Poor Countries Research Articles

Making Globalisation Inclusive of People: A Trade Union Perspective (The Mahbub-ul-Haq Memorial Lecture)

“The greatest tragedy is to treat the unequal as equal”, says Aristotle. In a different perspective, similar concerns have found an echo centuries later—” the free play of market forces between unequal trading partners would only punish poorer commodity exporters at the same time as it brings advantages to the rich industrial countries”.1 New modalities of participation for developing countries in the trading system were suggested decades ago to attack the persistent trade imbalance and to create essential external conditions for accelerating the rate of economic growth. These included: (1) guaranteeing price stabilisation and improving market access for primary exports; (2) allowing greater policy space to develop local industries and reducing barriers to their exports; (3) establishing more appropriate terms of accession to the multilateral system, and (4) reducing the burden of debt-servicing. The developments as unfolded over the years, and more so since 1990s, are found as largely drifting away from these assertions of yester years. Market access to the agricultural products still has to materialise. Greater policy space to developing countries almost stands abandoned. Debt burden of the developing poor countries, the HIPC initiative notwithstanding, remains at volatile level.

ГРАВІТАЦІЙНА МОДЕЛЬ МІЖНАРОДНОЇ ТОРГІВЛІ: ВИТОКИ І СУЧАСНІ ПІДХОДИ

The article examines the historical origins of the formation of gravity modeling and its use in the study of the intensity of international trade. It is emphasized that the driving forces of international exchange and the search for optimal policy ways of its implementation are based on classical theories of international trade. They are based on a liberal approach to deny the need for state restrictions on the free flow of goods between countries in order to regulate the volume, structure and directions of the country's foreign trade. The contribution of outstanding economists to the development of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the construction of gravity models of international exchange is considered. The features of their application for empirical research in the field of international trade are characterized. Factors affecting international trade flows are identified. An analysis of theoretical and methodological approaches to the formation of an effective gravity model of foreign trade was carried out based on the search for factors that influence it and contribute to the intensification of international trade flows between partner countries. The specificity of the involvement of new additional variables in gravity models is shown. It is emphasized that the bifurcation processes taking place in the modern globalized world form new conditions of international exchange. Attention is focused on the fact that such a situation necessitates the further development of theoretical and methodological bases for forecasting the volume of international trade based on the identification of cause-and-effect dependencies and spatio-temporal relationships. The conducted review of the history of gravity modeling, its use in studies of the international trade intensity, the contribution of prominent economists to the deepening of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the of international exchange gravity models construction showed quite wide opportunities for their further improvement based on taking into account the factors that influence the volume of bilateral trade. It was investigated that the problems are: 1) Selection of variables of the gravity model from the side of export and import for its adaptation to modern conditions of the world trade. The bifurcation processes taking place in the modern globalized world form new conditions of international exchange. 2) Gravitational models are empirical models built on liberal and neoliberal theories of international economic relations. In the conditions of globalization, a high level of interaction and interdependence of countries, the intensification of international trade flows, the movement of resources from a weaker trading partner to rich and powerful states means the flow of resources from underdeveloped and poor countries to stronger and richer ones. Gravitational models of international trade are a reflection and improvement of this process.

National wealth, individualism, generalised trust, and religiosity as moderators of the relationship between helping strangers and life satisfaction in 137 societies.

We predicted that the relationship between helping strangers and life satisfaction would depend partially on the wealth of the country in which one lives. We argue that wealthy societies provide a wide range of welfare provisions for assisting their citizens. By contrast, people living in poorer countries with associated lower individualism, lower generalised trust, and higher religiosity have fewer financial and institutional supports for their daily welfare. They thus receive greater personal and interpersonal rewards for helping strangers in their societies and experience greater life satisfaction. Using a 137-country sample, we found that the relationship between helping strangers and life satisfaction was weaker in wealthier nations and in nations with more individualistic, more trusting, but less religious citizens. When all four moderators were used, only trust and religiosity remained significant moderators. In a supplementary mediated moderation model, we also found that trust and religiosity mediated the effect of national wealth on the relationship between kindness and life satisfaction. We conclude that the relationship between kindness and life satisfaction depends on various aspects of national culture that may reduce or increase people's dependence in their daily lives on the help of others as opposed to dependence on welfare institutions.

THE MANAGEMENT OF DISEASE IN A TRADITIONAL MEDICINE PERSPECTIVE: THE CASE OF NAMPULA, NORTH OF MOZAMBIQUE

Within a province (Nampula) of one of the world's poorest countries, Mozambique, the spread of traditional medicine is particularly significant. This study aims to delve into the main figures of traditional medicine as well as the way in which they manage the care pathways in Nampula City. This treatment must be framed within a very specific cultural, cosmological, and ethical context, that of the Makhuwa culture, the largest language group in Mozambique. The research was carried out through direct observation work between 2015 and 2018, with the advantage that the author is a Nampula-born researcher and a native Emakhuwa speaker. This circumstance allowed her to understand the dialogues and interviews done on site without the need for interpreters. The result was that important local cultural elements, together with the almost total absence of modern hospital facilities and conventional doctors made the city of Nampula an urban center where traditions of medical care related to traditional knowledge still prevail, and where caregivers perform social, pedagogical and medical functions. Keywords: local knowledge, Emakhuwa Culture, medical dialogue, diseases

THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON THE MIGRATION OF HOME HEALTHCARE WORKER

Abstract Home health caregivers provide a vital role in allowing people to age in place. Women, and in particular immigrant women, have become the largest provider of home health care in Western Industrialized Countries. Global push-pull factors affecting caregivers were greatly disrupted with the emergence of the global pandemic – COVID-19. The pandemic highlighted how fragile the system is and how the easily the ‘grey economy’ can be compromised. This research looks at border access, immigration restrictions and other factors which impeded the migration of caregivers. Poor countries suffered greatly with restrictions on exporting women who use cross national moves as a means to generate income for families in their homeland, and rich countries faced extreme shortages. The results were devastating for all parties – caregivers and care recipients alike.

Two centuries of disability disadvantages in Swedish partnerships

Partnership signifies a key transition for social recognition in society. This study identifies long-term trends of disability and partnership in Sweden evidenced by the chances to marry or cohabit during two centuries (1800s–2010s). We compare results from studies within one comprehensive disability project, making use of quantitative life-course analysis and population records. Our findings uncover a remarkably persistent trend from the 1800s until the 2010s. Disability impeded both men and women’s partnership chances significantly (by about 60%), with some variations across disability types, genders, and periods. That disabled people did not enjoy greater access to a partner relative to others while Sweden moved from a poor country to a wealthy welfare state, suggests that disability persistently affords fewer possibilities to participate in social life and society. Our study is exceptional by combining disability with partnership and comparing recent results with the past.

Determinants of bilateral official development assistance

ABSTRACT According to the World Bank 2017 statistics, the inequalities between rich and poor countries have increased despite an 80% increase in the official development assistance volume. This persisted, even under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) regime (2000–2015), a period during which developing countries’ needs were assumed to be at the centre of the international community’s actions. Thus, one may question the effectiveness of aid and the real motivations of donor countries. This article aims to examine the factors that determine the bilateral official development assistance (BODA) allocation by using more recent data, and with an emphasis on whether donor countries have put into place a wish from the MDGs to largely take into account the needs of recipient countries in their ODA allocation decisions. Among other results, we show that the needs of recipient countries are taken into account by only small donors (in terms of volume) in their aid decisions. The major ODA providers do not follow the trend. Thus, rowing in line with the MDGs, putting the needs of recipient countries at the centre of BODA allocation was mainly limited to small ODA donors. Donor interest was is put forward by most of the donor countries.

CODEVI: translating cross-border challenges into value creation?

Learning outcomes This case study was intended for MBA/postgraduate level courses, or for high-level executive courses. It provided a complex international business context to analyse the intricacies and dependencies between emerging regions, wherein a company (Grupo M) established an entire manufacturing cluster and invested all its assets in a place that has never hosted any industrial activity – in a country whose culture and traditions differed significantly from those of the neighbouring country that provided the investment. The case included a discussion of the negotiations that a private company undertook with two governments (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) to secure access to the free-zone facilities granted by the importing countries. The case could be seen as a stimulating international business context to examine central tenets around “shared value creation” (Porter and Kramer, 2011): the practice of creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges. As per these authors, there are three ways to create shared value: by reconceiving products and markets, by redefining productivity in the value chain and by enabling local cluster development. The latter is the one best exemplified in this case. Additionally, the case brought intriguing insights on international business that can be related to ethics, corporate social responsibility and its many facets (Banerjee, 2007), as well as concepts around “responsible lobbying” (Anastasiadis et al., 2018). Case overview/synopsis This case presented the expansion challenges of CODEVI, a Dominican company, which established and operated an industrial (free zone) park in Haiti. Grupo M decided to move its operations when The World Trade Organization eliminated the quota system for apparel imported from the Far East Countries, and its CEO, Fernando Capellán, foresaw that the Dominican Republic would soon become non-competitive. At the time, an agreement between the US and Haiti, which gave preferential access to production from this extremely poor country, was being negotiated. In 2003, there were two sleepy towns at the Haitian-Dominican border: Dajabón, with about 18,000 inhabitants in the Dominican side, and Ounaminthe in Haiti, with about 40,000 inhabitants (with 90 per cent unemployment and over 80 per cent living below the extreme poverty line) on the Haitan side. These two locations were at the heart of a case that narrated how a complex international business operation resulted in an industrial park that has enjoyed considerable economic success, while simultaneously improving dramatically the living conditions of both border towns: Dajabón now has about 35,000 inhabitants and was a booming town, with a prosperous middle class; Ounaminthe now had 170,000 inhabitants (17,000 work directly at CODEVI), and was a city that essentially remained outside the chaos that often plagues the rest of Haiti. Additionally, a major impact of CODEVI was that it stopped the area’s illegal emigration of Haitians to the Dominican Republic, one of the Dominican Republic’s most pressing problems. But as the CODEVI industrial park has no area to expand, a decision must be made to either expand next to the present park, or at one of the three sister towns along the border. Such a park would have to be built from nothing, as was the case for CODEVI almost two decades ago. Complexity academic level MBA, executive and postgraduate. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 5: International Business.

1420. 99mTc-Ethambutol scintigraphy with SPECT/CT in skeletal tuberculosis: A Prospective Study

Abstract Background Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common infectious disease in poor and underdeveloped countries, with extra-pulmonary TB (EPTB) infections accounting for 10-15 percent of all cases in developing and underdeveloped countries. Apart from 18F-FDG PET/CT, which cannot discriminate between metastatic and infective lesions, Nuclear Medicine methods do not play a significant role in clinical practice. We have attempted to address this constraint by our study involving radiolabelled Ethambutol. Methods The study was conducted over a period of 20 months at the Department of Nuclear Medicine of our institution and included a prospective cohort of 16 adult patients diagnosed as skeletal TB (clinico-radiologically, histopathologically, or microbiologically) who were treatment naive or within 14 days of treatment initiation. 10-15 mCi of Tracer was administered to the patients. Dynamic phase imaging was performed for 10 minutes, followed by minimum 3 planar anterior and posterior views whole-body scans with over 4 hours. SPECT/CT was performed between 60-120mins after injection. Patients were followed up by a clinical assessment/telephonic review with a follow up period of 2 months to 21 months (mean follow up period of 10.2 months). Results SPECT-CT and 99mTc-Ethambutol scintigraphy were performed on 16 patients at the time of diagnosis or treatment initiation. The average age of individuals with positive scans was 33.75, whereas those with negative scans was 36.25 +/- 19.80. The most common symptom was bone pain (93.75%), followed by fever (81.25%) and weight loss (13 of 16 cases) (81.25 percent ). 3/12 (25%) of the 12 positive patients had multiple site involvement, whereas 8/12 (75%) had single site involvement. We found considerable tracer uptake in 75% of the patients in the trial. When ATT was given to 11/12 (92%) of the people who had a positive scan, the clinical result was decreased discomfort and greater mobility in the affected joints. Conclusion 99mTc-ethambutol scintigraphy with SPECT/CT was accurately able to show bony lesions in 75% of the patients. Also 92% of those with positive scan eventually responded to Anti-Tubercular Treatment thus showing that this rarely used technique may have a role in prognosticating skeletal tuberculosis. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures.

The Mission of the Neocatechumenal Way in Times of Covid-19

The Mission of the Neocatechumenal Way in Times of Covid-19

The Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security: Ghana in Review

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghana has recorded a total of 130, 727 confirmed cases with 1,207 deaths at the time of writing this article. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant influence on nations and regions all around the world since it started and Ghana is no exception. This systematic review discusses COVID-19 measures in Ghana, the impact of COVID-19 on the import and export of Agricultural inputs and food, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on local food system actors. In the second part, measures to prevent food insecurity in Ghana during the outbreak of the pandemic, emerging lessons, and building resilience have also been presented. In several production regions, the Ghanaian food system experienced disturbances that resulted in reduced output due to limited labor mobility; nevertheless, these disruptions were minor and did not appear to have a significant impact on production. The COVID-19 epidemic has disrupted food supplies, putting billions of people's food security in jeopardy. According to some estimates, global hunger might treble as a result of food supply disruptions, especially in poor countries around the world. Ghana's economy is beginning to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in order to maintain this recovery, the government will need to continue to support both the productive and vulnerable sectors of the economy. Finally, there has never been a better time to eat more of what we grow and to grow more of what we eat than right now.

Potential application of nanotechnology in the treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of schistosomiasis.

Schistosomiasis is one of the neglected tropical diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. Globally, it affects economically poor countries, typically due to a lack of proper sanitation systems, and poor hygiene conditions. Currently, no vaccine is available against schistosomiasis, and the preferred treatment is chemotherapy with the use of praziquantel. It is a common anti-schistosomal drug used against all known species of Schistosoma. To date, current treatment primarily the drug praziquantel has not been effective in treating Schistosoma species in their early stages. The drug of choice offers low bioavailability, water solubility, and fast metabolism. Globally drug resistance has been documented due to overuse of praziquantel, Parasite mutations, poor treatment compliance, co-infection with other strains of parasites, and overall parasitic load. The existing diagnostic methods have very little acceptability and are not readily applied for quick diagnosis. This review aims to summarize the use of nanotechnology in the treatment, diagnosis, and prevention. It also explored safe and effective substitute approaches against parasitosis. At this stage, various nanomaterials are being used in drug delivery systems, diagnostic kits, and vaccine production. Nanotechnology is one of the modern and innovative methods to treat and diagnose several human diseases, particularly those caused by parasite infections. Herein we highlight the current advancement and application of nanotechnological approaches regarding the treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of schistosomiasis.

Does Okun’s Law Hold for China? Some Empirical Evidence

This paper seeks to estimate the applicability of Okun’s law to the situation in China between 1991 and 2020. A defining and most significant feature of this paper is that China’s unemployment rate has been proxied by youth unemployment and urban unemployment. The stochastic properties test reveals that all the three variables follow I(1) process. The paper uses this knowledge to build data generating process (DGP), which is an outstanding contribution to international research into the steady state growth. Many researchers have pointed out that the poor countries catch up faster and, consequently, their growth rate should have a trend component to it. The applied regression model has proxied the trend when estimating the operation of the Okun’s law. The inclusion of trend, strongly factual, is accounted for and reveals that Okun’s law is valid for China. Apart from the OLS estimator for testing the Okun’s law, the generalized method of moment estimator has also been used as another estimator with the first lag of both unemployment and GDP as instrumental variables. Empirical evidence supports the proposition that Okun’s law is indeed valid in the case of China contrary to the conclusion of some studies.

The smart agriculture applications (current and future)

Smart agriculture applications (monitoring, sensing, automation and control) of micro-climate and environmental conditions for different agriculture production sectors and scales, decision-makers and researchers need to take it into consideration to strengthen the efforts of mitigation and adaption of climate change impacts as well as maximize the natural resources use efficiencies and food production. Motivate the farmers to implement smart agriculture applications, especially in developed and poor countries, strong cooperation for technology transfer and build up the technology infrastructure of information and communication (ICT) plus the internet of things (IoT).

Mitigating climate change to alleviate economic inequality under the Paris Agreement

Understanding the implications of global climate governance is critical for achieving sustainable economic development, given that the economic impacts of climate change and policies are disproportionately distributed across regions. We estimate the updated damage functions and construct an uncertainty analysis framework to assess whether stringent climate policies entail economic benefits in terms of growth and inequality. The findings show that although climate policies slow the pace of economic growth, the benefits of avoided damage may overweight policy costs in the long run. Moreover, pursuing the 1.5°C goal slows economic catch-up of poor countries in the short to medium term relative to 2°C, but improves global inequality in the long run. This situation may, however, change when moving to a fast-growing and fossil-fueled world, in which inequalities gradually decline but start to rise after 2065. This study highlights the importance of synergizing the stringent 1.5°C goal with economic inequality alleviation.

Experimental estimation of the performance of the homemade single slop Solar distilled

Water pollution and scarcity have created problems in all aspects of life, especially in poor countries. In This work the fabricated of a single slop distilled from cheap materials, with a glass lid for use for desalination. The study noted that solar radiation is of good magnitude in the study area for the implementation of solar energy projects. The solar-drip production increases with increased solar radiation, which increases the efficiency of the distilled, and the reduction of the water level in the basin decreases the speed of productivity and increases it, where efficiency was 40%, at the highest in the experiments 1.5 mm then rose to 50% at 1mm and increased to more than 65% at 0.5 mm.

ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF TOURISM IN POVERTY REDUCTION IN WEST JAVA

Poverty reduction is not usually at the heart of the tourism agenda. Yet tourism is significant in many poor countries and is already affecting the livelihoods of millions of poor people, positively and negatively. Poverty reduction requires pro-poor growth. Concerted effort is needed to maximize the contribution of tourism to this. Pro-poor tourism (PPT) interventions aim to increase the net benefits for the poor from tourism, and ensure that tourism growth contributes to poverty reduction. PPT is not a specific product or sector of tourism, but an approach. PPT strategies aim to unlock opportunities for the poor whether for economic gain, other livelihood benefits, or participation in decision-making. Pro-poor tourism overlaps with, but is different from, the ‘sustainable tourism agenda. Pro-poor focuses more on countries of the South, not on mainstream destinations in the North. Poverty is the core focus, rather than one element of (mainly environmental) sustainability.

Los países más felices del mundo

This essay discusses the results of the World Happiness Report 2022. There are no surprises in the report. The happiest countries in the world have been the same for years: rich and relatively egalitarian countries. But we must not draw hasty conclusions, nor convert the subjective indicator of well-being into an exclusive objective of development. In fact, poor countries with marked social problems also show good results in the happiness index. In short, it is a useful indicator, but it is necessary to know its limits.

Aid allocation: The role of external discipline

Using an approach that embodies an explicit tradeoff between need and governance considerations, we propose an optimal aid allocation formula. We first assume exogenous, then endogenous governance. In the former case, a central concept is need-adjusted aid effectiveness while in the second case the donor has policing instruments under the form of monitoring and sanctioning capacities. We show that external disciplining has two advantages when the donor is sensitive enough to poverty intensity: (1) to cater to poor countries to a greater extent than is possible when local governance cannot be influenced by external forces, and (2) to respond (non-perversely) to improvements in the local governance of a country by raising its aid share. In institutionally weak countries, populations should welcome wisely applied donor's discipline as a way not only to get access to financial support but also to constrain their elites to refrain from abusing their position excessively. Imposing discipline when the release of externally-provided development funds is at stake seems more acceptable than aid directed to the explicit purpose of combatting corruption.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ БІДНОСТІ У КРАЇНАХ СВІТУ

The article attempts to generalize some features of the study of poverty in the modern world. The use of various indicators that demonstrate the level of poverty has been shown. It has been explained that GDP per capita is one of the most accurate ways of assessing the economic development of the state. It has been demonstrated that all the poorest countries are located on the African continent. Almost all of them used to be colonies of European empires, and now they face political instability, civil wars, natural disasters, etc. These problems have been considered on the examples of Niger and Egypt. Another indicator of poverty is the percentage of people living below the poverty line. The difficulty of using this indicator is that national poverty lines in different countries can differ significantly. According to this indicator, 8 African and 2 Latin American countries (Guatemala and Haiti) are in the top ten. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) has been considered, according to which African countries and Syria are among the top ten starving countries. It should be noted that for some countries there is very little data on the number and share of the hungry. When studying the situation in some countries (North Korea, Turkmenistan, Somalia, etc.), it should be borne in mind that the governments of these countries do not always publish real official statistics, and those data that get into the mass media are not always true. It has been proven that the Human Development Index (HDI) is an integrated indicator that can be used to study the problem of poverty. It has been shown that 10 countries with the lowest HDI are located in Africa. Their place in this ranking is influenced not only by material factors, but also by the average life expectancy and education. Africa is still a continent with a large number of illiterate people. The Corruption Perceptions Index is also important for the study of poverty, because corruption slows down reforms and harms transparent market relations. Therefore, it becomes one of the factors of poverty. Using the statistics provided by Transparency International, we have found out that the most corrupt countries are more evenly distributed around the globe, among them are not only African ones, but also Asian and Latin American states. It can be summarized that the nature of poverty is different in the developed and developing countries. In the developing countries, natural conditions, peculiarities of the organization of socioeconomic life, the political system and even the personality of political leaders are important. In the developed countries, poverty is mostly a consequence of individual psychological characteristics, behaviour, specific life circumstances, etc. In these countries, poverty can be easily overcome.