Poverty measures, social protection and deprivations of households and children in Ghana and Kenya

Abstract

This thesis addresses three themes: (1) assess household poverty in Ghana and Kenya; (2) compare poverty methods and examine the poverty-reducing role of social protection in Ghana; and (3) examine rural-urban catch-up in child poverty in Ghana. The last five rounds of the Demographic and Health Surveys of Ghana and Kenya and the sixth round of Ghana Living Standards Survey were used. The First Order Dominance, Multidimensional Poverty Index, Multiple Overlapping Deprivation and Foster Greer and Thorbecke approaches were used to measure poverty. The Endogenous Treatment Effect model of Heckman sample selection, the Propensity Score Matching and Mixed Logistic techniques were used for the econometric analyses. The results indicate a broad-based probability of progress in household welfare in Ghana of 1.00, whereas Kenya recorded muted probability of advance of only 0.01. Consumption expenditure poverty in Ghana is sensitive to disaggregation, income and the Lower-Middle Income Countries poverty line of $3.20. The incidence of multidimensional poverty is higher than consumption expenditure poverty by 6.8 percentage points. Beneficiary households of the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana reduce their poverty levels by 0.151 units compared to non-beneficiaries. The risks of child deprivation poverty for urban poor children are at least 196% higher than their rural poor counterparts in Ghana. The National Health Insurance Scheme should prioritise coverage of poor and rural households in Ghana. In Kenya, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources should focus on the provision of improved sanitation to the Western and North Eastern regions.