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TABLE 4.2 Education and labor statistics for Burkina Faso, 1990s and 2000s Indicator
Primary school enrollment (percent gross, three-year average) Secondary school enrollment (percent gross, three-year average) Adult literacy rate
Percent employed in agriculture Under-five malnutrition (weight for age) Source: Authors’ calculations based on World Development Indicators (World Bank 2009).
Year 2008 2008 2007 1994 2003
Percent 71.0 18.1 28.7 88.8 35.2
Figure 4.4 shows two noneconomic correlates of poverty: life expectancy
and under-five mortality. This figure shows a general improvement in both of these well-being indictors. Life expectancy at birth increased from less than 40 years in 1960 (the year of Burkina Faso’s independence) to 53 years in 2008. During the same period, the under-five mortality rate decreased from more than 300 to fewer than 200 per 1,000 in the mid-1990s. Among the important factors contributing to this increase has been the control of diseases that affect children, like measles and poliomyelitis, particularly through vaccination.
FIGURE 4.5
Poverty in Burkina Faso, circa 2005 (percentage of population below US$2 per day)