ReviewReducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa through investments in water and other priorities
Section snippets
Water, a high profile issue in global poverty debate
Water resources are essential to human development processes and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which seek: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger (goal 1), with a target of halving the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015; to achieve universal primary education (goal 2); and to ensure environmental sustainability and stop unsustainable exploitation of water resources (goal 7). The Commission for Africa (2005) has called for doubling the spending on
Rural infrastructure and poverty
The causal linkages between agricultural output growth and poverty reduction are generally well accepted (Mellor, 1995, Thirtle et al., 2003). In turn, the linkages between infrastructure development and sustained output growth have been documented by many global empirical studies (Calderon and Chong, 2004, Canning and Bennathan, 2000) and worldwide reviews (Pinstrup-Andersen and Shimokawa, 2006). Cross-country analyses have also documented strong linkages between infrastructure and
Key pathways to breaking the poverty trap
Key pathways and investment options to reduce rural poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and Ethiopia are listed in Box 1. Positive synergies can be realized through integrated investments across sectors. However, successful approaches must be case-specific. Some studies from Ethiopia posit that the adoption of modern production technology and agricultural innovations is higher near micro-dams, due probably to irrigation. However, the incidence of water-borne diseases is greater near older sites,
Summary
We review the linkages between irrigation investments and poverty reduction with a focus on Africa. Investments in agricultural water, and other priorities, can contribute to poverty reduction through several pathways, including: higher productivity; higher employment; higher income and consumption; better nutrition and health; better education; lower variability in output, income, and employment; improved equity; multiple uses of water; and multiplier effects on non-farm sectors.
Investments in
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Professor Shahbaz Khan for encouragement and support and Professor Guido Erreygers and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments.
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