Comparative analysis of poverty incidence and patterns in the forest and savanna zones of Ghana

Abstract

This paper uses two sets of Living Standards Surveys to determine poverty incidence and patterns within the different ecological zones of Ghana. To ascertain changes in the standards of living of households, the headcount, poverty gap index, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) class of indices and the Sen’s index were employed to measure the incidence and intensity of poverty and the effects of various household characteristics on the standard of living of the household. The results show that the incidence of extreme poverty increased between the two survey periods. The poor who were mostly found in the rural areas were involved basically in forestry and agriculture-related activities and across levels of the education system they had little or no education.  Poverty incidence was also higher in the Northern Savanna area compared to the Forest area, Coastal and Northern Savanna areas.