Entrenched Poverty Research Articles

“They talk about it like it's an overdose crisis when in fact it's basically genocide”: The experiences of Indigenous peoples who use illicit drugs in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood

Indigenous Peoples who use illicit drugs (IPWUID) are disproportionately represented among toxic drug poisoning deaths in Canada. These drug-related harms are framed by the historical and ongoing trauma related to settler colonialism and are acutely visible in Vancouver, Canada's Downtown Eastside - a low-income neighbourhood that is an epicenter of the drug poisoning crisis and characterized by entrenched poverty, substance use, violence, and homelessness. This study was undertaken to examine the experiences and perspectives of IPWUID in the Downtown Eastside regarding the drug poisoning crisis and the responsiveness of harm reduction programs within the context of settler colonialism. Indigenous-led qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 IPWUID recruited by Indigenous peer researchers. Indigenous ways of knowing were embedded throughout the entire research design to ensure research was culturally congruent. Interview transcripts were analyzed thematically and interpreted by drawing on concepts of social violence and racial capitalism. Our analysis reviewed three key themes that centered the experiences of IPWUID in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in relation to the drug poisoning crisis: (1) that the drug poisoning crisis is understood as a form of genocide toward Indigenous Peoples; (2) that the crisis is experienced within the context of pervasive distrust and adversarial relationships with police rooted in structurally racist experiences of place-based policing practices; and (3) that there is a desire for culturally-safe harm reduction care with Indigenous representation, cultural integration, and that addresses inequities and injustice stemming from colonialism and structural racism. Findings demonstrate how responses to the drug poisoning crisis among IPWUID need to respond to social and materials conditions perpetuated by colonialism and racial capitalism, while also centering IPWUID through the development and implementation of Indigenous-led and culturally safe harm reduction approaches.

‘You Can’t Sacrifice Nothing’: Exploring the Lived Realities of Chronic Poverty in a Cost-of-Living Crisis Through Participatory Research

The current portrayal of the cost-of-living crisis as an isolated, unexpected issue neglects the ongoing struggles of those in chronic poverty. This article utilises agnotology and zemiology to explore these overlooked experiences. Through the use of participatory research, the article reveals the state’s neglect of chronic poverty amid public discourse on the cost-of-living crisis, and critiques proposed solutions that demand further sacrifices from those already suffering. The article highlights the lack of accountability for neoliberal policies that exacerbate poverty and vulnerability. It exposes the institutional violence and stigma against the structurally vulnerable, whose hardships are normalised. Through a zemiological and agnotological lens, the article stresses the need to reframe the cost-of-living crisis by acknowledging chronic harm and amplifying the voices of those experiencing entrenched poverty. This reframing is crucial, not only during times of crisis, but also within the broader context of systemic structural inequality.

The Nexus between entrenched poverty and educational performance of students in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State

Entrenched poverty and educational performance are deeply intertwined creating a cycle that could be difficult to break. This work focusses on the nexus between entrenched poverty and educational performance of students in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State. Specifically, the work sought to examine how parents’ levels of income and education influences students’ academic performance in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State. Primary data was sourced through the use of questionnaire and a sample size of 840 respondents was arrived at. Simple percentages and Chi squared was used to analyse the data and the results show that both parents’ levels of income and education influenced educational performances of the students in the Local Government. It was recommended among others that government should increase funding for Education by allocating more budget to the education sector to improve infrastructure, provide learning materials, and ensure schools are well-equipped. Also prioritize funding for schools in impoverished areas to reduce disparities in educational resources.

“I'm just searching to get better”: Constructions of treatment citizenship on injectable opioid agonist treatment

BackgroundAs part of the response to Canada's worsening overdose crisis driven by a toxic, adulterated drug supply, there has been increased attention to and expansion of drug treatment, options, including injectable opioid agonist treatment (iOAT). iOAT typically involves the, witnessed daily injection of opioids under healthcare provider supervision. There is a robust, evidence base on iOAT; however, there has been less focus on how people engage with this; treatment outside of clinical trials. This paper examines how people engage with iOAT programs, in expanded treatment settings in Canada, focusing on how the broader socio-structural context, shapes patient subjectivities in treatment. MethodsThis study draws on critical ethnographic and community-based research approaches, conducted with people accessing four iOAT programs in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside; neighbourhood from May 2018 to November 2019. Data included in-depth baseline and followup, interviews and approximately 50 h of observation fieldwork conducted in one iOAT, program and with a subsample of participants in the surrounding neighbourhood. Analysis, leveraged the concepts of biological citizenship and structural vulnerability. ResultsThis analysis characterized three narrative frames—regular long-term engagers, pain, patients, and sporadic and short-term engagers—through in-depth case presentations of participants with distinct types of engagement with iOAT programs. Participants within these, narrative frames described a dominant form of iOAT citizenship, an autonomous patient who, regularly engages in treatment and avoids pleasure. However, structural vulnerabilities, including, homelessness and housing instability, entrenched poverty, criminal-legal system engagement, and unmanaged pain, shaped the ability of participants to make claims to this normative model of citizenship. ConclusionThis study examined how structural vulnerabilities impact people's construction and ability to make iOAT citizenship claims. Findings point to the need for changes within and outside of iOAT programs, such as lower threshold treatment models, improved social services (e.g., secure housing), and pain management support.

Assessing the social and economic implications on water security in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Eastern Cape of South Africa.

Access to water is a universal human right for every individual and a key instrument in meeting the United Nations' sustainable development goal SDG 6, namely, to ensure safe drinking water and sanitation for all by 2030. Water is also intrinsically linked to any society or country's social, economic and political development. Nevertheless, many communities and households, predominantly rural and underprivileged in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality, continue to experience persistent water shortages. This means entrenched poverty, ill health, hunger, stress, and social and economic challenges for the population. Using data collection tools inspired by traditional methods of qualitative and quantitative approaches, this paper scrutinised the social and economic factors contributing to severe inequality in water access in the municipality. Our findings established that water shortage is portrayed as a stand-alone issue without linking it to social and economic challenges. Furthermore, both government and municipalities fail to contextualise a multidimensional problem-solving approach to the water provision challenges in the municipality. This paper, therefore, recommends a multidimensional approach to tackling the problem of accessibility, taking into consideration the social and economic needs of the population.

Risk mitigation guidance and safer supply prescribing among young people who use drugs in the context of COVID-19 and overdose emergencies

Across North America, overlapping overdose and COVID-19 emergencies have had a substantial impact on young people who use drugs (YPWUD). New risk mitigation guidance (RMG) prescribing practices were introduced in British Columbia, Canada, in 2020 to allow people to decrease risk of overdose and withdrawal and better self-isolate. We examined how the prescribing of hydromorphone tablets specifically impacted YPWUD's substance use and care trajectories. Between April 2020 and July 2021, we conducted virtual interviews with 30 YPWUD who had accessed an RMG prescription of hydromorphone in the previous six months and 10 addiction medicine physicians working in Vancouver. A thematic analysis was conducted. YPWUD participants highlighted a disjuncture between RMG prescriptions and the safe supply of unadulterated substances such as fentanyl, underscoring that having access to the latter is critical to reducing their reliance on street-based drug markets and overdose-related risks. They described re-appropriating these prescriptions to meet their needs, stockpiling hydromorphone so that it could be used as an "emergency backup" when they were unable to procure unregulated, illicit opioids. In the context of entrenched poverty, hydromorphone was also used to generate income for the purchase of drugs and various necessities. For some YPWUD, hydromorphone prescriptions could be used alongside opioid agonist therapy (OAT) to reduce withdrawal and cravings and improve adherence to OAT. However, some physicians were wary of prescribing hydromorphone due to the lack of evidence for this new approach. Our findings underscore the importance of providing YPWUD with a safe supply of the substances they are actively using alongside a continuum of substance use treatment and care, and the need for both medical and community-based safe and safer supply models.

Staying Together No Matter What: Becoming Young Parents on the Streets of Vancouver

Among young people who use drugs in the context of entrenched poverty and homelessness, pregnancy is often viewed as an event that can meaningfully change the trajectory of their lives. However, youth’s desires and decision-making do not always align with the perspectives of various professionals and systems regarding how best to intervene during pregnancies and early parenting. Drawing on longitudinal interviews and fieldwork with young people in Vancouver, Canada, we explore how their romantic relationships powerfully shaped understandings of what was right and wrong and which actions to take during pregnancy and early parenting, and how these moral worlds frequently clashed with the imperatives of healthcare, criminal justice, and child protection systems. We demonstrate how a disjuncture between youth’s desires, decision-making and moralities, and the systems that are intended to help them, can further entrench young people in cycles of loss, defeat, and harm. These cycles are powerfully racialized for young Indigenous people in our context.

District health board engagement with the living wage movement: evidence from official information requests.

From a public health perspective, there is strong evidence that income is a major modifiable determinant of health. District health boards (DHBs), who were responsible for providing and/or funding regional health services across Aotearoa, are major employers. International literature suggests implementing a living wage strategy can improve health outcomes, contribute until July 2022 to the reduction of ethnic health inequities, and is ethical and socially responsible business practice. In February 2021, official information requests were sent to all DHBs to determine engagement with the living wage movement. This was augmented through a content analysis of publicly available collective employment contracts to benchmark practice. The review found no DHBs were registered living wage employers, nor is it a requirement of those whom they sub-contract. Two out of twenty DHBs are planning to become living wage employers, and several confirmed they were working collectively to improve working conditions of lower paid workers. This paper makes a scholarly argument for DHBs to commit to becoming living wage employers. As significant regional employers this is an opportunity for DHBs to positively contribute to the alleviation of entrenched poverty a modifiable determinant of ethnic health inequities.

Does size really matter? The prevalence of NGOs and challenges to development in Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT For decades, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have helped to fill the development gap in Ghana, often through donor-funded projects targeting the most impoverished households in Northern Ghana. However, after years of sustained concentration of development aid and NGO operations, entrenched poverty remains pervasive in Northern Ghana, with significant implications for rural livelihoods. The authors examine the apparent paradox of concentrated donor-funded interventions and poverty in Northern Ghana by exploring impediments to successful implementation of development projects. In their study, they adopted a qualitative approach and relied on primary data generated from semi-structured interviews with frontline NGO workers. The results of the study established that a lack of adequate coordination and regulation of ‘the NGO industry’, project duplication, and misuse of resources impeded development initiatives in Northern Ghana. Also, they found that NGOs were complementary to, but not a substitute for, the State in the provision of social services. The authors contend that the broad NGO presence and activities in Northern Ghana do not matter, since the concentration of development initiatives has not yielded tangible results. They call for proper intra-NGO coordination, coordination between NGOs and government agencies, and between NGOs and implementing communities in order for the full potential of donor-funded programmes to be achieved.

Moving Out to Move Up: Higher Education as a Mobility Pathway in the Rural South

Mobility has become more constrained, and patterns of immobility are spatially concentrated in certain parts of the United States. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork in Mississippi, this article examines the role of college as a pathway out of this entrenched poverty and the social and structural barriers that limit the potential of higher education for poor students. It argues that for rural youth, especially rural youth of color, enrolling in college and finding employment that uses that education requires a permanent transition from one opportunity structure to another, a transition that is not often expected of students from more privileged backgrounds. This transition creates social, psychological, and cultural barriers that limit students’ ability to be mobile through education.

The Cost-Effectiveness of an Accelerated Learning Program on the Literacy, Numeracy and Social-Emotional Learning Outcomes of Out-of-School Children in Northeast Nigeria: Evidence from a Mixed Methods Randomized Controlled Trial

Nigeria is home to more out-of-school (OOS) children than any other country on Earth. More than 10.2 million children match that description throughout Nigeria, a conflict-affected country that grapples with long-standing challenges of entrenched poverty and weak governance. We used a randomized control trial (RCT) with 1,723 out of school children, ages 9–14 (850 treatment and 873 control), to determine the impact of an accelerated learning program (ALP) on the literacy, numeracy and social-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes of OOS children in Northeast Nigeria and gathered qualitative and costing data to determine stakeholder’s experiences with the program and the cost of implementation. Results show that at an average cost of £66 (2018 GBP) per child for 7 months of service, the program had positive, small to medium, and statistically significant effects on children’s literacy and numeracy skills, but no effects on SEL outcomes. We include subgroup analysis to identify baseline equity gaps and the differential impact of the intervention by gender, displacement status and mother tongue language. We discuss limitations and policy and practices implications of these findings.

Ebola and the pestilence of corporate and governmental corruption in Guinea: Did mining interests exacerbate the largest Ebola outbreak in history (2014–2016)?

During the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the government of Guinea appeared to lag behind in responding to the outbreak, routinely downplaying the severity of the outbreak and heavily criticizing international organizations for sensationalizing it. Given its entrenched poverty, lack of infrastructure, and inadequate healthcare system, why would the government downplay the epidemic and not seek a full international response until the epidemic reached critical levels that required a global response? Based on declassified documents from the US government, this research contends that Guinea's government downplayed the epidemic in an attempt to prevent investors’ perceptions that Guinea was unsafe for substantial investments that the government had been pursuing in the iron-ore production and export industry. However, those investments also proved to be tied to an extensive history of corruption in Guinea's mining industries linked to the leader's extraversion policies designed to consolidate and to maintain power domestically.

How Structural Violence, Prohibition, and Stigma Have Paralyzed North American Responses to Opioid Overdose.

As of 2020, North America is now into the fifth year of an unprecedented increase in drug overdose deaths driven by a toxic, unpredictable, and unregulated drug supply. While the genesis and drivers of and response to the opioid overdose crisis have wide regional variations, structural violence, prohibitions against illicit drug use, and stigma consistently play a central role. The criminalization of users of illicit drugs has led directly not only to users' incarceration, but also to their marginalization and isolation and to violence, entrenched poverty, and a vicious cycle of trauma. This policy has created an environment wherein any initiatives to prevent and reverse overdoses have been severely restricted. While a war on drugs and the people who use them has been widely criticized as destructive and unwinnable, the criminal policies that support the war on drugs have not changed even in response to this unprecedented crisis.

Imperialist Irony

Imperialist Irony

The Operation of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Central Asia.

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) was founded in 1967 by Aga Khan 4, the spiritual leader of the Shi’i Imami Nizari Ismaili Muslims. Guided by the Islamic ethics of helping the needy, the AKDN seeks to improve the quality of life of the poor in 30 countries. While inspired by faith, the organizations of the AKDN are secular in nature and reject any kind of proselytization. The AKDN has been present in Central Asia since early 1990’s where it manages concerted and integrated developmental programs to attain economic, social and cultural development. Operating in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, the AKDN has been striving to create projects that will enable the local population to attain self-reliance and develop their conditions of living. The work of the AKDN in Central Asia ranges from finance, tourism, agriculture, infrastructure, education, healthcare and habitat, to music initiatives and renovation of historical sites. The AKDN stresses the importance of multidimensional approach to development with the goal of making the local population masters of their own destiny. It embodies hope and support for the poor in the region which is known for entrenched poverty and lack of stability in some specific cases.

Churches of Christ in Oklahoma: A History by W. David Baird

Reviewed by: Churches of Christ in Oklahoma: A History by W. David Baird Joseph Locke Churches of Christ in Oklahoma: A History. By W. David Baird. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. Pp. 288. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.) In Churches of Christ in Oklahoma: A History, W. David Baird offers a comprehensive historical outline of the titular denomination in the Sooner State, where nearly one-fifth of American Church of Christ members reside today. Although a throwback to an older genre of church history, Baird's account swiftly and efficiently chronicles the denomination's institutional history in Oklahoma. Baird begins with a helpful introduction to the Churches of Christ, an anti-sectarian form of Protestant Christianity that, modeling itself after the "primitive" Christian church of the New Testament, upholds absolute congregational autonomy. Baird's Oklahoma narrative begins with late nineteenth century mission work in Indian Territory. Held back by meager funding and the church's self-imposed organizational limits, the so-called "Indian Mission" proceeded haltingly. Nevertheless, missionaries such as R. W. Officer and Meta Chestnutt established the congregations, churches, and schools in present-day Oklahoma. Baird recounts the establishment of a firmer denominational footprint following statehood. Rejecting as unbiblical such innovations as missionary societies, Sunday schools, and organ playing, the Churches of Christ formally broke from the Disciples of Christ by 1906 and, rooted especially among poor, White, southern migrants, formed congregations across the state. The denomination's eccentric theology led early members down controversial paths, from pacifism in the wake of World War I to socialist politics amid entrenched poverty. But as the denomination achieved institutional maturity by the middle of the twentieth century and was swayed especially by the reactionary preacher Foy Wallace, the Oklahoma Churches of Christ conformed itself increasingly to broader currents of American evangelicalism. Purged of radical social criticism, the state denomination redoubled its commitment to a hardline theology, opposed civil rights, worked against gender equality, and sought to inject itself into public schools and universities before suffering decline as a denomination at the turn of the twenty-first century. Readers may be struck by the perennial omnipresence of transplanted Texans among the Oklahoma Churches of Christ. According to Baird's many biographical summaries, multitudes of notable Oklahoma church leaders came from Texas. Baird largely defers to geographical proximity as an explanation—he cites the prevalence of the Churches of Christ in southern Oklahoma along the Texas border—but leaves largely unexplored the inevitable impact that ideas and practices developed in Texas and the broader American South would have on the life of the church in Oklahoma. [End Page 220] Baird's history is, in many ways, an old-fashioned denominational chronicle that charts the rise and fall of congregations, constructs biographical summaries of leading church figures, and records the establishment and organization of various denominational schools and colleges. Rarely invoking larger demographic trends, cultural currents, or political developments, Baird—a self-professed native Oklahoman and fifth-generation Church of Christ member—typically assigns historical primacy to the denomination's theological commitments. At times, Baird's denomination can seem to operate outside of history itself. While a theology-grounded history certainly clarifies battles over the use of musical instruments during church services, for instance, it fails to offer a compelling historical explanation for the denomination's opposition to racial integration or gender equality, and Baird subsequently fails to explain the denomination's many worldly commitments and entanglements. Despite such shortcomings, Churches of Christ in Oklahoma is a helpful introduction to the denomination's historical development in Oklahoma and a worthy resource for those seeking a one-volume outline of the state denomination's formation, evolution, and future prospects. Joseph Locke University of Houston-Victoria Copyright © 2020 The Texas State Historical Association

Lost in Migration – Mirandese at a Crossroads

Abstract The linguistic rights of Mirandese were enshrined in Portugal in 1999, though its “discovery” dates back to the very end of the 19th century at the hands of Leite de Vasconcellos. For centuries, it was the first or only language spoken by people living in the northeast of Portugal, particularly the district of Miranda do Douro. As a minority language, it has always moved among three dimensions. On the one hand, the need to assert and defend this language and have it acknowledged by the country, which proudly believe(d) in their monolingual history. Unavoidably, this has ensued the action of translation, especially active from the mid of the 20th century onwards, with an emphasis on the translation of the Bible and Portuguese canonical literature, as well as other renowned literary forms (e.g. The Adventures of Asterix). Finally, the third axis lies in migration, either within Portugal or abroad. Between the 1950s and the 1960s, Mirandese people were forced to leave Miranda do Douro and villages in the outskirts in the thousands. They fled not only due to the deeply entrenched poverty, but also the almost complete absence of future prospects, enhanced by the fact that they were regarded as not speaking “good” Portuguese, but rather a “charra” language, and as ignorant backward people. This period coincided with the building of dams on the river Douro and the cultural and linguistic shock that stemmed from this forceful contact, which exacerbated their sense of not belonging and of social shame. Bearing all this in mind, we seek to approach the role that migration played not only in the assertion of Mirandese as a language in its own right, but also in the empowerment of new generations of Mirandese people, highly qualified and politically engaged in the defence of this minority language, some of whom were former migrants. Thus, we aim to depict Mirandese’s political situation before and after the endorsement of the Portuguese Law no. 7/99.

Battle for Bed-Stuy: The Long War on Poverty in New York City by Michael Woodsworth

Reviewed by: Battle for Bed-Stuy: The Long War on Poverty in New York City by Michael Woodsworth Brian Purnell (bio) Battle for Bed-Stuy: The Long War on Poverty in New York City By Michael Woodsworth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016. 424 pages, 24 halftones, 6/8″ x 9 ¼″. $36.00 cloth, $36.00 e-book. Groundhog Day seemed to strike whenever Mayor Robert F. Wagner appeared on Capitol Hill during the 1950s and 1960s to testify about New York City's juvenile delinquency crisis. To dramatize the situation of aimless young men, roving in gangs, stealing, fighting, stabbing, or even shooting each other, Wagner carried a bag of proof. He would take his seat before the staid senators and unpack "his usual collection of machetes, zip guns, and knives seized from the clutches of gang members" (86). No matter what types of intervention New York initiated, the problem remained, year after year. One person who regularly saw Wagner perform with this "suitcase of knives and things" soon thought that "he just left the suitcase here each year and opened it up at the hearings" (32). Wagner and local youth organizers had seized on a formula. Highlight a moral panic. Develop programs that reformed individuals through self-help. Fund those initiatives. Tout incremental progress. Bemoan continued crisis. Repeat. [End Page 156] By the time John F. Kennedy became president, Wagner's routine helped convince Washington to act with boldness. The President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime (PCJD) unleashed a federal funding stream that supported local initiatives designed to attack the root causes of gangs and violence. By the early 1960s, Wagner's city had years of experience experimenting with community-based programs that brought education, social-work outreach, job training, and life-skills development to wayward young men. These comprehensive approaches, designed and implemented at the local level, defined juvenile delinquency as a cultural issue born from social needs associated with poverty. Young men formed gangs because they had no purpose or sense of belonging in life. They lacked direction because they did not have jobs. Employment evaded them because they lacked sufficient education and recreation resources. If on-the-ground intervention occurred and provided education, recreation, employment, and purpose, then gangs, youth violence, and juvenile delinquency would disappear. But New York City's problems with juvenile delinquency, poverty, and violence during the post–World War II era, especially in its growing black and Puerto Rican communities, seemed endless. As they worsened, America declared war against poverty. Michael Woodsworth's comprehensive and fascinating study of the "long war on poverty" shows how, from the mid-1940s through the mid-1970s, New York City emerged as a laboratory for experimenting with ways to eliminate the entrenched poverty, social alienation, and political powerlessness that festered in ghettos. Ghettos formed after decades of racial discrimination had forced black citizens into communities that experienced an outflow of taxes and investment capital through twin forms of racialized metropolitan economic development during the New Deal years. Money from government and banks flowed away from underdeveloped, "redlined" city communities, which were predominantly black, and poured into government-subsidized, owner-occupied suburbs, which were predominantly white. Unique to Brooklyn's ghetto, Bedford-Stuyvesant, the subject of Woodsworth's history, was a sizable cadre of community-minded, politically ambitious activist-homeowners. The area had block after block of stressed and suffering, but still salvageable, beautiful brownstones. Through exhaustive research (the author consulted nearly every relevant archival source, newspaper article, and oral history interview), extensive details (the author writes about every major local black leader, organizer, and organization in Brooklyn), and in prose that is, at times, delightful to read (Woodsworth describes a young Robert F. Kennedy as a "jutted-jaw anticommunist" [218] and "imposing Brooklyn housing projects where rat infested rookeries once slouched" [34]) the author reveals how "postwar Bed-Stuy served as a testing ground for a series of pioneering ideas about urban reform and community action" (13). The blueprint for a community-based, national War on Poverty, Woodsworth argues, trickled up from the streets of central Brooklyn in the mid-1950s, to New York's City Hall during the Wagner and John...

Does social capital reduce poverty? A cross-sectional study of rural household in Bangladesh

PurposeSocial capital accrues to numerous positive socioeconomic outcomes, especially poverty reduction in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between social capital and poverty reduction with special reference to Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural setting of north-eastern Bangladesh, where primary data were collected from 310 households. Exploratory factor analysis was pursued to extract multiple dimensions of social capital. Afterward, multivariate binary logistic regression model was applied to measure the association between social capital dimensions and poverty. In this model, odds ratios were used to present the regression coefficients.FindingsThe study confirms that social network, norms of reciprocity, social trust and civic participation were associated with poverty. The logistic regression reveals that social trust, social networks, norms of reciprocity and civic participation are negatively associated with poverty by OR=0.488, 95% CI=0.377–0.633; OR=0.709, 95% CI=0.542–0.927; OR=0.619, 95% CI=0.473–0.812; and OR=0.783, 95% CI=0.598–1.025 units.Originality/valueThis study has a significant policy implication related to reducing entrenched poverty in Bangladesh as social capital has a potential to bring about a concomitant improvement in the condition of the poor.

Green grabs and rural development: How sustainable is biofuel production in post-war Sierra Leone?

In Sub-Saharan Africa, now dubbed the ‘Green OPEC’ of the global bioenergy economy, biofuels have been hailed as a ‘new profitability frontier’ that will provide ‘win-win’ outcomes and deliver development to poor communities. Yet, in an era of economic recession and soaring food prices, their ‘sustainability’ has been at the centre of controversy. This paper focuses on the case of Sierra Leone, where in 2008, a Swiss bioenergy company ushered in the largest foreign direct investment since the end of the country’s civil war. Although recently set back by the catastrophic impacts of the Ebola crisis, there continues to be much support for the government’s strategy to secure foreign direct investment in biofuels production in agriculturally rich regions of the country. Bioenergy proponents believe that such investments will transform rural areas, in light of the fact that Sierra Leone has over the last decade been consistently ranked as one of the poorest in the world, facing food insecurity, high unemployment and entrenched poverty. But land access and control remain central to debates around biofuels and development, particularly for poor rural people living in project areas. This paper explores the perceptions of a wide range of project stakeholders, many of whom have differing interpretations of what biofuel sustainability entails. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications this may have for the present post-Ebola environment, where evolving policy discussions on land investment and ‘green’ development continue to assume a key part of the government’s recovery trajectory.