Analysis of the impact of education on poverty reduction in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi

Almost every country in the world suffers from poverty, and the DRC is not left out either (Sachs 2005). This paper questions the role of education in improving the condition of households in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, hence contributing knowledge to reduction policies on this problem. We categorize poor and non-poor households using results from the 1-2-3 2005 survey by INS (INS 2005). In Kinshasa, the poverty incidence is 42.53%, while the depth is 13.04% and the severity is 5.82%. For Lubumbashi, these are 66.86%, 34.55%, and 20.69%, respectively. Thus, financial difficulties cause 28.88% of the children dropping out of school in Kinshasa compared to their percentage share of 54.17% in Lubumbashi. In this city, poverty is more severe. This descriptive analysis shows that poorly educated persons in Lubumbashi account for 89.55% of the population, while in Kinshasa, the percentage is 55.56%. While in Kinshasa, the poverty rate is 16.34%, in the case of Lubumbashi, it is 26.53% for people who got a university education. Logistic regression results portray getting a degree as the ideal path to avoiding poverty.