Multiple Dimensions Of Poverty Research Articles

A Nuanced Examination of Primate Capture and Consumption and Human Socio-Economic Well-Being in Kirindy Mitea National Park, Madagascar.

The futures of human and nonhuman primates are closely tied in protected areas. Understanding this interconnectedness is especially urgent in Madagascar, one of the world's most impoverished biodiversity hotspots. Yet, no study has evaluated the relationship between poverty and lemur hunting and consumption using a composite poverty metric that includes health, education, and living standards. To address this gap, and to inform primate conservation practice and policy, we administered annual surveys to 81 households over six consecutive months (September 2018 to March 2019) in a village on the border of Kirindy Mitea National Park, Madagascar. We observed extreme deprivation scores across multiple dimensions of poverty and identified ninety-five percent of households as 'impoverished'. Of these, three-quarters (77%) of households were identified as being in 'severe poverty'. One-fifth (19%) of all households hunted lemurs and half (49%) of households consumed lemurs. While poverty eradication is an urgent need in communities around Kirindy Mitea National Park, our findings show no relationship between poverty and lemur hunting and consumption, perhaps due to the lack of variance in poverty. Our results highlight the need to investigate other contributory factors to lemur hunting and consumption locally. Because food insecurity is a known driver of lemur hunting and consumption among the study community, and because domestic meats can be preferred over protected species, we recommend testing the efficacy of livestock interventions near Kirindy Mitea National Park.

Dynamics of Change in Poverty Measures amongst Social Service Users in Israel: A Comparison of Standard Care and a Poverty-Aware Programme

Abstract Although social service departments (SSDs) in Israel are the main institutions through which social workers provide social care to people in poverty, the dynamics between the multiple dimensions of poverty amongst service users (SUs) and the consequences of social care to these dynamics have not been systematically explored. The current study is the first study that aims to fill this gap by comparing multidimensional poverty amongst 159 SUs. The study compared two kinds of social care provided by the same SSDs: standard social care and a poverty-aware programme. Data were collected at two time points by telephone interviews and was analysed using independent samples t test, the paired-sample t test, the exact McNemar test for dichotomous variables, the Tukey test, the χ2 test and linear regression. Findings indicate that SUs who were treated in the poverty-aware programme received more assistance in a larger range of areas and a significantly positive change was found amongst them in a variety of measures. The discussion explores the importance of expanding research on the contribution of SSD’s social care in order to adapt public services to the needs of SUs and to make them a vehicle in the fight against poverty.

Measurement of relative welfare poverty and its impact on happiness in China: Evidence from CGSS

Individual or household income has been the conventional yardstick of poverty. Presently, non-income factors are universally accepted as measures of poverty. Attention on the multiple dimensions of poverty and their policy implications has been growing in the past 20 years. However, few studies have analyzed relative multidimensional poverty, especially in China. Moreover, the relationship between relative welfare poverty and happiness has been rarely studied, particularly given that the decline of poverty seemed not bringing a significant increase in happiness in China. This research gap is noteworthy because enhancing the subjective well-being of the people is crucial to a nation's sustainable economic development. On the basis of the micro-level data from China General Social Survey, this study puts forward a welfare approach to analyzing the relative multidimensional poverty and then determines the link between relative welfare poverty and individual happiness. Our results show that 1) relative welfare poverty has not declined significantly and 2) there is a significantly happiness-reducing effect of relative welfare poverty.

Multidimensionl Poverty and The Role of Social Capital in Poverty Alleviation Among Ethnic Groups in Rural Vietnam: A Multilevel Analysis.

This paper empirically examines the disparities over time across six dimensions of poverty (monetary, education, health, housing, basic services, and durable assets) between ethnic minority and majority households in rural Vietnam. Using the five-wave panel data of the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) 2008–2016, we observe improvements in most non-monetary dimensions of poverty for both ethnic groups, while the monetary dimension shows the highest degrees of deprivation and the lowest rate of decrease during the studied period. Health is the only dimension in which ethnic minority households are not only better off than those of majority households during the studied period, but also report improvement. We further explore the role of social capital in ethnic minorities and non-minorities at household and community levels in multiple dimensions of poverty by employing multilevel models. Our study reports the significant effects social capital have at the community level on reducing poverty in the monetary, education, housing, and basic services dimensions for ethnic minorities, while social capital at the household level shows significant effects on monetary, basic services, and durable assets. These findings indicate that policy makers ought to consider the role of social capital when designing poverty alleviation strategies for the country.

Poverty and family resilience in Bel\xe9m-Par\xe1

Family resilience is a complex, multi-determined behavior caused by the inseparable action of risk and protection factors. The purpose of this paper is to associate aspects of family resilience with multiple dimensions of poverty through a quantitative, descriptive, correlative, exploratory study with a sample of 448 low-income families in thirteen Social Assistance Reference Centers in Belém, Pará. The instruments used in the study were the Family Resilience Profile Questionnaire, the Social and Demographic Inventory, and the Family Poverty Rate. The results state that the families are not living in extreme poverty; however, they still face adversities due to the poverty. A significant presence of women, where 90.6% of the participants were mothers living in a single-parent family, attests that women are still the part of the population most affected by poverty. Furthermore, the results showed that the higher the poverty level, the lower the family resilience, and aspects such as work, knowledge and human development, especially child development, are aspects that enhance family resources to face adversities.

Youth Multidimensional Poverty and Its Dynamics: Evidence From Selected Countries in the MENA Region

A broad consensus among the academic, and other national and international institutions is that poverty cannot be measured and simply defined by the lack of monetary resources, but it is a combination of a range of non-monetary factors. These factors may act as constraints on individuals’ abilities to reach their capabilities; affecting their well-being. Hence, the socio-economic development of a household and a country’s overall welfare, cannot be limited to either economic or social factors, but it must be determined by combining both of these aspects. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) illustrates the importance of taking multiple dimensions of poverty into account. The first aim of this paper is to measure the poverty of youth, aged 15-24, in selected countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using the Alkire-Foster (AF) method. The second aim is to explore the determinants of the MPI in the youth population. The results of this study are mixed, as we find that the poverty is reduced in the case of Egypt and Tunisia, but it is increased in Jordan and Iraq. Policy implications are further discussed.

Assessing the Multiple Dimensions of Poverty. Data Mining Approaches to the 2004-14 Health and Demographic Surveillance System in Cuatro Santos, Nicaragua.

We identified clusters of multiple dimensions of poverty according to the capability approach theory by applying data mining approaches to the Cuatro Santos Health and Demographic Surveillance database, Nicaragua. Four municipalities in northern Nicaragua constitute the Cuatro Santos area, with 25,893 inhabitants in 5,966 households (2014). A local process analyzing poverty-related problems, prioritizing suggested actions, was initiated in 1997 and generated a community action plan 2002–2015. Interventions were school breakfasts, environmental protection, water and sanitation, preventive healthcare, home gardening, microcredit, technical training, university education stipends, and use of the Internet. In 2004, a survey of basic health and demographic information was performed in the whole population, followed by surveillance updates in 2007, 2009, and 2014 linking households and individuals. Information included the house material (floor, walls) and services (water, sanitation, electricity) as well as demographic data (birth, deaths, migration). Data on participation in interventions, food security, household assets, and women's self-rated health were collected in 2014. A K-means algorithm was used to cluster the household data (56 variables) in six clusters. The poverty ranking of household clusters using the unsatisfied basic needs index variables changed when including variables describing basic capabilities. The households in the fairly rich cluster with assets such as motorbikes and computers were described as modern. Those in the fairly poor cluster, having different degrees of food insecurity, were labeled vulnerable. Poor and poorest clusters of households were traditional, e.g., in using horses for transport. Results displayed a society transforming from traditional to modern, where the forerunners were not the richest but educated, had more working members in household, had fewer children, and were food secure. Those lagging were the poor, traditional, and food insecure. The approach may be useful for an improved understanding of poverty and to direct local policy and interventions.

Sarath Davala Renana Jhabvala, Saumya Kapoor Mehta and Guy Standing: Basic income: a transformative policy for India

Impressive improvements in education, healthcare and nutrition, improved productivity and a way out of debt and bonded labour—after just 17 months, these are some of the main results of a pilot project conducted in Madhya Pradesh in 2011–2013. The methodology? Just a small amount of cash was deposited every month in the bank accounts of every individual in the project villages, without any conditions on its use. The results of the project are presented in the book under review, which provides a convincing argument for the positive effects of a universal basic income on the multiple dimensions of poverty.

The Game of Social Life

This article presents the development of a new simulation activity, the Game of Social Life. The activity introduces students to concepts of social stratification based on multiple dimensions of poverty, including inequalities related to housing, education, occupational status, social power, and health outcomes. The game was administered to students enrolled in a social psychology course at a small, private, liberal arts university located in the midwestern United States. Qualitative analysis of 25 students’ written reactions revealed that the game was engaging and successful in motivating students to adopt a new perspective, acknowledge inequality and explanations for poverty, self-reflect about privilege and oppression, and consider solutions to these problems. The activity was also assessed as a training exercise with 16 staff members at a nonprofit agency located in an urban area in southeastern Canada. These assessments indicate that the activity can be used in a variety of contexts.

Multidimensional Poverty Targeting

The importance of taking into account multiple dimensions of well-being in the measurement of poverty has been emphasized in the recent literature. The poverty alleviation literature has not, however, yet addressed the important issue of policy design for efficient multidimensional poverty reduction. From a normative perspective, it can be argued that, in addition to being concerned with impacts on multiple dimensions of poverty, policy should also consider impacts on their joint distribution. From a positive perspective, it is regularly observed that different poverty dimensions are often correlated and mutually reinforced, especially over time. The paper integrates these two perspectives into a consistent policy evaluation framework. Targeting dominance techniques are also proposed to assess the normative robustness of targeting strategies. The analytical results are applied to data from Vietnam and South Africa and illustrate the role of both normative and positive perspectives in designing efficient multidimensional poverty targeting policies.

ICT policy and poverty reduction in Africa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how policymakers in different African countries negotiate the complex relationship between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and poverty reduction. The authors adopt a novel perspective on this problem by considering how the broader policy discourse and associated mechanisms tend to address (or neglect) the multiple dimensions of poverty. Design/methodology/approach – A textual analysis was conducted on selected ICT and poverty reduction policy documents from Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria, between 2005 and 2012. Findings – The findings show that the focus of ICT policy interventions continues to be on increasing economic capabilities amongst the poor. There is recognition in all three cases that human, political and social capital are also important. The continued dominance of an economic focus within ICT policies is supported by a techno-deterministic policy discourse, which tends to downplay social factors. Meanwhile, poverty reduction strategies adopt a similarly techno-deterministic perspective on the role of ICTs in development. Practical implications – While there is negligible evidence of methods that could enable a more contested, discursive policy environment, there are signs in South Africa and Uganda of a strong but relatively high-level (and largely rhetorical) interest in participatory approaches to ICT implementation which may, if appropriated fully by policymakers and their agents, lead to a more contextually anchored approach to ICT-supported poverty reduction around a diverse mix of poverty dimensions. Originality/value – This paper has developed a novel framework for analysing the extent to which the multiple dimensions of poverty are being addressed within African ICT policy and whether the appropriate institutional arrangements and policy processes are being adopted to do this.

Integrated approaches to enabling the most vulnerable to participate in markets

Even when markets become more accessible to poor people in general, wealth differentials occur and the most vulnerable are the ones excluded. The reasons for their exclusion are complex and inextricably linked with many aspects of their lives; an integrated approach takes these multiple dimensions of poverty into account, whilst addressing their deep levels of poverty through employment and enterprise. This article focuses on reaching those who are excluded from markets due to pervasive social discrimination and other challenges specific to their disability and health context. Two case studies of people with disabilities and those affected by HIV/ AIDS describe entry points and key services required to facilitate and sustain their participation as employees and enterprise owners. They demonstrate how successful models use participation in economic activities to achieve sustainable impact through stimulating attitude change, and create a more level playing field for their access to markets and wider develo...

Forest Connect: reducing poverty and deforestation through support to community forest enterprises

SUMMARY International commitments to reduce poverty and curb deforestation echo many national programmes and policies. But how do you achieve both together? The overlap between areas of persistent poverty and high deforestation often coincides with traditional models of state forest ownership in which large-scale industrial logging concessions or agricultural clearance are superimposed on pre-existing forest and land rights claims of varying validity. Widespread informality, resource conflicts and forest degradation often result. But there are also increasing numbers of more positive stories - sustainable community forest enterprises overcoming multiple dimensions of poverty. Secure forest rights, strong social organisation, appropriate business models and well designed support have enabled many communities to deliver on both social and environmental fronts. This paper highlights lessons learned, policy and institutional gaps that remain, and the formation of a new alliance, Forest Connect, to address tho...

The Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data: Introduction to the Special Issue

The aim of this special issue is to draw attention to “missing dimensions” of poverty data—dimensions that are of value to poor people, but for which we have scant or no data. Amartya Sen frames development as the process of expanding the freedoms that people value and have reason to value. Although the most widely known measure of human development includes income, longevity and education, many have argued that people's values, and consequently multidimensional poverty, extend beyond these domains. In order to advance these multiple areas, it is at times necessary to conduct empirical studies using individual or household-level data on multiple dimensions of poverty. A critical barrier for international analyses of multidimensional poverty is that few or no high-quality indicators are available across countries and respondents in key domains that are deeply important to poor people and of potentially critical instrumental importance.

Governance, Democracy and Poverty Reduction: Lessons Drawn from Household Surveys in Sub‐Saharan Africa and Latin America

Summary Public statistics face quite a challenge when it comes to measuring new dimensions of development (institutions, governance, and social and political participation). To take up this challenge, modules on Governance, Democracy and Multiple Dimensions of Poverty have been appended to household surveys by National Statistics Institutes in twelve African and Latin American developing countries. This paper presents the issues addressed and the methodological lessons learnt along with a selection of findings to illustrate this innovative approach and demonstrate its analytic potential. We investigate, for instance, the population's support for democratic principles, the respect for civil and political rights and the trust in the political class; the ‘need for the State’, particularly of the poorest; the extent of petty corruption; the reliability of expert surveys on governance; the perception of decentralization policies at local level; the level and vitality of social and political participation, etc. The conclusive appraisal made opens up prospects for the national statistical information systems in the developing countries. The measurement and tracking of this new set of objective and subjective public policy monitoring indicators would benefit from being made systematic.

Poverty on the Rebound: The Work of Models

Conversations between scholars across disciplinary divides, searching for means to understand the multiple dimensions of poverty, have much to offer a field that continues to be dominated by mainstream economics. An open-ended exploration of alternatives to this approach, represented by most of the papers in this collection, contributes to the emergence of a broader discussion in social science on poverty and poverty alleviation.