Mapping Poverty in Sudan

This report aims to map poverty and inequality in Sudan and would be representative of the 18states and 131 localities of Sudan. The poverty mapping technique is based on a small areaestimation (SAE) technique developed by the World Bank to derive estimates of geographicpoverty and inequality. It combines data from the 2014/15 National Household Budget andPoverty Survey (NHBPS) and the 2008 Population and Housing Census data to build spatiallydisaggregated poverty maps.Although household surveys usually include measures of income and wealth, they are notrepresentative beyond the state level. Yet, allowing lower levels of disaggregation is importantfor policy interventions, particularly for countries like Sudan that have state governments, whichmanage the activities of the state while reporting to the federal government. This study uses amodel of household expenditure from a survey data set to estimate household welfare at thelower levels and apply it to the census data set which does not provide information on householdincome or expenditure. These maps illustrate the information gains provided by SAE, show thereis a substantial spatial heterogeneity within the localities, and highlight the small areas most likelyto exhibit the highest risk of poverty.