GöteborgUniversityWilfred Nyangena-EfD-KenyaNCDE 2009, Oscarsborg, Norway 18-19

ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS COLLECTION WORK AND CHILDREN’S SCHOOLING: EVIDENCE FROM KENYA

Simon Wagura Göteborg University

Wilfred Nyangena- EfD-Kenya

NCDE 2009, Oscarsborg, Norway 18-19^th June 2009

Main idea

• This study examines the link between environmental goods collection and children schooling in Kiambu District, Kenya.

• The paper contribute to the current debate on

the inter-links of resource scarcity and human

capital development.

Motivation

• Household dependence on natural resources has been increasing over time in Kenya

• suggested consequences:

• Households invest more time in collection of those scarce resources especially fuel-wood and water

• From a practical and policy perspective, it is important to understand how households respond to fuel-wood and water scarcity burden

• There is extremely little evidence regarding the link between environment and human capital development.

Key results

• Descriptive statistics indicates that 88 per cent of the sampled children attend school with a drop out rate of 10 per cent.

• It also indicates that 59 per cent of school going children combines schooling and resource collection.

• The data further shows that 83 per cent of children are in public schools relative to private schools.

• The econometrics results support the hypothesis of a negative relationship between children resource collection work and their probability of attending school.

• The results also suggest that performance in school does not depend on environmental goods/resource collection work of children

Related literature:

• Filmer and Pritchett 1996, 1997, Cooke 2000, Nankhuni and Findeis, 2003 evidenced that the environment may affect demographic behaviours.

• The literature further shows that there is significant evidence on household involvement in resource collection especially in Asia

• Children are significantly involved in helping their parents in various activities

• Nankhuni and Findeis 2003 found negative effect of resource scarcity on children schooling in Malawi

Background information

• Fuel-wood scarcity has become an important issue in energy policies in developing countries

• 75% of the rural population relies on fuel-wood (firewood and charcoal) for cooking and heating in Kenya

• There has been a declining trend in fuel-wood and water availability over the years in Kenya partly due to population pressure and deforestation

• Persistent scarcity of fuel-wood and water resources constrains the household and as a result, households have to increase labour allocation to collection.

Methodology

• The decision to participate in resource collection and school attendance are jointly determined.

• This calls for the estimation of a simultaneous equations model for binary variables.

• Following Greene (1998), Greene (2003) and Nankhuni & Findeis (2003) we adopt the

following bivariate probit model.

Bivariate probit model.

1 1 1 1, 1 1

i xi i yi

  ^    _i1  0 _{yi1  0}

2 2 2 2, 2 1

i xi i yi

  ^    _i2  0 _{yi2  0}

] , ,

[







,

if otherwise

~ Bivariate normal (BVN)

otherwise if

(1)

(2)

simultaneous equation model.

1 2

1 1

1  X  y   y _{i i}

2 2

2

2  X _i





y

(3)

(4)

• In this model interdependence arises between (school attendance) and (participation in

resource collection work), because y

appears in the right hand side of equation (3)

• We need instrumental variables such as

distance to the source of resource or time

taken to the source.

Data and Study Area

• Our study uses data collected in 2007 from 200 households using a detailed questionnaire. The sample had 609 children from Lari, Ndeiya and Kikuyu Divisions of Kiambu District.

• These divisions have continued to experience increased incidences of poverty and environmental degradation

• The main reason for selecting this district is due to the continued deforestation of the upland forest which has brought the firewood and water scarcity problems

• Natural resources in the district include water, forestry and some minerals

• In the dry season, the nearest potable water point is on average 7 km in Ndeiya division

• Child labour is also a severe problem in the district

Empirical evidence

• Descriptive statistics

• Econometrics results

variable Mean Std. Dev Min max

Male head 0.87 0.337 0 1

Age of head 42.475 9.49 22 83

Head years of schooling 8.675 2.81 0 16

No education 0.02 0.12 0 1

Primary education 0.60 0.49 0 1

Post primary education 0.38 0.48 0 1

Household size 6.16 1.54 3 11

Number of children 4.10 1.59 0 9

Children age < 6 years 0.12 0.32 0 1

Children age 6 to 14 years 0.33 0.47 0 1

Children age 15 to 18 years 0.12 0.32 0 1

19 to 24 years adults 0.08 0.27 0 1

Over 25 years 0.35 0.48 0 1

Social economic characteristics of the 200 households sampled

Sources of fuel-wood and water

Sources of Water

21%

13%

21%

4%

35%

5%

1%

Borehole Neighbor

Own tap River

Village tap Own tap And Village tap Village tap And Neighbor

Source of fuel wood

13%

26%

15%

25%

3%

18%

Fallow land Forest

Home garden Market

don't use fuelwood Other

Fuel-wood market

Collection time: Fuel-wood

Source Karai Lari Ndeiya

Fallow land 228.75 240 168.57

forest 254 269.5 195

Home garden

57.27 102.92 80.18

Market 25.26 27 28.22

Summary statistics for children collection activities

Variables Mean Std. Dev. Min Max

Water collection participation 0.63 0.48 0 1

Firewood collection participation 0.41 0.49 0 1

Resource work participation 0.59 0.49 0 1

Travel time firewood 98.61 91.20 0 360

Collection time firewood 66.37 51.44 0 300

Travel time water 22.68 22.37 2 150

Collection and queuing water time 38.71 42.18 3 240

Firewood total time 168.23 116.82 10 480

Water total time 61.48 60.62 5 390

Bivariate probit results

IV probit results

Probit model of school performance

results

Comments

• The two choices are jointly determined

• Resource scarcity has a negative effect on school attendance in both models

• Being a girl increases the likelihood of combining resource collection and school attendance by 13%

relative to boys

• Children in public schools are likely to perform below the average mark relative to those in private schools.

• Performance is more related to child ability than to external pressure of resource participation work.

conclusions

• The paper provides new insights into the current debate on the inter-links of resource scarcity and human capital development.

• Policy: ways of increasing water supply to reduce the time children spend on collecting it and ways of substituting firewood

• Tap water project in the area

• Increase the village taps or community taps in short distance intervals to reduce queuing and travelling time.

conclusions

• Alternative fuel-woods should be improved e.g improved jiko

• Change in cultural altitudes by encouraging men involvement in fuel-wood collection

• The relationship between environment and children’s schooling suggest there exist

opportunities to integrate environmental

programs with development initiatives in the

field of education.

Thank you