The Key Role of Education in Reducing Poverty in South Sudan

Abstract Based on the 2009 National Baseline Household Survey (NBHS), the objective of the paper is to analyse the education sector in South Sudan and to highlight its key role in reducing poverty and inequality in the country. The first estimation highlights the role of educational attainment on the risk of poverty based on a Probit model with marginal effects. The second performs estimates of returns for each level of schooling using an extended Mincerian earnings equation. The third estimation uses benefit concentration curves to assess progressivity of education subsidy. Results confirm the negative correlation between education and poverty. For instance, someone with a primary level of education earns 36.5 per cent more than someone with no schooling and this figure increases until 188.6 per cent for university graduates, highlighting a convexity trend of private returns to education. The education challenge is enormous in post‐conflict South Sudan where more than 70 per cent of the population is illiterate and many children don't attend school. In terms of policy recommendations, the welfare analysis shows that subsidizing primary education is a pro‐poor policy in South Sudan. However, the government would also need to focus its action in the rural areas where the challenges are even more salient than in urban areas.