be two-fold:

• to provide policy makers with a substantial evidence base to target social equity and equality interventions effectively
• and to strategically inform the enforcement of social protection policies that are able to capture the climate-inequality nexus while maintaining a high degree of climate and poverty sensitivity and responsiveness.

The outputs of the project will be tailored to specific national priorities in terms of climate change and inequality via the direct engagement with policy makers and local experts. Advocacy, consultations and capacity building exercises carried out throughout the project will ensure that the research will address relevant evidence gaps to inform the dialogues for climate-inequality-sensitive decision making in Vietnam and Indonesia. 

Using a combination of repeated cross section analysis, panel analysis, synthetic panel analysis, we will investigate the relationship between climate variability and inequality at four levels:

• average impact – national level – entire population;
• average impact – national level – entire population by deciles of income distribution;
• impact at sub-national level – population located in hot-spots - vis-à-vis average/national impact (hot spots will be identified using the comprehensive climate data and the unit of analysis defined accordingly);
• impact at sub-national level – most vulnerable groups: ethnic minority, female headed HHs, etc.

The outputs have been: 

• One complete research article: Who bears the burden of climate variability? A comparative analysis of the impact of weather conditions on inequality in Vietnam and Indonesia?
• One policy brief in the AFD Policy Brief Series detailing the core contributions to the literature and results of the study: Climate variability and inequality: Comparing the experiences of Indonesia and Vietnam
• Two country policy briefs in the AFD Policy Brief Series detailing for each country the most salient aspects, results and recommendations forward: 
  - The impact of climate variability on inequality: Evidence from Indonesia
  - The impact of climate variability on inequality: Evidence from Vietnam

Two webinars based on the research paper have been organised in the CGIAR Webinar Series. These two events sought to reflect on the impacts that the current climate crisis has on the most vulnerable in Vietnam and Indonesia and to answer the following questions: Is climate variability regressive? Or better does climate variability impacts more on those who are less able to cope with its consequences? And if so, what can we do to ensure an equal, sustainable economic development for all?

• Webinar on Vietnam: watch the replay here
• Webinar on Indonesia: watch the replay here

• Cecilia Poggi, Research Officer, AFD
• Dr Grazia Pacillo

Ghana has experienced rapid economic growth and significant reduction in poverty levels in recent times. However, the reduction in poverty has not translated into a reduction in inequality. Coloumbe and Wodon (2007), and also Cooke et al. (2016) recognise the spatial inequality that exists in the country, manifested particularly in the differences in income levels between the northern and southern parts of Ghana. Evidence by Oduro et al. (2011) and FAO (2012) also point to persistent gender inequalities relating to access to and control of assets as well as access to secured and less vulnerable employment.

According to Corak (2013), economic inequalities limit opportunities for economic and social advancement of the next generation as increased inequalities often alter the opportunities and the incentives for households to invest in the human capital development of their children.

This project is part of the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities, coordinated by AFD and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships over the 2017-2020 period. The first phase of the Facility has led to the conduct of 22 research projects and the publication of around 100 research papers and policy briefs.

This project will draw on and consolidate this evidence-base and then fill some important, policy-relevant gaps that remain. By design, the research program outlined below seeks to address distributional issues in both the bottom half and the top of the distribution. The work program recognises from the outset that there are several dimensions of human development and wellbeing, and progress in some measures might be accompanied by deterioration in others. It recognises that economic growth does not necessarily lead to equitable outcomes – both poverty and inequality have self-reinforcing characteristics that are hard to counter.

The research project will be developed across three work streams: 

• The diagnostic study on inequality in Ghana will in essence aim to produce a report on inequality in Ghana. It will explore the census data and include an analysis of spatial inequality using the most recent poverty maps of Ghana. In view of this the team will be working with the Ghana Statistical Service to produce this report. This report will be based on a common framework to be developed by the hub of the ACEIR network.
• The researchers will take advantage of the two rounds of the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey (GSPS) which are a result of collaboration between Yale University and ISSER. Using this data they intend to study how economic inequality has changed in Ghana over the period 2010 to 2014 (Wave 1 & 2 respectively) and what explains the changes. In particular, they will try to analyse the changing dynamics from a spatial, gender (of household head and at the individual levels) and ethnicity perspective.
• A paper on is the relationship between economic inequalities and inequalities in education opportunities in the context of Ghana. Even though enrolment rates in Ghana are generally very high, the inputs for good educational outcomes, such as the quality of school infrastructure, books and other educational materials are not equally available to pupils due to economic inequality. This in turn will have implications for educational outcomes and consequently future welfare status of these pupils as Mayer (2010) and Corak (2013) suggest. The researchers involved in this project hope to use this study to contribute to a better understanding of the nature and extent of this relationship. The study will use the two waves of the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey (GSPS).

Find the presentation of the research paper "Exploring the dynamics of micro- level consumption inequality in Ghana" by Nkechi Owoo (University of Ghana, ACEIR) during the sixth webinar of the Research Facility on Inequalities: 

You may find the research papers and the Inequality Diagnostics here:

- Understanding the relationship between consumption inequality, inequality of opportunity and education outcomes in Ghana

- Exploring the dynamics of micro-level consumption inequality in Ghana

- Inequality Diagnostics for Ghana 

Contact:

Anda David, Research Officer, AFD

Over the last twenty years, poverty has declined in Kenya. The poverty rate has fallen from 52% of the population in 1997 to 36% of the population in 2015. However, in 2015 income inequality was still large with more than half of total wealth controlled by the 20% richest of the population. An assessment of inequality causes could help design and implement policies to eliminate it. In particular, policies with well-designed redistributive fiscal components could play a substantial role in reducing income inequality.

This project is part of the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities, coordinated by AFD and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships over the 2017-2020 period. The first phase of the Facility has led to the conduct of 22 research projects and the publication of around 100 research papers and policy briefs.

The proposed research program has two objectives: 

• Documentation of inequality and poverty trends in Kenya since independence and diagnosis of their main drivers;
• Assessment of the impact of fiscal policies on inequalities in Kenya.

First, the Kenyan National Household Budget Surveys will be used to analyse poverty and inequality trends over a long period of time. These datasets will also be used to assess which factors perpetuate inequalities in the country.

Then, the Commitment to Equity methodology (Lustig and Higgins, 2017) will be used to conduct an in-depth assessment of the impact of fiscal policies on inequalities and poverty. It would enable to analyse who mostly pays taxes and who benefits from transfers and public spending in the country and what fiscal policy instruments have the greatest impact on inequality reduction.

The research project will result in two research papers, as well as workshops and policy briefs to disseminate the results to policymakers.

You may find the research paper here:

• Fiscal incidence, inequality and poverty in Kenya: a CEQ assessment
• Inequality trends and diagnostics in Kenya 2020

You may find the policy briefs here:

• Inequality in Kenya : trends and policy responses
• Fiscal policies in Kenya : Effects on poverty and inequalities
  
   

Contact:

Hélène Ehrhart, Research Officer, AFD

Anda David, Research Officer, AFD

Professor Germano Mwabu, University of Nairobi

 

The recent release of the Sustainable Development Goals reinforces the central role of health as a key element of human development, calling for further investments in health as part of a concerted effort to overcome poverty and inequalities worldwide. Specifically, SDG3 reiterates the importance of investing in policies that favor Universal Health Coverage (UHC), defined in relation to access to quality care and financial protection against the cost of illness. The urge to sustain and increase investments in health as part of an overall development policy is accompanied by the need to ensure that the investments made produce benefits for all groups in a society, contributing to reducing existing inequities in access and health status between the poor and the least poor. Evidence on the equity benefit of recent UHC reforms (ranging from user fee removal to results-based financing) is still limited. Similarly, evidence is lacking on whether investments in these recent reforms have altered spending on health at a national health, increasing the distributional incidence of this spending to benefit the poor rather than the least poor, as indicted by prior research.

This project is part of the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities, coordinated by AFD and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships over the 2017-2020 period. The first phase of the Facility has led to the conduct of 22 research projects and the publication of around 100 research papers and policy briefs.

This project aims at assessing whether the distributional incidence of total and public spending on health has become more equitable over time, especially as a function of introducing UHC-specific reforms. The research objective is purposely set not only to describe the inequities in access and in health outcomes that may persist in spite of UHC-specific reforms, but also to explore more explicitly the link between the financial investments made and the benefits accrued across socio-economic groups. This choice stems from a wish to generate analytical evidence on the equity impact of the investments made in health, whether these investments are made by African countries themselves or with support from their development partners. The investigators trust that this evidence is much needed to direct and inform future investments in health. Moreover, keeping in mind this wish to inform policy making in a pragmatic manner, they plan to appraise their findings in the light of the different social and political circumstances that have shaped the emergence and implementation of the specific UHC policies and investments under analysis.

The project expands the framework proposed by McIntyre and Ataguba published in 2011 and conducts a quasi-longitudinal benefit incidence analyses to assess the distributional incidence of total, public, and UHC-specific spending (such as user fee removal policies, targeted subsidies, or results-based financing) across all countries over time, measured both at the individual beneficiary level and at the district/health facility level. Traditionally, tables and concentration curves and indexes have been used to display the results of the Benefit Incidence Analysis (BIA). In addition to this traditional approach, the investigators plan to generate maps based on the BIA results to illustrate spatial inequities in the distributional incidence of spending on health.

Furthermore, they will appraise findings in the light of the specific circumstances within which policy decisions on health have been reached in each country, to be able to explain, from a qualitative point of view, what policy elements might have contributed to generate greater or smaller equity.

You may find the research papers here:

• Estimating the distributional incidence of healthcare spending on curative health services in Sub-Saharan Africa: Benefit incidence analysis in Burkina Faso, Malawi and Zambia
• Estimating the distributional incidence of healthcare spending on maternal health services in Sub-Saharan Africa: Benefit incidence analysis in Burkina Faso, Malawi, and Zambia
• Distributional effects of healthcare spending : lessons from Burkina Faso, Malawi, and Zambia
• Assessing inequalities in healthcare spending in Burkina Faso, Malawi, and Zambia: data and methods 
• Inequalities in Maternal Healthcare spending: Evidence from Burkina Faso
• Inequalities in healthcare spending on curative services: evidence from Burkina Faso
• Inequalities in maternal healthcare spending: evidence from Zambia
• Inequalities in healthcare spending on curative services: evidence from Zambia
• Inequalities in maternal healthcare spending: evidence from Malawi
• Inequalities in healthcare spending on curative services: evidence from Malawi

Contact:

Cecilia Poggi, Research Officer, AFD

Social-protection schemes have become a popular form of intervention in developing countries both by governments and within the international-development community, as they are seen as a tool to combat the adverse impacts of natural and economic crises. However, the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of these programs remains mixed. Notwithstanding the wealth of interest from policy makers, donors, and researchers, there is a paucity of evidence about the distributional incidence of these programs. Existing work has often not been able to establish longer-run effects of public-works programs on poverty and inequality. In addition, there is a lack of focus on horizontal and spatial inequalities. This research project intends to fill this evidence gap.

This project is part of the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities, coordinated by AFD and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships over the 2017-2020 period. The first phase of the Facility has led to the conduct of 22 research projects and the publication of around 100 research papers and policy briefs.

This research project proposes to investigate the distributional impact of three large-scale social-protection schemes - the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) in Ethiopia, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India, and the Juntos conditional cash-transfer program in Peru. These programs were chosen because they are large-scale projects involving a coordinated effort by governments, donors, local authorities and individual households. The programs cover three countries with diverse social, cultural, political, and economic contexts from which to draw lessons for future policy initiatives.

The researchers propose to go beyond measuring the direct intended impacts of the programs and rather focus on their indirect, and not necessarily intended, consequences. In particular, they first consider the effect of these programs on the income and wealth of program participant households over both the shorter- and longer-run. They then turn to the programs’ impact on horizontal and spatial inequalities, as well as their effect on household social relations and the distribution of resources within households.

Unlike traditional benefit-incidence studies, the researchers exploit policy differences across time and space, both within and across the countries, to provide causal estimates of the social-policy impacts. They use the Young Lives cohort study that collected data both pre-and post-program implementation between 2002 and 2014 in all three countries. They exploit a number of aspects of the Young Lives cohort study and the roll-out of the social-protection schemes in each country to produce estimates that deal with non-random program placement.

The researchers planned to begin by conducting an individual-specific pre- and post-program comparison of income and wealth. Then to exploit the staggered rollout of the social-protection programs across districts to causally identify the impact of the schemes on a set of indicators. They intend to compare changes in districts that received the program earlier to changes in districts that received the program later in a difference-in-differences approach. Last but not least, they will further assess the impact of the program on individual outcomes, taking advantage of administrative boundaries to separate treated and control areas in a geographic regression discontinuity.

You may find the research papers here :

• Social protection and inequality: Evidence from Ethiopia, India and Peru
• Social protection and multidimensional poverty: Lessons from Ethiopia, India and Peru 
• Social protection and intrahousehold resource allocation: Evidence from three large-scale programs 

You may find the policy briefs here:

• Policy Dialogues No. 1 | Social Protection: The Impact on Inequality in Ethiopia, India, and Peru
• Policy Dialogues No. 2 | Social Protection: The Impact on Multidimensional Poverty in Ethiopia, India, and Peru
• Policy Dialogues No. 3 | Social protection: impact on household resource allocation and child undernutrition

Contact:

Conchita d’Ambrosio, Professor of Economics, Université du Luxembourg

Cecilia Poggi, Research Officer, AFD

 

An upturn in growth in Côte d'Ivoire since 2012 has been observed, with average growth rates in real GDP surpassing 8%. However, this renewed vitality in the economy has not yet been felt by all of Ivorian society. The level of poverty remains high (46.3%), as does that of inequalities. (The Gini index for 2015 is estimated at 0.402 by the National Statistics Institute and 0.415 by the World Bank). We can thus see that, while the Ivorian economy seems to be doing well, a very large proportion of its population is excluded from the benefits of this economic upturn. 

This project is part of the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities, coordinated by AFD and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships over the 2017-2020 period. The first phase of the Facility has led to the conduct of 22 research projects and the publication of around 100 research papers and policy briefs.

This research program on inequalities in Côte d’Ivoire will first take stock of the inequalities there, and then it will carry out scientific studies on three themes:

• the impact of shocks on inequalities;
• the inequalities of access to education and to quality health services;
• the impacts of public policies on inequalities. 

The study will also focus on the perception of inequalities by Ivorians.

 

The research on inequalities will take stock of the Ivorian situation and will review the initiatives of public authorities to fight monetary and non-monetary inequalities. Using the data available on the living conditions of the households, the main indicators for the measurement of inequalities will be calculated and a representation of the spatial distribution of the inequalities will be carried out in the form of maps. Subsequently, an analysis will be carried out on inequalities in opportunities (measured by the effect on opportunities from parents’ education, their occupation, place of birth, and gender) with regard to access to property and assets, as well as on the sources and the perceptions of these inequalities. 

The study on the shocks will be based on statistical analysis and modeling methods (in particular, a linear regression model and a panel data model will be applied). Access to basic services will be covered mainly with the help of micro-econometric models. The study of the effects of public policies will be considered with a microsimulated inter-industry model, then by impact evaluation models.

 

The project is expected to produce a review describing the state of public interventions designed to eradicate inequalities in Côte d'Ivoire. The study on the perception of inequalities will also make it possible to measure the extent to which households are conscious of the need for greater social justice and identify possible measures at the individual level. This research will also help identify the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of inequalities and will propose policy measures for social mobility in Côte d'Ivoire. 

This research will give rise to conferences and workshops. Various publications are also expected: a report, policy briefs, and research articles.

You may find the report and the research papers linked to this project here (in French) :

• Etat des lieux des inégalités en Côte d'Ivoire
• D'où proviennent les inégalités en Côte d'Ivoire? 
• Analyse de l'impact de la crise de 2002 sur les inégalités en Côte d'Ivoire 
• Impacts des dépenses publiques sur les inégalités en Côte d'Ivoire: le cas des secteurs sociaux

You may find the policy briefs linked to this projet here (in French) :

• Impacts de la crise militaro-politique de 2002 sur les inégalités en Côte d’Ivoire
• D’où proviennent les inégalités sociales en Côte d’Ivoire ?
• Les effets des dépenses publiques sociales sur les inégalités en Côte d’Ivoire

Contacts:

Linda Zanfini, Research Officer, AFD.

Anda David, Research Officer, AFD.

In 2015, the private sector accounted for 13% of students in higher education in Vietnam and 60% in India. To the extent that these figures are reliable (higher education institutes not always being registered in some countries), they indicate the significance the private sector has taken on at this level of education. In Peru and Mexico, nearly 7 out of 10 universities are private. The development of the private sector seems to have in part involved a movement toward democratization of access to higher education in the past 15 years. But this movement is not necessarily synonymous with reduction in inequalities in access or with conditions of academic success becoming more equal. For example, in the poorest quintile of Mexico, only 1% of the age 15-24 segment pursue studies in higher education, compared to 32% in the wealthiest quintile. 

This project is part of the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities, coordinated by AFD and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships over the 2017-2020 period. The first phase of the Facility has led to the conduct of 22 research projects and the publication of around 100 research papers and policy briefs.

The objectives in this research program are to:

• describe trends in both public and private higher education;
• identify to what extent and the way in which public policies take inequalities in higher education into consideration, and if so which inequalities;
• identify to what extent and the way in which these public policies take into account the growth and/or consolidation of the private sector of higher education, as well as its role in reducing or increasing inequalities at this level;
• detect whether the actors of private-sector higher education include the fight against inequalities in their objectives and, if so, how and why. 

This multidisciplinary research program (covering sociology, economics, demography and educology) is original in that it analyzes data from different sources and of different types using a purposive sample of so-called developing or emerging countries: India and Vietnam for Asia; Mexico and Peru for Latin America; Senegal, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for Africa.

This work will help establish an international research network on the theme of higher education and inequalities. The countries were selected based on the different degrees of development of their system of public and private higher education and the way this teaching is structured (co-existence between public and private, porosity between the two sectors, competition, etc.). They also differ in terms of their social structure (unequal development of the middle classes, for example). The study will compare these regions and countries: the material collected in the various countries will be of the same nature and will be analyzed using the same methodological approaches.

This research will give rise to conferences and seminars, a collective publication, country-documents, policy briefs, and research articles. The expected outcomes are:

• development of a typology on the current  public and private offer of higher education in the selected countries;
• development of a conceptual framework and typologies on inequalities and private higher education;
• identification, in the different countries, of policies whose goal has been to work to reduce inequalities in higher education in the course of the past 15 years;
• qualitative analysis of the criteria for access to public or private higher education, for the different categories of students or populations concerned, the conditions in which they study, the processes of certifying school diplomas, etc.;
• identification of the factors of production of inequalities in higher education, and the indicators that might be used to measure and correct them.
  
   

You may find the research papers here (in French):

- Inégalités et enseignement supérieur : entre politiques publiques et développement du secteur privé en Argentine 



- Universités privées au Mexique: entre reproduction, production et réduction des inégalités 



- Le paradoxe de l'enseignement supérieur privé au Sénégal: réduire les inégalités tout en les maintenant

 

- Des inégalités éducatives à la mise en question de l'opposition public/privé dans l'enseignement supérieur congolais, un défi documentaire et conceptuel 



- Enseignement supérieur au Vietnam: privatisation, démocratisation et inégalités 



- Complexité et inégalités de l'offre universitaire privée au Pérou. Regard sur la diversité sociodémographique des étudiants et des conditions d'insertion professionnelle des diplômés d'universités privées 



- L'expansion de l'enseignement supérieur privé et le creusement des inégalités sociales 



- Enseignement supérieur et inégalités sociales en Inde

Contact :



Linda Zanfini, Research Officer, AFD

Rohen d’Aiglepierre, Research Officer, AFD

Étienne Gérard, Research Director, IRD and Director of the CEPED (since 2014)

Contactos:

• Linda Zanfini, encargada de investigación, AFD
• Rohen d’Aiglepierre, coordinador de investigación, AFD
• Étienne Gérard, director de investigación en el IRD y director del Ceped (desde 2014)

Despite a significant progress in Vietnam in terms of growth, poverty reduction and even inequality reduction, efforts on inequality and human development issues still need to be done.

In Vietnam, nearly 30 million people have been lifted above the official poverty line over the last three decades, and the country's human development index (HDI) has risen significantly. However, data shows that income inequality in Vietnam has increased over the last two decades. According to the World Bank, the Gini index rose from 35.7 to 38.7 from 1992 to 2012. Besides, in 2014, there were 210 super-rich individuals in the country whose combined wealth stood around $20bn, which is equivalent to 12% of the country's GDP. In fact, according to Oxfam-Vietnam calculations, the richest man in Vietnam earns more in a day than the poorest Vietnamese earns in 10 years.

This project is part of the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities, coordinated by AFD and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships over the 2017-2020 period. The first phase of the Facility has led to the conduct of 22 research projects and the publication of around 100 research papers and policy briefs.

The goal is to adopt a multidimensional approach to provide convincing analysis on inequality. This will focus especially on inequality of opportunities and voice in order to use this as a process to engage with relevant stakeholders, especially in the debates on policy options to tackle inequality, and in mid-term to use the MIF as a way to influence monitoring of SDG 10 in the country.

The specific goals are as follows:

• The "Oxfam Vietnam Inequality Framework" is developed, piloted and adopted to the Vietnamese context;
• The OVIF is used as a tool to enhance in-depth understanding on multiple dimensions of inequality (paying special attention to inequality in voices and opportunity) and identify concrete policy gaps to tackle inequality in Vietnam;

The OVIF research findings and methodology are shared with policy makers, research institutes, and other development institutions.

The Multidimensional Inequality Framework is designed to capture the multidimensional nature of inequality, which is experienced across a number of 7 life domains, and that there are many different forms of inequality (such as concentrations of wealth, pay gaps, dispersion of income, social gradients in mortality, and greater social isolation experienced by the elderly). Within each of the 7 life domains, the framework offers a series of sub-domains and a number of indicators and measures which can be used to measure and monitor multidimensional inequality in a given context. Many of the indicators and measures suggested under each subdomain are related to the SDGs framework, which governments are already committed to monitor. This can be a useful element to guarantee at least a minimum level of data availability in all countries. Besides, the Oxfam Inequality Toolkit, which is a key companion for the practical implementation of the MIF in a given context, suggests several global databases, aside from national household surveys, to be used by teams willing to implement the framework.

The research findings point at persisting, critical inequalities across several life domains.  After conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis, the research identifies large gaps between subpopulation groups across spatial, socio-economic, and ethnic axes of inequality in their capability to enjoy the right to a proper, quality education and to experience a life free of illness and access to quality healthcare facilities. People belonging to ethnic minorities (EM), women, and people living in rural provinces are more affected by inequalities in health and education than the Kihn, men, and higher-income households living in predominantly urban areas. 

Furthermore, inequality in the capability to participate, raise one’s voice, and influence public matters is extremely acute between men and women and the poorest households, with a lower level of education, compared to the richest, urban, highly educated households. 

You may find the research paper and the policy brief here:

• Research paper: Multidimensional inequality in Vietnam
• Policy brief: Multidimensional inequality in Vietnam

 

Please find the presentation of the report "Multidimensional Inequalities in Vietnam” by Vu Thi Quynh Hoa (Head of Campaign & Advocacy in Oxfam Vietnam) and Dr. Phuong Duc Tung (Director of the Mekong Development Research Institute) during the second webinar of the AFD Research Conversations:

Contact:

• Anda David, Research Officer, AFD

The picture within Africa is more complex, and often obscured by problems with unreliable and non-comparable data, both over time and across countries. The most careful African data analysis suggests that, measured in monetary terms, African inequality is very high, Africa being the most unequal continent. There is, however, huge variation in the magnitude, changes and texture of this inequality across the continent.

This implies a double danger. Africa first needs to ensure that it is included in the international measurements. At least as importantly, the continent must also ensure that the particular contexts of its societies are considered in the analysis both of the factors causing inequality and the consequences of inequality. This analysis is absolutely crucial because it is the basis for policy interventions and civil society action, which are necessary to reverse the trend. 

Given this context, a research project focusing on the development of diagnostic tools and capacity building was launched in partnership with the African Center of Excellence on Inequality Research (ACEIR) in the framework of the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities. The initial study (2018-2020) led to an in-depth analysis of inequalities in four countries: South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire. A Handbook on Inequality Measurement, which serves as a foundational guide for multidimensional inequality analysis, was also developed by ACEIR. The Handbook outlines key dimensions and indicators of inequality and provides guildelines for measuring income and beyond income inequalities.

Following the success of this research project:

• A fifth analysis was launched in Mozambique over the 2022-2024 period;
• A research project aming to expand and update the Handbook by incorporating methodologies for assessing vulnerabilities related to climate change and ecological transitions has also been launched over the 2024-2025 period.

The main objective of this research project was to advance the analysis of African inequality and the policy discussion on strategies to overcome inequality in Africa through a series of country-level engagements. The project was given structure and impetus through the development of a diagnostic tool that was implemented in a limited number of pilot countries. This diagnostic tool consists of a thorough analysis of the various inequalities in a given country which enables the government to identify the priorities and policy options in order to reduce them.

In order to build the diagnostic tool, a Handbook was also developed to set up a common base which enabled country comparisons. To extend its use and improve accountability, it was backed with a central data hub and strong data centres in each partner country that allowed and facilitated further inequality analysis.

Existing multidimensional inequality analyses primarily concentrate on examining inequalities within the social and economic domains. While many low-income countries are severely impacted by climate change, there is a notable research gap in the analysis of inequalities related to climate vulnerabilities and their interactions with other socio-economic and environmental factors. The extension and updating of the Handbook, carried out over the period 2024-2025, aims to address this gap and provide the guidelines for integrating the analysis of climate-related inequalities in future diagnostics.

The diagnostic tool is based on three pillars :

1. a conceptual and empirical review of the studies on inequality in Africa, allowing us to have a baseline for the development of future projects, as well as a better comprehension of the specificities of inequalities in Africa and of their measurement;
2. a Handbook which contains the framework proposed for the country inequality diagnostics, the methodological issues around the measurement of inequalities and their analysis and the important issues linked to policies;
3. the support to the implementation of the country diagnostic, in collaboration with the pilot countries’ local research teams and the creation of the data hub.

In order to expand and update the Handbook, researchers will thoroughly examine and synthesise existing literature that addresses the measurement and analysis of climate-related vulnerabilities. This approach will help identify gaps in current research and propose a minimal set of indicators for measuring vulnerabilities linked to climate change and the imperatives of the ecological transition and detail appropriate data and measurement methods to enable their inclusion as part of an inequality diagnostic report.  

In practical terms, the country diagnostic takes the form of a report which overviews the inequality within a country, across all relevant dimensions, for a given time and over time. Alongside this, it summarises the main policies passed, or in place, expected to have an impact on inequalities. Each country will use their diagnostic as a platform:

• for policy engagements on strategies to overcome inequality,
• for the stimulation of national dialogue and a national research focus on inequality,
• to lead the national discussion through further, high impact research papers from the country node on inequality.

• Anda David, Research Officer, AFD
• Rawane Yasser, Junior Research Officer, AFD

Between 2007 and 2013, the average annual growth rate of Burkina Faso’s gross domestic product (GDP) was approximately 7% per year in real terms, representing one of the best economic performances in West Africa. If we take into account the country’s strong population growth, the average rate of per-capita GDP rose by 3% per year during this same period. Meanwhile, the poverty rate grew from 45% in 1994 to 47% in 2009. Despite signs of a decline (40% in 2014), considerable inequalities remain.

This project is part of the first phase of the Research Facility on Inequalities, coordinated by AFD and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships over the 2017-2020 period. The first phase of the Facility has led to the conduct of 22 research projects and the publication of around 100 research papers and policy briefs.

The initial objective of this research program on inequalities in Burkina Faso is to create an inequality diagnostic in the country. In a second phase, scientific studies will be carried out on three themes:

• The dynamics of inequalities and of multidimensional poverty;
• Educational trajectories; and
• What happens to graduates of the educational system.

The objective here is to examine how school graduates become integrated into society later, and to what degree they put into practice the skills acquired at school.

The research will mainly concern the cities of Ouagadougou and Nouna, in western Burkina Faso.

The diagnostic on inequalities will take stock of the situation in Burkina Faso through a literature review and analysis of data from national surveys. The dynamics of inequalities and of multidimensional poverty in Burkina Faso will be understood through the experiences of one of the partners of this project, the Ouagadougou and Nouna Observatories. Analysis of trends in inequalities and in multidimensional poverty over time will be carried out in urban, semi-urban, and rural areas, according to the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of households and to the degrees of poverty. Research on the educational trajectories and on what has become of people having graduated from the educational system will use the same data. The idea is to monitor cohorts of school graduates to study their trajectories and their integration into the society in the longer term.

This research will give rise to conferences and workshops. Various publications are also planned: a report, policy briefs, and research articles.

You may find the research papers here (in French) :

• Etat des lieux des inégalités multi-dimensionnelles au Burkina Faso
• Les inégalités au Burkina Faso à l'aune de la pandémie de la Covid-19: quelques réfléxions prospectives
• Dynamique des inégalités et de la pauvreté multi-dimensionnelle à Nouna
• Dynamique des inégalités de la pauvreté multi-dimensionnelle à Ouagadougou : données de l'Observatoire de population de Ouagadougou

You may also find the policy briefs:

• Meeting the equity challenge in Burkina Faso: regional policies to reduce economic inequalities
• Improving access to education in Burkina Faso: a major condition for benefiting from the demographic dividend

And the policy dialogue: Improving access to education in Burkina Faso: A major condition for benefiting from the demographic dividend

Contacts:

• Linda Zanfini, Research Officer, AFD
• Rohen d'Aiglepierre, Research Officer, AFD