Mapping Poverty in West Africa

Examine the relation-ship between the location of rural poor population and land use potential in West Africa based on 'best available' data. Poverty (in terms of ‘human development’) was represented with indicator variables used to produce UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI). Actual data came from the Heath and Demo-graphic Survey (HDS). Because none of the HDI indicators were explicitly captured in this survey, surrogate variables collected at 1113 sample rural locations in West Africa were used from the DHS dataset to refer to poverty levels. To detect possible influences of spatial factors on the degree of human development, the data was combined with 4 different approximations of ‘marginal land’. Those can be grouped in two categories: Biophysical: Agroclimatic Zones and Land Degradation, Socio-economic: Population Density and Accessibility.
	The first three variables were analysed for all West-African countries, whereas the accessibility data was only available for Burkina Faso and Mali. The accessibility data were partly developed under the project. The GIS and statistical processing included point/polygon overlay analysis using ARC/INFO and Arc/View software. For each HDI sample point, a geo-graphically referenced value was extracted from the thematic layers. Average and standard errors were	then calculated for surrogate by thematic variables using MS-Excel spreadsheet. A set of maps for each indicator of human develop-ment (representing an approximation of poverty) and for each thematic background variable, as well as graphs displaying the indicators in correlation with the background data.

Contact : Claudia Heberlein, Manon Desforges UNEP/GRID-Arendal, Longum Park, P.O. Box 1602, Myrene, N-4801, Arendal, NORWAY Phone: + 47 370 35 650 Fax: + 47 370 35050 E-mail: desforges@grida.no | http://www.grida.no/prog/global/cgiar