Public Sector Salariats' Poverty-Coping Mechanisms:A Comparative Case from El-Obeid

This paper attempts to develop a modality through which anti-poverty effects of adjustment mechanisms can be quantified. It compares the salariats in Khartoum with those in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan State, in Western Sudan, so as to provide a profile of the living conditions of the salariats in the public sector. Salariats' expenditure was as high as income and reaches about 4-times their salary. All adjustment mechanisms applied by the salariats failed to bridge this gap as they erode resources and increase vulnerability to poverty, while the earnings (salaries) are insufficient to provide a relatively decent life. In most cases, the direct implications are a brain drain out of the country, withdrawal from the public sector or, if salaraiats stayed within it, a resort to corruption and immoral practices, thus further weakening the already beleaguered civil service. Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review (EASSRR) Vol. XVII No. 2 June 2001, pp. 91-10