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In the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, a coastal country with a northern savannah and forests in the south, rural poverty has traditionally been significantly higher in the north. In the northern zone, smallholder farmers produce cereal, cotton and livestock, while the forest areas in the south produce export crops such as cocoa. Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s leading cocoa producer. Yet poverty is growing in forest zones in the south as a result of the volatility of world prices for coffee and cocoa in recent years.

Côte d’Ivoire is a low-income country. It registered a marked increase in the incidence of poverty that began in the second half of the 1980s and continued up to the early 1990s. The income gap widened and the concentration of poverty in rural areas became evident. The civil war that broke out in 2002 disrupted the economic, social and political fabric of the country. Thousands were killed in the conflict and hundreds of thousands of rural people were displaced. The conflict severely affected poor people in rural areas, who have suffered a decline in their living standards.

Who are the country’s poor people?

Most of the country’s poor people are small-scale farmers. People who have little or no access to land are among the poorest, and they include young people and women, who are particularly vulnerable. Women have limited or no decision-making power over the allocation of land, and they are dependent on men for access to land. Yet gaining access to land is crucial for women because their livelihoods depend largely on the production of food crops.

Where are the country’s poor rural people?

There is a high incidence of poverty in the north, where the potential for agriculture has not yet been realized. Increasingly, poverty and food insecurity are also affecting the forest zone in the southern part of the country.

Why are they poor?

Lack of access to land is a major cause of rural poverty. Small-scale producers of food crops have access to about half of the amount of land available to large-scale producers of export crops. Education levels among food crop producers are low, and their access to technology is limited. Rural women are most severely affected by lack of access to land and lack of decision-making power. In zones where population pressure and environmental degradation have reduced overall access to productive land, women are generally the first to feel the negative effects.

Côte d’Ivoire has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in West Africa. The government has established a ministry to lead the fight against AIDS. A wide range of national and international initiatives focus on HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and testing. The collapse of public health facilities in the north as a result of years of conflict has made the situation worse.

Source: IFAD