Measures of Urban Poverty
Council researchers are assessing the impact of urban poverty on children’s education and nutrition, child survival, and women’s reproductive health.
This project examines data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) to assess the impact of urban poverty on children’s education and nutrition, child survival, and women’s reproductive health. The study uses multivariate models that include measures of disadvantage at both the household and neighborhood levels.
A comparative analysis of data from 50 countries quantified sharp differences in the levels of services within urban areas, with the urban poor having much less access to adequate water supplies, sanitation, and electricity than the urban nonpoor. Poverty-related differences in access to health services and in health outcomes were further explored in Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and Its Implications in the Developing World (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2003). In this volume and in an ongoing program of research, new methods are being devised to estimate levels of relative urban (and rural) poverty from the indicators available in demographic surveys.
Council researchers Mark R. Montgomery and Paul C. Hewett have published results based on a promising new statistical method (known as MIMIC modeling) to estimate urban living standards from Demographic and Health Survey data and have found strong effects of both household and neighborhood poverty on reproductive health and children’s schooling. They have also found evidence that urban poverty may not be as spatially concentrated (i.e., in slums) as has often been assumed, and are exploring the implications of neighborhood composition for health and schooling.
Research is also underway (with Deborah Balk of Columbia University) using detailed poverty mapping data for southern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa) to understand the role of infrastructure, geography, and bio-physical factors (rainfall, soil quality, elevation, disease prevalence) in determining rates of urban and rural poverty and inequality.
Developing-country urban health: Insights from demographic theory and practice
Montgomery,Mark R.; Ezeh,Alex C.; Galea,Sandro; Vlahov,David
from Handbook of Urban Health: Populations, Methods, and Practice, pp. 317-360
Publication date: 2005
Poverty and children's schooling: A structural equations approach using MICS data
Montgomery,Mark R.; Hewett,Paul C.; Minujin,E.; Delamonica,Enrique; Komarecki,Marina
from Human Rights and Social Policies for Children and Women: The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in Practice
Publication date: 2005
The place of the urban poor in the Cairo Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals
Montgomery,Mark R.
In United Nations Seminar on the Relevance of Population Aspects for the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division
Publication date: 2005
Urban health in developing countries: An overview
Montgomery,Mark R.; Ezeh,Alex C.; Galea,Sandro; Vlahov,David
from Handbook of Urban Health: Populations, Methods, and Practice, pp. 201-222
Publication date: 2005
Urban poverty and health in developing countries: Household and neighborhood effects (abstract) (HTML)
Montgomery,Mark R.; Hewett,Paul C.
Demography 42(3): 397-425
Publication date: 2005
The place of the urban poor in the Cairo Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals (PDF)
Paper presented at the Seminar on the Relevance of Population Aspects for the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, New York, 17-19 November 2004, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations
Montgomery,Mark R.
Publication date: 2004
Urban poverty and health in developing countries: Household and neighborhood effects (PDF)
Montgomery,Mark R.; Hewett,Paul C.
Policy Research Division Working Paper (no. 184)
Publication date: 2004
Urban poverty and health in developing countries: Household and neighborhood effects [Arabic] (PDF)
Montgomery,Mark R.; Hewett,Paul C.
Policy Research Division Working Paper (no. 184)
Publication date: 2004
Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and Its Implications in the Developing World (HTML)
Publication date: 2003
The impact of the AIDS epidemic on the health of older persons in Northwestern Tanzania (abstract) (HTML)
Ainsworth,Martha; Dayton,Julia
World Development 31(1): 131-148
Publication date: 2003
Poverty and public services in developing-country cities (PDF)
Hewett,Paul C.; Montgomery,Mark R.
Policy Research Division Working Paper (no. 154)
Publication date: 2001
Urban growth in developing countries: A review of projections and predictions (PDF)
Brockerhoff,Martin
Policy Research Division Working Paper (no. 131)
Publication date: 1999
Urban growth in developing countries: A review of projections and predictions (abstract) (PDF)
Brockerhoff,Martin
Population and Development Review 25(4): 757-758
Publication date: 1999
Project Stats
Location: South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique
Program(s):
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Topic(s):
Urbanization, health, and the environment
Duration: 1/1999 - ongoing
Population Council researchers:
Paul C. Hewett
Mark R. Montgomery
Non-Council collaborators:
Alex Ezeh (African Population and Health Research Centre)
Deborah Balk (Columbia University)
Donors:
Population Council
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
US Agency for International Development
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