Inequality of child mortality among ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa

Accounts by journalists of wars in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s have raised concern that ethnic cleavages and overlapping religious and racial affiliations may widen the inequalities in health and survival among ethnic groups throughout the region, particularly among children. Paradoxically, there has been no systematic examination of ethnic inequality in child survival chances across countries in the region.

This paper uses survey data collected in the 1990s in 11 countries (Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia) to examine whether ethnic inequality in child mortality has been present and spreading in Sub-Saharan Africa since the 1980s. The article finds that in all 11 countries there were significant differentials between ethnic groups in the probability of dying during infancy or before the age of five. The findings suggest that many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, despite their wide-spread poverty, are as marked by social inequality as are countries in other regions in the world. [adapted from authors]