Poverty Situation Profiling and Mapping
The incidence of poverty in Ghana is measured at two levels; Upper Level and Extreme lower level. The upper poverty line in Ghana refers to income levels of up to Gh¢ 90.00 a year or Gh¢ 7.50 per month. The extreme poor are people with incomes below Gh¢ 70.00 a year or Gh¢ 5.80 a month. The current national statistics on poverty estimates is that about 40% of the national population has incomes below the upper poverty line; whilst about 27% of the population has incomes below the extreme poverty line.

With reference to the above indicated cut-off points, it was estimated from the field survey that 38% of the district’s population are poor whilst 14.8% are extremely poor. The findings of the field survey substantiate the fact that poverty in Ghana is a rural phenomenon with the rural communities accounting for more that 60% of the poor. In terms of economic activity, poverty in the Dormaa East District is by far margin, highest among food crop farmers mostly women. This may be attributed to low prices of food crops produced, high hospital expenditure due to poor water and sanitation in the area. Provision of potable water and observation sample sanitation rules in the area would go a long way to reduce the visit to health facilities and their by improving their living standard.

With regards to potable water and sanitation facilities, the district has coverage of 16% and 36% respectively implying low accessibility. Thus, the spatial distribution of poverty is illustrated in the composite poverty pockets map in fig.4 below.

However, some industrial goods are produced in the District which include; metal fabrication/mechanic works, local wood processing and Bricks manufacturing. These had been looked at in terms of endogenous and exogenous flows (inflows and outflows).

Endogenous Flows
Here, the level of interaction among the various settlements in the District will be ascertained in terms of trading in both industrial and agricultural goods. This is done to determine the extent of interaction among the various communities in the District.

Endogenous Inflows
Endogenous inflows look at the rate at which settlements in the district exchange industrial and agricultural goods amongst themselves. The survey showed a weak and minimal interaction in the degree to which the communities trade among themselves. At Wamfie market, goods came only from the rural settlements around it. The case was applied to the other markets centres.

Endogenous Outflows
Endogenous outflows look at the flow of commodities from the four market centres in the District to other settlements in the District. Here, the flows of both industrial and agricultural goods were encouraging. The four markets act as a source of industrial goods for the other communities.

Exogenous Flows
Exogenous flows look at the external influence of some towns and cities and other settlements on the economic development patterns of the District. The economy being agrarian depends on outside markets for its industrial products like farm inputs, clothing, plastics, hardware etc.
From this, the input and output situations of the District and the nature of commodities traded has been analysed.

Exogenous Inflows
Exogenous inflows look at the flow of commodities from outside markets to the District. That is, import situation of the District. The District as said above depends on outside markets for its industrial products. The District has a large proportion of its industrial goods from Sunyani, Berekum and Dormaa Ahenkro due to its proximity to these Municipal Settlements.

Exogenous Outflows
This brings to bare the flow of commodities from the District to other districts in the region or out of the region. That is the export situation of the District. From the survey and analysis, the District exports more of agricultural produce and as such can be said to be specialized in the production of agricultural produce. The destination of these agricultural produce include Sunyani, Kumasi, Accra, Tema Cape Coast Sekondi Tarkoradi among others.


Refer to pdf file attached for tables