2013年-世界发展银行全球_Schooling_Violent_Conflict_and_Gender_in_Burundi_52页_624kb

Summary of "Schooling, Violent Conflict, and Gender in Burundi"

Core Content

This paper examines the impact of violent conflict on schooling outcomes in Burundi, focusing on the 1971–1986 birth cohorts. It uses a combination of a nationwide household survey and secondary data on the location and timing of conflict events to assess how exposure to conflict affected educational attainment, particularly for boys and girls from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Main Findings

• Impact on Schooling Completion: Exposure to violent conflict significantly reduced the probability of completing primary education. In the preferred specification, the probability of completing primary schooling for boys exposed to conflict declined by 11 percentage points compared to nonexposed boys.

• Gender Gap Reduction: While girls in Burundi generally face a disadvantage in schooling, the study finds that violent conflict reduces the gender gap in education completion, but only for girls from nonpoor households. This suggests that conflict may have altered the relative opportunities for girls in certain contexts.

• Forced Displacement as a Channel: One of the primary mechanisms through which conflict affects schooling is forced displacement. Displacement disrupted education by limiting access to schools, causing loss of educational resources, and increasing the risk of disease and malnutrition.

• Poverty and Conflict Interaction: The study highlights that poor households are more vulnerable to the negative effects of conflict on schooling. The gender gap in education remains largely unchanged for children from poor households.

Key Information

• Data Sources: The paper uses the UNFPA 2002 Demographic and Health Survey, which provides detailed information on household composition, schooling, health, and migration history. It also integrates data on the timing and location of conflict events.

• Empirical Strategy: The authors use variation in the onset and duration of conflict across provinces to identify the effects on schooling. This variation allows them to distinguish between children who were exposed to conflict and those who were not.

• Conflict Timeline: The conflict in Burundi is divided into phases:

  • 1993–1994: Massacres primarily targeting Hutu communities.
  • 1995–1998: Civil war spread across most provinces.
  • 1996–1998: Major Buyoya returned to power, and the civil war intensity decreased in many areas.

• Impact of Displacement: Over 50% of the rural population was displaced at least once between 1993 and 2000. Displacement led to missed agricultural seasons, reduced access to essential services, and increased health risks.

• Economic Consequences: The conflict caused a 23% decline in livestock holdings from 1990 to 1998, primarily due to theft and pillaging. This had a cascading effect on household income, which in turn affected the ability to pay for education.

• Gender and Conflict: The paper explores how conflict may have altered gender dynamics in education. While boys were generally more affected by conflict, the gender gap in education was reduced for girls from nonpoor households, possibly due to changes in labor market opportunities or shifts in resource allocation.

• Education System and Conflict: The education system in Burundi was heavily impacted by the conflict, with schools being destroyed or looted and teachers and students being killed or displaced. Despite these challenges, the Gender Parity Index improved slightly during the conflict, indicating that girls may have benefited from certain opportunities or reduced discrimination.

Conclusion

The study concludes that violent conflict in Burundi had a profound negative impact on schooling, particularly for boys, but reduced the gender gap in education for girls from nonpoor households. The effects are robust across different specifications and estimation methods, and forced displacement is identified as a key mechanism through which conflict affects educational outcomes. The findings underscore the complex and heterogeneous effects of conflict on human capital accumulation and highlight the importance of understanding how conflict interacts with gender and poverty in shaping educational outcomes.