The political economy of poverty alleviation strategies. The initiative for heavily indebted poor countries in Bolivia: More of the same

In the year 2000, approximately 1.1 billion people lived in extreme poverty while developed countries spent US$600 billion a year on defense. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative is a recent component of a larger poverty reduction strategy supported by the International Financial Institutions, as well as many developed and developing countries. By implementing lessons of the past fifty years, this program attempts to diminish misery around the globe. As such, it provides debt relief while seeking to enable the poorest countries to simultaneously attain sustainable debt and promote human development. Interest in poverty reduction around the globe reemerged in the 1990s. This study contributes directly to this recent effort by presenting a nuanced approach that builds on the stepping-stones generated by other poverty scholars. To fulfill its goal, this investigation applies a political economy framework. Within this framework, the author conducts an actor-specific analysis. This dissertation addresses the following question: How do domestic and international actors respond to the implementation of poverty alleviation strategies? The author assumes actors desire to maximize their utility calculation and suggests these calculations are based on the player's motivations and external influences. Based on their motivations, the external influences, and the initiative's guidelines, each actor develops a set of expectations. To fulfill those expectations, stake holders utilize one or several strategies. Finally, the actors' ability to achieve their expectations determines each player's assessment of the initiative. The framework described is applied in an in-depth, actor-specific analysis of the HIPC in Bolivia. Bolivia's National Revolution represents the country's first attempt at reducing poverty. Since then, all governments have taken specific steps to combat poverty at the local and national levels. The Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) is one of the most recent macro strategies of this kind. The case study demonstrated that three factors (national ownership, effective sponsorship and the local context) determine the success levels of poverty reduction strategies from abroad. In addition, the investigation clearly shows that poverty reduction is not the sole motivation in the implementation of poverty alleviation strategies. All actors, however, share the dream of poverty reduction.

Jatropha cultivation in Malawi and Mozambique: impact on ecosystem services, local human well-being, and poverty alleviation

Jatropha-based biofuels have undergone a rapid boom-and-bust cycle in southern Africa. Despite strong initial support by governments, donors, and the private sector, there is a lack of empirical studies that compare the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of Jatropha’s two dominant modes of production: large plantations and smallholder-based projects. We apply a rapid ecosystem services assessment approach to understand the impact of two Jatropha projects that are still operational despite widespread project collapse across southern Africa: a smallholder-based project (BERL, Malawi) and a large plantation (Niqel, Mozambique). Our study focuses on changes in provisioning ecosystem services such as biofuel feedstock, food, and woodland products that can have important effects on human well-being locally. Qualitative information is provided for other regulating and cultural ecosystem services. Although at this stage no impact is tremendously positive or negative, both projects show some signs of viability and local poverty alleviation potential. However, their long-term sustainability is not guaranteed given low yields, uncertain markets, and some prevailing management practices.

Development and poverty alleviation

Society and information economy have changed every aspect of our life in society: the economy, trade, business, industry, media, education, health, our entire culture. More than twenty years, Dr. Jerrold Maxmen2 said all medical functions may be performed in future by a team of paraprofessionals and computers: the clinical histories, physical examinations, laboratory tests, diagnoses, treatment and prognosis, and preventive functions, public health, research, education and health administration.The consequence is that doctors have less political power and consumers more opportunity to control the operation and structure of the health care system.

Micro-credit is necessary but not sufficient for entrepreneurs in desperate poverty

Micro-credit has often been used as a poverty alleviation strategy. However, there is little evidence to suggest that micro-credit alone can promote economic activities because micro-credit does not teach anything by itself (Brett 2006; Mayoux 1999; Sievers & Vandenberg 2007). Mistakenly, the focus of micro-credit has been the alleviation of immediate poverty, rather than the development of economic activity that would provide a long term solution. Paraphrasing the age old saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you will feed him for a life time" micro-credit enables the fisherman to buy a net, but in many cases does nothing to ensure that he knows how to use it to benefit his family and the community. If the borrower doesn't know how to use the net, he will return to his old way of doing things-but with the added burden of having to pay back the debt. Given the state of extreme poverty experienced by the vast majority of the population in developing countries, borrowed money is often used for purposes other than creating the foundations for a sustainable economic growth. Typical examples of how micro-credit is generally used include covering funeral costs, buying food, medicines, and other similarly important necessities. The main problem that derives from using loans in this way is that apart from not improving living conditions in a sustainable manner, borrowers are also exposed to the risk of over-indebtedness, with its subsequent human and social implications.

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.

Poverty and aquatic resources in Vietnam: an assessment of the role and potential of aquatic resource management in poor people's livelihoods

This report seeks to discuss a variety of approaches to poverty in order to illustrate the diversity of poor people, and the range of ways in which people are poor, facilitating a broader understanding of poverty and the significance of aquatic resources in poor people’s livelihoods. This is intended to provide a balance to the general neglect of the poor in the pursuit of aquaculture development within the Fisheries sector. It is also intended that this approach to poverty will assist in the planning and targeting of aquatic resource interventions that aim to promote poverty alleviation. In its many different forms, poverty remains a persistent problem with a great number of people facing deprivation and vulnerable livelihoods. Rates of poverty alleviation also differ; whereas the Red River Delta has achieved the greatest reductions in poverty, the Mekong Delta has achieved the smallest improvements, with possible indications that inequality has increased (see 2.4). Inequality between regions persists despite progress in all regions. (PDF has 37 pages.)

Poverty in the fisheries, inductors, causes and intervention

The study is prompted by the poverty that persisted among the fishing communities of lake victoria at time of considerable cash inflow into the fisheries development of fish processing industry. There has been need for understanding of the poverty and what strategies would be most appreciate for it's reduction.This study has attempted to respond to the needby identifying the nature and distribution of the poverty within the fisheries lake victoria,Uganda, the factor responsible for itand the options for poverty reduction intervention. The study examined the global and regional perspectives of poverty and wealth distribution, noting that wide disparities existed between the developed and the developing world and also between the developing countries themselves. A historical review of development policies and strategies revealed that while successive strategies were able to contribute to growth, their achievement towards poverty alleviation were less than satisfactory, hence the need for continually developing new strategies. A background to Uganda’s society and economy is provided, examining the demographic, political, environmental and economic conditions of the country. Uganda’s development strategies are reviewed, highlighting the role of the Poverty Eradication Action Plan, Uganda’s main strategy for implementing the policy of poverty reduction and wealth distribution. At the agricultural sector level, the Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture has been formulated, followed by the National Fisheries Policy, aimed at providing a policy framework for the management and development of the fisheries. An appropriate definition of poverty was formulated, considered relevant to the situation of Lake Victoria. The dimensions of poverty included inadequate basic necessities, low education and health achievements, a sense of insecurity and exposure to risk. The research methodology was enhanced by the examination of the Lélé Model of the Poverty–Environmental Degradation problem, the World Bank Model of Poverty Causation and the subsequent Lake Victoria Model developed in this study. It has provided a plan for the research, the consideration of criteria and a data collection plan. The data collection instruments included secondary data search, key informant interviews and a sample survey based on a structured questionnaire. The study identified all the four dimensions of poverty in the fisheries, provided poverty profiles with respect to the different activities, groups of people and regions in the fisheries, based on consumption poverty. Among the people identified to be in poverty were the fishing labourers, fishers of Oreochromis niloticus and those operating with non-powered boats. In the post-harvest fisheries, large proportions of processors involved in salting and sun-drying, market stall and bicycle traders were in the poverty category. The ethnic groups most affected included the Samia, Basoga and Bakenye while the Districts of Jinja, Bugiri and Busia had the highest proportions of fishers in the poverty category. With respect to the other dimensions of poverty, the study showed that educational achievement was low within the fishing communities. The health status was poor, due mainly to the prevalence of malaria, diarrhoea, bilharzia and HIV/AIDS. There was a sense of insecurity within certain sections of the fishing community, due to leadership weaknesses within the local as well as the Government institutions. Some community members operated in a state of risk because they were vulnerable to episodes of income, health and education. The causes of poverty in fisheries included weaknesses within the institutional and social environment, limitations in the technology available to the poor, resource degradation and unfavourable economic factors. The recommendations of the study for poverty reduction included strengthening of policies, developing links, improving capacities and increasing resources, to be applied at the levels of Central Government, Local Government and of the community. In view of the achievements of the methodology used on this study, involving reference to the models, it is recommended that future research should build upon this model approach, as it will continue to produce results, especially when attempting to forecast changes relating to interventions.

Cashew cultivation, access to land and food security in Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana: Preventing the intergenerational transmission of poverty

This research aimed to investigate the implications of changing agricultural land use from food production towards increased cashew cultivation for food security and poverty alleviation in Jaman North District, Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. Based on qualitative, participatory research with a total of 60 participants, the research found that increased cashew production had led to improvements in living standards for many farmers and their children over recent years. Global demand for cashew is projected to continue to grow rapidly in the immediate future and cashew-growing areas of Ghana are well placed to respond to this demand. Cashew farmers however were subject to price fluctuations in the value of Raw Cashew Nuts (RCN) due to unequal power relations with intermediaries and export buyer companies and global markets, in addition to other vulnerabilities that constrained the quality and quantity of cashew and food crops they could produce. The expansion of cashew plantations was leading to pressure on the remaining family lands available for food crop production, which community members feared could potentially compromise the food security of rural communities and the land inheritance of future generations.

Anti-poverty policies in Brazil: Reviewing the past ten years

This article reviews the main anti-poverty policies implemented in Brazil from the early 1990s to the early 2000s. These include focused and universal policies - such as education and health care - as well as the rural development, a 'middle ground' policy. Though the inter-municipal consortium, a new institutional arrangement gathering municipalities together, has emerged as a promising policy implementation tool, anti-poverty policies have faced implementation difficulties. Lack of coordination between different programs, even within the same policy area, has impaired their effectiveness. As a consequence, compensatory programs, based on monetary transfers to poor families, which face fewer implementation problems, have become the dominant type of anti-poverty policies in Brazil. Despite these shortcomings, a small Brazilian state, Santa Catarina, was able to reduce by 46 percent the number of individuals living in poverty in just ten years. This is a sign that fighting poverty can, after all, be a feasible endeavor. © 2004 IIAS, SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi).

Policy response to poverty and inequality in the developing world

Includes bibliography

Income poverty and unsatisfied basic needs

Incluye Bibliografía

Carbon pools and poverty peaks in Lao PDR

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) is heavily promoted in Laos. REDD+ is often perceived as an opportunity to jointly address climate change and poverty and, therefore, could come timely for Laos to combine its prominent national target of poverty eradication with global climate mitigation efforts. Countrywide planning of the right approaches to REDD+ combined with poverty alleviation requires knowledge of the spatial combination of poverty and carbon stocks at the national level. This study combined spatial information on carbon stored in vegetation and on poverty and created carbon-poverty typologies for the whole country at the village level. We found that 11% of the villages of Laos have high to very high average village-level carbon stock densities and a predominantly poor population. These villages cover 20% of the territory and are characterized by low population density. Shifting cultivation areas in the northwestern parts of the country have a higher carbon mitigation potential than areas in the central and eastern highlands due to a more favorable climate. Finally, we found that in Laos the majority (58%) of poor people live in areas with low carbon stock densities without major potential to store carbon. Accordingly, REDD+ cannot be considered a core instrument for poverty alleviation. The carbon-poverty typologies presented here provide answers to basic questions related to planning and managing of REDD+. They could serve as a starting point for the design of systems to monitor both socioeconomic and environmental development at the national level.

Targeting poverty in Laos: how well do current approaches reach the poor?

Funds for poverty reduction are limited, so allocating them effectively is important in development planning. A common way to do this is to plot the distribution of poor people on maps, and then to target poverty-alleviation efforts at areas with the largest incidences of poverty. But this is a crude approach that risks missing a large share of the poor. This issue of evidence for policy shows how careful analysis of detailed spatial information – in this case in Laos – can reveal patterns that are not immediately obvious. That can lead to better, more precise targeting well beyond a purely geographic focus on poor areas, and to more differentiated and spatially integrated development planning.

A different perspective on poverty in Lao PDR: Multidimensional poverty in Lao PDR for the years 2002/2003 and 2007/2008

This paper presents an indicator for measuring multidimensional poverty in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic applying the Alkire–Foster methodology to the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Survey 2002/2003 and 2007/2008. We calculated a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) that includes three dimensions: education, health, and standard of living. Making use of the MPI’s decomposability, we analyse how much each of the different dimensions and its respective indicators contribute to the overall MPI. We find a marked reduction in the multidimensional poverty headcount ratio over the study period, regardless of how the indicators are weighted or how the deprivation and poverty cut-offs are set. This reduction is based on improvements regarding all indicators except cooking fuel and nutrition. We observe no significant reduction in the intensity of poverty, however; there are wide disparities between the country’s regions and between urban and rural areas. The proportion of poor people in rural areas is more than twice as high as that in urban areas. By complementing the traditional income-based poverty measure, we hope to provide useful information that can support knowledge-based decision-making for poverty alleviation.