Literacy teacher research in high poverty schools: Why it matters

Teachers who work in contexts in which their students’ lives are affected by poverty take up the challenge of learning to teach diverse students in ways that teachers in other contexts may not be required to do. And they do this work in contexts of immense change. Students’ communities change, neighborhoods change, educational policies change, literate practices and the specific effects of what it means to be poor in particular places also change. What cannot change is a commitment to high-equity, high-quality education for the students in these schools. Teachers need to analyze situations and make ongoing ethical decisions about pedagogy and curriculum. To do this, they must be able to continuously gauge the effects of their practices on different students. Hence, we argue that building teacher-researcher dispositions and repertoires is a key goal for teacher education across the teaching life-span. Drawing on a range of recent and ongoing collaborative research projects in schools situated in areas of high poverty, we draw out some principles for literacy teachers’ education.

The nexus between poverty and deprivation in Vietnam

Unlike previous studies’ finding on western and developed economies, income is a significant determinant of multidimensional deprivation in Vietnam. This first study on a developing country also incorporates food security in a latent class framework to compute a new multidimensional deprivation index. It was found that chronic poverty and not transient poverty has a detrimental effect on multidimensional deprivation and thus current poverty alleviation programs should potentially be tailored according to these poverty types to effectively combat multidimensional deprivation. The finding that 20% of non-poor are most deprived with85% of this group living in urban Vietnam also points to the need for a new form of targeted policy.

'South-South' Remittance - Poverty reduction nexus. The Case of 'Hadiya' immigrants in South Africa, as Agents of 'Constituence development' in Ethiopia, and the policy implications of their 'remittance instrument'

This thesis explores the link between South-South remittance and development. It attempts to establish improved understanding about the role of immigrants as agents of constituency growth and development. By doing so, it illuminates the dark corners of the policy implications that the unconventional development agency of immigrants might have for countries in the Organization ft Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The thesis problematises the existence of state-centric international cooperation as providing the recipe for failed Aid in the face of global poverty menace. In the last half a century, the relative shi' of focus to non-state actors brought about the proliferation of NGOs. That, intrun, helped improve international access to crisis situations; however, their long-term remedial impacts on poverty and development have been contested. Major misgivings for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are, on one hand, low level goal-bound expenditures and lack of independence from influence of the state, on the other. Therefore, the thesis enterprises to empirically verify its fundamental question whether remitting immigrants constitute an alternative development agency to the traditional players: the State and NGOs. Its main arguments are: due to state's failures in bringing sustainable development in many countries of the South, the future of poverty reduction and development also rests in immigrants' remittances. Nonetheless, in the last decade, remittance security-nexus dominated its discourse. Because of that remittance was viewed as something requiring global regime and restrictions. These temptations to tightly regulate remittance flows carry the danger of overlooking its trans-boundary nature and its strong link with livelihood of the poor. Therefore, to avoid unintended consequences of interventions, there need to be clear policy that bases itself on a discursive knowledge on the issues of North-South and South-South remittances The study involved both literature based and empirical research. It employed Discourse Analysis (C as main method for the former and snow-balling as its approach for the latter. For the first part the thesis constructed three conceptual models, these are: metrological model, police model and ecological model on remittance development-nexus. Through this modeling, the thesis achieved better deconstruction on the concepts remittance, immigrants and development agency. The protagonists of each model, the values and interests they represent, and their main arguments along various lines of dichotomies have been discussed. For instance, the main treats of meteorological model include: it sees remittance as transitional economic variable which require constant speculations and global management; it acts as meteorological station for following up or predicting the level, direction, flow and movement of global remittance. It focuses on official lines and considers the state as legitimate recipient of advic and positive consequence of remittance. On the other hand, police model views remittance as beir at best, development neutral or as an illicit activity requiring global regulations and tight control. Both immigrants and remittance viewed as subversive to establishments. It gives primacy to state stable agent of development and a partner for international cooperation. The anti-thesis to the police model is supplied by ecological model, which this thesis is a part. Ecological model on remittance and immigrants argues that, tight global regulations alone cannot be a panacea for possible abuse of informal remittance system. Ecological model, not only links remittance to poverty reduction, the main trust of development, but also considers the development agency of immigrants as critical factor for 21st century north-south development intervention. It sees immigrants as development conscious and their remittance instrument as most stable flow of finance to the developing countries. Besides, it sees remittance as effective poverty solutions than Foreign Direct Investment and international AID. This thesis focuses on the significance of South-South remittance and investigates the South Africa - Ethiopia remittance corridor, as case study; and empirically verifies the role of Ethiopian (Kembata and Hadiya) immigrants in South Africa as agents of local development back home. The study involved techniques of interview, group discussions, observations and investigative study. It also looked into the determinants of their migration to South Africa, and their remittance to Ethiopia. The theoretical models in the first part of the thesis have been operationalised throughout the empirical part to verify if the Kembata and Hadiya immigrants played the crucial role in their household poverty and local development in comparison with the Ethiopian state and the NGOs involved in the system. As evidenced by the research the thesis has made three distinct contributions to the discourse of remittance development-nexus. Fist, it systematized the debate about linkages between remittance, immigrants, development agency and policy of international cooperation by creating three conceptual models (school of thoughts); second, it singled out remitting immigrants as new agents of development in the South; third, it deconstructed concept of remittance and established South¬South remittance as additional sphere of academic investigation. In addition to the above contributions, the thesis finds that Kembata and Hadiya immigrants have engaged in various developmental activities in their locality than usually anticipated. Hence, it concludes that Ethiopian immigrants constitute an alternative development agency to the state and other non-state actors in their country, and the lesson can be applied to poverty reduction strategies in most developing countries.

Reseña bibliográfica : poor economics. A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty

El libro recientemente publicado Poor Economics -y la técnica de evaluaciones aleatorias que dan sustento a sus conclusionestienen el potencial para cambiar radicalmente la manera de diseñar políticas para combatir la pobreza en el mundo. El libro fue escrito por Abhijit Banerjee y Esther Duflo, dos jóvenes reconocidos economistas del MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Duflo, nacida en Francia y educada en el École Normale Supérieure de Paris y MIT, fue ganadora en 2010 del premio John Bates Clark al mejor economista menor de 40 años y considerada por la revista Foreign Policy como una de los 100 intelectuales más influyentes del mundo. Abhijit Banerjee educado en la Universidad de Calcuta (su ciudad de origen) y la Universidad de Harvard también es ganador de numerosos premios.

Does Immigration Raise Natives’ Income? National and Regional Evidence from Spain

How immigration affects the labor market of the host country is a topic of major concern for many immigrant-receiving nations. Spain is no exception following the rapid increase in immigrant flows experienced over the past decade. We assess the impact of immigration on Spanish natives’ income by estimating the net immigration surplus accruing at the national level and at high immigrant-receiving regions while taking into account the imperfect substitutability of immigrant and native labor. Specifically, using information on the occupational densities of immigrants and natives of different skill levels, we develop a mapping of immigrant-to-native self-reported skills that reveals the combination of natives across skills that would be equivalent to an immigrant of a given self-reported skill level, which we use to account for any differences between immigrant self-reported skill levels and their effective skills according to the Spanish labor market. We find that the immigrant surplus amounts to 0.04 percent of GDP at the national level and it is even higher for some of the main immigrant-receiving regions, such as Cataluña, Valencia, Madrid, and Murcia.

Background paper on the international seafood trade and poverty

(121 p.)

Helping ourselves: the role of self-help groups in poverty alleviation through aquaculture

Self-help groups (SHGs) are ways for farmers and fishers, especially those who are poor, to come together and work together. They can be a useful entry point for outsiders, promote a supportive local environment, strengthen voices in decision-making and in negotiations with more powerful forces, increase the effectiveness of local actions, and provide easier access to micro-credit and other resources and services. This case study describes a rural aquaculture development context, in India, the development of SHGs and the concept of a ‘one-stop aqua shop’, set up and run by a federation of self-help groups in Kaipara village, West Bengal (a pilot state along with Jharkhand and Orissa). It outlines testing new ways to share information, as part of a series of revised procedures and institutional arrangements for service delivery recommended by farmers and fishers and prioritized by government, with support from the Department of International Development, London (DFID) Natural Resources Support Programme (NRSP) and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) to the Support to Regional Aquatic Resources Management (STREAM) Initiative (10 p.)

An analysis of poverty and aquatic resources use - focusing especially on the livelihoods of the poor - in Cambodia

The main objectives of this report, which is based on the current literature and key informant interviews, is to assess and analyse the nature and distribution of poverty and aquatic resources use, focusing especially on the livelihoods of the poor. It describes and reports different ways of measuring poverty that are used in Cambodia and quantifies the diverse nature and geographic distribution of aquatic resources use in Cambodia. (PDF contains 55 pages)

Assistance in poverty alleviation through improved aquatic resources management in Asia-Pacific: DoF/NACA-STREAM/FAO Workshop on livelihoods approaches and analysis. Yangon, Union of Myanmar, 11-15 May 2004

This is the report of the “DoF/NACA-STREAM/FAO Workshop on Livelihoods Approaches and Analysis” that was conducted in Yangon, Union of Myanmar from 11-15 May 2004. The purpose of the workshop was to develop and document mechanisms for training in livelihoods approaches and analysis, and to build national capacity to conduct livelihoods studies. The workshop in Yangon was the first STREAM event in Myanmar, with colleagues coming to participate from Yangon and many Divisions and States throughout the country. The workshop in Yangon was the fourth in a series, the first of which was held in Iloilo City, Philippines, in November 2003, the second in Ranchi, India, in February 2004, and the third in Vientiane, Lao PDR in March 2004. A subsequent workshop will take place in Yunnan, China. The objectives of the workshop were to: Understand issues of interest to people whose livelihoods include aquatic resources management, especially those with limited resources Build “(national) livelihoods teams” to do livelihoods analyses and training, and share their experiences with communities and other stakeholders Share understandings of livelihoods approaches and analysis using participatory methods Review current NACA-STREAM livelihoods analysis documentation, adapt and supplement, towards the drafting of a Guide for Livelihoods Analysis Experience the use of participatory tools for livelihoods analysis Plan activities for carrying out livelihoods analyses, and Consider how to build capacity in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and “significant change”. (Pdf contains 56 pages).