The main objective of this study is to investigate the poverty status and its determinants in
Rank County, Upper Nile State-Southern Sudan. Both primary and secondary data were used.
The sample size reached 245 urban and rural households. Different analytical methods were
used, namely: Foster, Greer and Thornback (FGT) and inequality measures, poverty
profiling, and multivariate regression analysis. The study also conducted simulation scenarios
of selected variables. The results revealed that about 87 and 73 percent of the urban and
rural household fall below a calculated poverty line of SDG 3.5/person/day for urban and
2.38 for rural. The estimated Gini coefficient was 17.6 percent for urban and 19.7 percent for
rural. In general, poverty incidence, gap and severity are more prevalent among urban than
rural households in the County. The poorer households in Rank are more likely to belong to:
large family size, younger household heads in the rural areas with no livestock ownership
(cows, sheep and poultry) but have small plots for crop cultivation, female headed
households who do not have access to land and seasonal labor opportunities, household heads
engaged in small private sector employment, petty trading and unskilled and landless labor
(termed as Gangos) operations. The results of the determinants analyses indicated that
secondary education, widow household heads, female household heads, government and
private sector employees, petty traders, Gangos, dysentery infection, mixed source of water
are the main poverty determinants in the urban area. On the other hand, rural poverty
determinants are: university education, married household heads, household size, female
household heads, farmers, Gangos , petty traders, idle crop production plots, goats’
ownership and numbers of chicken per households. Simulation results showed that it is
imperative to involve the government more closely in providing the social amenities
especially the supply of drinking water, health, education and electricity services to relieve
pressure on the poor in both urban and rural societies.