Poverty and Social Impact Analysis 2009

The Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) was a country wide survey that aimed to provide information on the burden of accessing basic education (Grade 1-9), and a basic clinical care package on individuals and households. This light survey was meant to bridge the data gap between the 2003/2004 Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the 2009/2010 Household Integrated Survey (HIS). The information collected assisted policy makers, planners, program managers and development partners in a number of important ways that included providing additional information on the likely challenges of the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the overall poverty reduction objectives.

The PSIA therefore focused on addressing indicators as it related to the following: PRSP II, National Education Policy 2004-2015, Health Policy 2007-2020, The Constitution of The Gambia 1997. The PSIA outputs were expected to support the mid-term review of PRSP II and the re-prioritization and crafting of new strategies to accelerate poverty reduction. The PSIA also provided information for the crafting or reviewing of the National Health and Basic Education Financing Policies.The results of the PSIA revealed that the household expenditure on health and education were 2 and 5 percent respectively of the total household expenditure.

The survey also showed marked variation across regions and place of residence indicating the need for targeting of interventions in areas and on sub populations that were underprivileged, if overall objectives of attaining policy targets and goals were to be attained.The National Planning Commission (NPC) in collaboration with the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) conducted the Poverty and Social Impact Analysis.