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Population, Poverty, and Underdevelopment in the Southern Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

William J. House
Affiliation:
I.L.O. Population and Human Resources Adviser, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Khartoum.

Extract

The Christian and animist population of the Southern Sudan is largely composed of black Africans, estimated to number 5·3 million in 1983, as against the 15·3 million, predominantly Arabic and Muslim, who inhabit the Northern Sudan. The economy of the Southern Sudan, comprised of the three semi-autonomous regions of Bahr El Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Equatoria, remains one of the least developed in sub-Saharan Africa. The great majority of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture, although some limited cash income is generated from the sale of surplus crops, and nomadic pastoralism is also widely practised. Only about three per cent of the inhabitants live in the three regional capitals of Wau, Malakal, and Juba, and they have to depend heavily for work in the public sector and small-scale informal activities.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

page 201 note 1 Republic of the Sudan, The 1983 Population Census: administrative report for the Southern Sudan (Juba, 1984), pp. 1–16.

page 202 note 1 The total fertility rate may be interpreted as the number of births a woman would have in her reproductive life if she exactly paralleled the current fertility of women in her own and other age group. See William J. House, ‘Population, Poverty and Deprivation in Southern Sudan: a review’, I.L.O. Population and Labour Policies Programme, Working Paper No. 154, Geneva, 1986, as well as William J. House and Kevin D. Phillips-Howard, ‘Population and Poverty in Rural Southern Sudan: a case study of the Acholi area’, Working Paper No. 155, Geneva, 1986, and ‘Socio-Economic Differentiation Among African Peasants: evidence from Acholi, Southern Sudan’, in Journal of International Development (Manchester), forthcoming.Google Scholar

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page 211 note 1 The $ multi-million Jonglei canal project seeks to divert the waters of the White Nile away from the swamps of the Sudd, mainly in order to reduce the rate of evaporation and increase the flow of water to the Northern Sudan and Egypt. Construction activities have been suspended since 1983 because of the worsening security situation in the Southern Sudan. Cf. Howell, Paul, Lock, Michael, and Cobb, Stephen (eds.), The Jonglei Canal: impact and opportunity (Cambridge, 1988)Google Scholar, for a multi-disciplinary survey of the complex interrelated hydrological, ecological, biological, and human problems involved.

page 211 note 2 A number of nutrition surveys report that pregnant women may purposely decrease their food intakes in order to ensure an easier delivery by reducing the birth-weight of their baby.

page 211 note 3 World Health Organisation/United Nations Children's Fund, ‘Joint Nutrition Support Project for Equatoria Region’, Juba, 1984.

page 212 note 1 Woodruff et al. loc. cit. p. 10.

page 213 note 1 Ibid. pp. 9–10.

page 213 note 2 African Medical and Research Foundation (A.M.R.E.F.), Health Manpower in Southern Sudan (Juba, 1984).

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page 215 note 1 In neighbouring Kenya in 1976, the number of doctors and registered nurses per 100,000 population was 10 and 95 respectively, more than double the ratios found in Equatoria. See Ghai, Dharam, Godfrey, Martin, and Lisk, Franklyn, Planning for Basic Needs in Kenya: performance, policies and prospects (Geneva, 1979).Google Scholar

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page 215 note 3 Ibid. p. 68.

page 216 note 1 Cheesmond, op. cit. p. 14.

page 216 note 2 Republic of Sudan, ‘Mundri Agricultural Development District: smallholder survey’, Juba, 1983.

page 216 note 3 Calculated from Republic of Sudan, ‘Yei Smallholder Survey Report’, Juba, 1983.

page 217 note 1 Sources: ibid, and ‘Mundri Agricultural Development District’.

page 217 note 2 Nichols, Paul, ‘Household Water Supplies’, Juba, 1982.Google Scholar

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page 223 note 2 ‘Arapi Teacher Training Institute Entrance Examination’, Juba, 1985.

page 223 note 3 House, ‘Population, Employment and Inequality at the Household Level in Urban Juba’.

page 223 note 4 As a measure of income distribution, the Gini coefficient has a maximum value of unity (absolute inequality) and a minimum zero (absolute equality). It can be calculated as

where y 1y n represent individual income in decreasing order of size, ӯ is the mean income, and n is the number of individuals. It should be noted, however, that the Gini coefficient is only a measure of relative size, and that one distribution might be more equal than another over one range, less equal over a succeeding range, and yet both might record the same coefficient. See Pearce, David (ed.), Macmillan Dictionary of Modern Economics (London, 1986), p. 170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 224 note 1 House, William J., ‘The Nature and Determinants of Socio-Economic Inequality Among Peasant Households in Southern Sudan’, Khartoum, 1988.Google Scholar

page 224 note 2 House and Phillips-Howard, op. cit.

page 225 note 1 One example is the recent attempt by the Norwegian Church Aid/Sudan Programme to construct a labour-intensive feeder road in the rather isolated Acholi area of the region, so that small-scale farmers would be in a position to market their surplus crops more easily.

page 227 note 1 Ahmed, Iftikhar and Kinsey, Bill H. (eds.), Farm Equipment Innovations in Eastern and Central Southern Africa (Aldershot, 1984).Google Scholar

page 228 note 1 Bruce F. Johnston, ‘Farm Equipment Innovations in Eastern Africa: policy considerations’, in ibid. pp. 19–88.

page 228 note 2 J. D. de Coninck, A. Duncan, and P. E. Winter, ‘Agricultural Equipment and Innovation in Southern Sudan’, in ibid. pp. 253–71.

page 228 note 3 Johnston, loc. cit. p. 63.

page 229 note 1 House, William J., ‘The State of Human Resources, Conditions of Employment and Determinants of Incomes and Poverty in Southern Sudan: evidence from Juba's informal economy’, I.L.O. Population and Labour Policies Programme, Working Paper No. 149, Geneva, 1985.Google Scholar

page 229 note 2 Republic of Sudan, The Six-Year Plan of Economic and Social Development, 1977/78–1982/83 (Juba, 1977).

page 230 note 1 House, William J. and Cohen, Barnet, ‘An Extended Socio-Economic and Demographic Profile of the Population of Urban Juba’, Juba 1986.Google Scholar