Between the official satisfaction and the alarming findings of unofficial organizations, a lot of things are said about living conditions and poverty in Algeria.
The World Bank has just published a quantitative assessment on “multidimensional poverty” in Algeria, focusing on three main dimensions: health, education, and living conditions.
There is certainly an improvement in these aspects, but much remains to be done, in particular, to reduce the differences between the regions.
The assessment is contained in the latest WB report on the monitoring of Algeria’s economic situation. It mainly concerns “non-monetary poverty”. Unlike monetary poverty, which is defined by income below the poverty line, non-monetary poverty concerns the effects of low income, i.e. the difficulty or impossibility of accessing certain amenities.
“Due to the hellish rise in the prices of consumer goods (foodstuffs, etc.) but also of construction materials due to the devaluation of the dinar and speculation, misery and hunger is spreading in our country”, he added. estimated the Workers’ Party (PT) in a statement made public Sunday, December 26.
The economic situation is in fact marked by very high inflation and tensions on certain basic products which are straining households, especially the underprivileged.
Citing statistics from the National Employment Agency (Anem), the PT indicates that the number of job seekers in 2021 has reached two million, while the supply does not exceed 1.5%.
Simultaneously, media sources reported a tragedy that occurred in the wilaya of El Tarf, where a father was reportedly killed in an altercation over the sale of subsidized milk.
A marked improvement in 2019 compared to 2013
The WB indicates that inflation is at a level never seen since 2012 (9.2% in October year-on-year) and underlines that ” due to the sharp rise in food inflation, the purchasing power of the most vulnerable of the population was disproportionately affected in 2021, given the major weight of food products in their consumption basket ”.
The chapter related to multidimensional poverty does not focus on the number and categories of Algerians living below the poverty line nor on the evolution of impoverishment, but on aspects related to education, health, and conditions. of life. The figures put forward are those for 2019. A marked improvement is noted between 2013 and 2019 since the multidimensional poverty rate in Algeria fell from 2.1 to 1.4% of the population.
“A person is considered ‘multidimensionally poor’ if their level of deprivation exceeds 33” on a scale of 0 to 100, explain the authors of the study. People whose indicator ranges from 20 to 33 are considered vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. The percentage of vulnerable people also fell from 5.8% to 3.6%.
“The drop in the MPI (multidimensional poverty indicator) is explained by the improvement in the health, education and living conditions of the population”, we read in the report which notes that Algeria, with 1.4% of its population affected by multidimensional poverty, does better than its neighbors, Egypt (5.2%), Iraq (8.6%) and Morocco (6.1%). Tunisia, on the other hand, is better off (0.8%).
Inequalities between regions and the internet lagging behind
While there is no significant difference between men and women in terms of poverty rate, the study does highlight two levels of inequality: first between urban and rural areas (four times more in rural areas), then between the different regions.
The Hauts-Plateaux-Center (4.4%,), the Hauts-Plateaux-Ouest (2.6%), and the South region (2.3%), still lag behind the other regions of the country, even whether they have recorded a significant reduction in poverty.
Contrary to what one might think, it is not living conditions that drag down the general level of poverty. Gaps in this area contribute only 20% to multidimensional poverty, against 30% for health and 50% for education.
Concerning the living conditions, the WB recognizes that they “have improved”. The car ownership rate has increased (44% in 2019 against 37% in 2013) and “Algerians now live in less cramped housing”, the average number of people per room falling from 2.8 to 2, 4.
Despite these improvements, Algeria still lags behind in terms of Internet access, with only 26% of households having Internet at home in 2019. Here too, inequalities between regions are reported with, for example, 31% of access in the North-Center and only 19% in the Hauts-Plateaux Center and West.
However, since 2019, the social situation has deteriorated markedly in Algeria under the effect of the covid-19 pandemic which has had a strong impact on the country’s economic activity, the continual depreciation of the dinar against the main currencies (euro and dollar), and rising prices for consumer products.
