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Rural poverty in Congo

Poverty has worsened in the republic of the Congo since the 1980s. At that time the country had a relatively high gross domestic product (GDP) and was classified as a middle-income country. But the situation has changed. The troubled transition from centralized planning under a Marxist government to a market economy, together with economic mismanagement, military coups and brutal civil conflict during the 1990s, have left a large part of the population poor and vulnerable.

The civil war that flared up in 1997 and again in 1999 left a wake of destruction and loss of life in the southern regions of the Congo, where most of the people live and where most of the country's food crops are produced. The vital national rail line and adjacent rural roads forming the Congo's economic lifeline were ruined. At the height of the conflict, about one third of the country's people were displaced. The chronic financial crisis became acute and the financial sector came close to collapse. Poverty became deeper in the rural areas of the Congo.

Throughout the country, the income gap continues to widen. Most of the productive capacity of rural poor people, especially in the south, was destroyed by warfare. People lost savings, assets and tools and their capacity to withstand shocks and respond to changing circumstances. Poor people in rural areas in the Congo are powerless, vulnerable and isolated. Disease and malnutrition have sapped the strength they need to produce food and income for their households.

The spread of HIV/AIDS is a major concern and an obstacle to reducing poverty in the Congo, where an estimated 90,000 adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2003. About 5.5 per cent of people in the Congo between the ages of 14 and 49 were affected by HIV/AIDS. In 2003 some 97,000 children under the age of 17 had lost one or both of their parents to AIDS. The government supports a multi-agency initiative implementing a ten-year programme to assist people living with HIV/AIDS.

Now the Congo has a new constitution, and there is hope that the ongoing pacification process will foster a return to normalcy. Progress since early 2000 has exceeded expectations, and almost all displaced people have returned to their homes.

Who are the Congo's rural poor people?

The poorest people in rural areas are small-scale farmers and fishers and their households, and some people in certain areas, such as poor people living in peri-urban areas who have no access to land. Because of the low population density in rural areas, access to land is not a major problem for most rural people. But in peri-urban areas, where small plots can yield profitable garden produce, land has become a scarce resource, and people without access to land or off-farm employment are the poorest of the poor. The most vulnerable of all poor people are youth and particularly women, who are the primary agricultural producers and processors.

Where are they?

Poverty is most severe in the Congo's rural areas, where per capita GDP is one to two thirds lower than in urban areas.

Why are they poor?

The main causes of poverty in the Congo are:

• low agricultural productivity as a result of traditional cultivation methods, insufficient use of agricultural inputs such as improved seeds and planting materials and fertilizers
• high transaction costs that are mainly the result of inefficient rural transport infrastructure, including poor rural roads and vehicles
• marketing inefficiencies such as weak collection and distribution organizations, rudimentary processing equipment, scarce financial services and a frail communication system connecting producers, traders and consumers

Despite liberalization of agricultural marketing and the prices of agricultural products, few private operators have stepped in to provide the services once furnished by the public sector.

Source: IFAD