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How to sustain a living? Urban households and poverty in the Sahelian town of Mopti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Annelet Harts-Broekhuis
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Extract

Increasingly, the poor are to be found in the urban areas of developing countries. Many urban households, not only the very poor, face economic insecurity and deprivation. Despite the steady growth of low-income groups in the urban areas of Africa, the mechanisms for coping with urban poverty were not studied to any great extent until the end of the 1980s. Most research into the strategies developed by households to cope with poverty had centred on the rural household. This article focuses on the inhabitants of the town of Mopti, situated in the Sahelian zone of Mali on the border of the inland delta of the river Niger. It deals with the subsistence strategies of different types of urban households and their adjustments to uncertain and deteriorating economic circumstances. In analysing these coping mechanisms account is taken of the various factors affecting households' ability to cope with reduced earnings or lack of income, such as their socio-economic position, migration status, composition and size, and ethnic background. A pertinent question in the analysis is whether urban households, in deteriorating circumstances, diversify their sources of income or specialise in one activity.

Résumé

De plus en plus, les pauvres se trouvent dans les milieux urbains des pays en voie de développement. Beaucoup de ménages urbains, et non seulement ceux qui sonttrès pauvres, font face à l'insécurité économique et la privation. Malgré la croissance régulière des groupes auxbas-salaires dans les milieux urbains d'Afrique, les mécanismes pour faire face à la pauvreté urbaine n'avaient pas été étudié de façon approfondie jusqu' à la fin des années 1980. La plupart des recherches sur les stratégies dévelopées par les ménages pour faire face à la pauvreté se sont concentrées sur le ménage rural. Cet article se concentre sur les habitants de la ville deMopti, située dans la zone sahélienne du Mali sur les bords du delta intérieur de la rivière du Niger. II examine les stratégies de subsistance des différents types de ménages urbains et leurs ajustements àdes circonstances économiques qui sont incertaines et se détériorent. En analysant ces mécanismes de survie, on prête attention aux différents facteurs qui affectent l'abilité des ménages à faire face à la diminution de salaire ou au manque de revenu tels que: leurs positions socio-économiques, leurs status migratoires, la taille et composition du ménage, et leurs origine ethniques. Une question pertinente dans cette analyse examine si les ménages urbains diversifient leurs sources de revenu ou se spécialised dans une seule activité dans ces circonstances détériorantes.

Type
Poverty and prosperity on the margin
Information
Africa , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , January 1997 , pp. 106 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1997

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