Poverty risk profile in Cameroon: a gender headship analysis

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VI, June 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Poverty risk profile in Cameroon: a gender headship analysis

Kouhomou Clemence Zite, Pilag Kakeu Charles Bertin
University of Dschang, Cameroon

Abstract
This paper investigates the poverty risk profile by gender headship in Cameroon using a twofold methodological approach based on data from the fourth Cameroonian household survey (ECAM 4). These methodological approaches enabled us to define four heterogeneous sub-groups (de facto and de jure female-headed households, single and in union male-headed households) and also to analyse the correlates of consumption spending, vulnerability to poverty as well as its causes (poverty or risk induced vulnerability) in each group of households. Two main results emerge from this work. First, the lower vulnerability level is observed in single men group and the highest in married men group (18.55 against 49.79). Between de facto and de jure female-headed households, the difference is at least 3 points in favour of de jure female-headed households. Furthermore, the vast majority of households appear to be affected by low expectation of consumption except single men-headed households for whom the risk induced vulnerability (estimated at 10.88) is higher than poverty induced vulnerability. This result points to large potential gains from social risk management policies targeting poverty risk while taking into account the gender bias.

Keywords: Poverty risk, De jure and De facto household’ heads, vulnerability, gender

1.Introduction

Since the dawn of the second millennium, eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, is among the key objectives pursued by the global community for accelerating development. Thus, besides being the first objective of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which succeeded the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, it is also reflected in several other targets of this international action plan (United Nations, 2015). These include SDG 10, which aims at “reducing inequalities” and SDG 5, which aims at “achieving gender equality and women empowerment”. Despite this strong mobilization, poverty is still a phenomenon that deserves much attention because of the large number of poor people in the world (689 million people); number which has probably increased by an additional 88 to 115 million people because of the current COVID19 pandemic (World Bank, 2020).

Read More