government and local authorities of the three departments in which the indigenous population
is most prevalent, namely Likouala, Sangha and Plateaux.
Poverty
Poverty is a major factor in equitably accessing to and succeeding in school. The RESEN has
found that a child living in a household belonging to the poorest 20% is almost three times
less likely to complete primary school than his counterpart from the 20% richest. Labour,
either domestic or economic, is also likely to hinder the education of the child, while DCATII shows that, overall, the proportion of children who have worked decreases with the
increasing the level of household wealth, ranging from 33% for children whose household is
classified in the lowest quintile of 12% for those in the lowest quintile. Again, the abolition of
school fees and the provision of free textbooks are expected to help alleviate this problem.
The full results of the ECOM 2011 are not yet available, as at today, it is impossible to
produce an updated analysis of multidimensional poverty of children and women. So suffice
it to recall the major trends that had emerged from the study published in 2008 on the basis of
the ECOM 2005 data.
This multidimensional poverty analysis of children and women in Congo was structured
around 8 areas in which privations suffered by individuals were analysed. These eight areas
are: (i) monetary; (ii) education; (iii) nutrition; (iv) health; (v) labour; (vi) water and
sanitation; (vii) housing and (viii) isolation / integration. The deprivations were evaluated on
the basis of composite indicators integrating several dimensions: for example, the extent of
deprivation in the area of education was not only based on school attendance but also took
into account repetition.
Table 33: Incidence of poverty in different prevalence areas (%)
Areas
Population Children
Women (adults)
Men (adults)
Monetary
50.7
53.7
47.8
46.2
Education
37.9
52.5
36.7
21.9
Nutrition
42.9
43.7
43.6
40.8
Health
60.2
60.9
58.5
60.5
Labour
21.0
05.6
28.3
24.5
Water and sanitation
67.5
69.9
66.1
64.9
Housing
58.7
61.6
57.4
54.8
Isolation
32.1
33.8
34.6
26.4
Share of population
100
46.2
28.6
25.2
Source: Multidimensional Poverty Study from the results of ECOM 2005, UNICEF 2008
The results of this study showed that children are more deprived than adults in all areas
except for job. The disparities are particularly important in the areas of monetary poverty and
education. In the monetary area, the study showed that the child poverty rate (54%) was
significantly higher than that of adults (47%), especially due to the greater vulnerability of
households with many children. Regarding education, 37% of Congolese people are deprived
of it but the rate is 52% in children.
Finally, we must mention the persistence of significant insurmountable financial barriers for
the poor. Indeed, despite the free education policy introduced in 2007-2008, some costs are
too heavy for the poor and large families. If the state is the main funder of basic education,
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