Urban-Rural Poverty Analysis In Developing Economies: Empirical Study Of North Darfur; Sudan

Sudan is concerned on both general human poverty and income poverty. Poor households are particularly disadvantaged, due to the considerable deprivation in health and education. A targeted procedure of reducing poverty in Sudan should consider the importance of urban poverty and the rural poverty as well. Differences in urban and rural poverty and their separate associations with economic indicators such as growth are crucial, for the success of poverty reduction goals of the Sudanese government. Hence, the overall objective of the research is to emphasize the severity of urban poor, via identifying a significant difference between poverty level in urban and rural areas measured using household consumption. A literature review revealed that there is no clear classification, whether the level of poverty measured as employment and income, depends on the region such as urban or rural. Wages are higher in urban areas than in rural areas, but poor who is likely, to be semi-skilled or unskilled is not likely, to be employed in urban areas. The relative demand for unskilled labour is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In this context, the regions where urbanization is in progress such as secondary town play the most important role in reducing poverty. Contradicting results in studies are observed for the choice of measurement of poverty. There are various distributions of methods to measure poverty, from objectivity to data collection. Measurement of household poverty is a comparatively, inconclusive area. The possibility of different living standards of members of the same household, questions the validity of household poverty. The research approach is inductive that uses specific information to infer the information of the targeted population. This research employed a mixed method, which uses both the quantitative and qualitative designs for the analysis, to extract the benefits of both designs. Research location is North Darfur, Sudan. The total sample size of the household survey is 600, selected through stratified sampling method is. All the data is obtained from the household survey and interview with the officials in North Darfur, belonging to government and non-government organizations. A regression model consisting of six regression equations is modelled in this study. Significant social indicators to affect household poverty are gender, age, and education of the household head. Significant economic indicators to affect household poverty are household income and the living standard. For most of the urban households, the head is female, younger, and high educated while, for most of the rural household; the head is male, older, and less educated. Income and living standard of urban households is higher than that of the rural households. But a poor household in urban area faces increased monthly expenditure than a poor household in the rural area. The rural household can somehow, make their living through borrowing and exchange, but the urban has to pay for every need and thus, sometimes, all the household members have to earn. The policy makers must consider and give importance to the severity of poor households in urban areas and the focus of poverty reduction to only rural areas must include urban areas of North Darfur.