Poverty Eradication Programme Research Articles

Tackling the African “poverty trap”: The Ijebu-Ode experiment

An experiment in poverty reduction began in 1998 in the city of Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria (estimated 1999 population 163,000), where, without the remittances from relatives abroad, an estimated 90% of the population lived below the poverty line of $1.00 (U.S.) per person per day. Central to the experiment was whether poverty can be dramatically reduced through a city consultation process that seeks to mobilize the entire community along with its diaspora. With 7 years of experience, the Ijebu-Ode experiment has been successful in many ways. There is increasing evidence that poverty in the city has been reduced significantly through the microfinancing of existing and new productive activities and the estimated >8,000 jobs these activities have created. Training based on both sustainability science and technology and indigenous practitioner knowledge has been a critical factor in the establishment of cooperatives and the development of new enterprises in specialty crops, small animal, and fish production. Much of this success has been possible as a result of harnessing social capital, especially through the dynamic leadership of the traditional authorities of the city and by the provision of ample loanable funds through the National Poverty Eradication Program of the federal government. The city consultation process itself engendered a participatory focus to the experiment from the beginning and has encouraged sustainabaility. Yet long-term sustainability is still in question as the initial leadership needs replacement, and credit, the heart of the experiment, lacks sufficient collateral.

Selected Socio-demographic Factors as a Correlates of Child Abuse and Neglect among Parents in Ibadan, Oyo State

This study examined four socio-demographic factors associated with child abuse among parents in Ibadan metropolis which include: economic status, large family size, parent's upbringing and single parenthood. The descriptive survey research design was used. Simple random sampling techniques was used to select two thousand and sixty three subjects from the five metropolitan local government areas in Ibadan viz: Ibadan North, Ibadan North East, Ibadan North West, Ibadan South East, Ibadan South West. Chi-square was used to test the four hypotheses set at 0.05 alpha level. The findings of the study established that factors examined contributed significantly to the incidence of child abuse among parents in various degrees. It was recommended that government at all levels should pursue their poverty reduction and eradication programmes with vigour to stop child abuse due to poverty; population and family life education is necessary for all citizens to create awareness on the need to control family size for improved quality life; religious institutions should concentrate attention on premarital counseling and organize conferences, seminars and workshops focused on acquisition of parenting skills so as to stop or at least reduce the cases of child abuse associated with poor patterns of child rearing.

Between ‘Empowerment’ and ‘Liberation’

Micro-finance and its (purported) capacity to empower women is by now a well-explored field all over the world. We now have several tools by which micro-finance programmes may be assessed. However, here we attempt to critically assess the claims of the Kerala government's poverty eradication programme, the Kudumbashree, which combines a micro-finance model with other elements through critical feminist lenses. Further, we attempt to place this programme within Kerala's own historical experience of empowering the poor. Given the fact that this major effort to popularise micro-finance in Kerala has the twin aims of poverty alleviation and women's empowerment, this seems justified. We try to place the ‘micro-finance revolution’ in Kerala within the larger historical trajectory of successive ‘regimes of empowerment’ in order to understand the different political stakes in each, and their implications for gender politics. While using some of the available tools that employ indicators of gender effectiveness to assess the impact of micro-finance in empowering women is certainly a basic exercise, the present approach allows us to draw lessons for effective gender politics through a comparison with earlier modes of empowering the deprived classes in Kerala.

PEMBERDAYAAN MASYARAKAT MELALUI PENDEKATAN KELOMPOK (Kasus Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Miskin melalui Pendekatan Kelompok Usaha Bersama (KUBE)

Department of Social affairs implemented several empowerment programs to eradicate poverty. KUBE was one of these poverty eradication programs. KUBE was infended to over-come the group weaknesses through mutual and cooperative efforts. In this relation there were some factors affecting the KUBE dynamic i.e., member characteristics, empowerment patterns, and the KUBE social environment. To optimize the KUBE empowerment, the KUBE productive business activities were classified into three categories, namely daily income, monthly income and annual income earning activities.

An Adapted Version of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Insecurity Module Is a Valid Tool for Assessing Household Food Insecurity in Campinas, Brazil

Until recently, Brazil did not have a national instrument with which to assess household food insecurity (FI). The objectives of this study were as follows: 1) to describe the process of adaptation and validation of the 15-item USDA FI module, and 2) to assess its validity in the city of Campinas. The USDA scale was translated into Portuguese and subsequently tested for content and face validity through content expert and focus groups made up of community members. This was followed by a quantitative validation based on a convenience (n = 125) and a representative (n = 847) sample. Key adaptations involved replacing the term "balanced meal" with "healthy and varied diet," to construct items as questions rather than statements, and to ensure that respondents understood that information would not be used to determine program eligibility. Chronbach's alpha was 0.91 and the scale item response curves were parallel across the 4 household income strata. FI severity level was strongly associated in a dose-response manner (P < 0.001) with income strata and the probability of daily intake of fruits, vegetables, meat/fish, and dairy. These findings were replicated in the 2 independent survey samples. Results indicate that the adapted version of the USDA food insecurity module is valid for the population of Campinas. This validation methodology has now been replicated in urban and/or rural areas of 4 additional states with similar results. Thus, Brazil now has a household food insecurity instrument that can be used to set national goals, to follow progress, and to evaluate its national hunger and poverty eradication programs.

Voices from the bottom

Despite many years of poverty eradication programs in numerous countries, 25% of the world's population continues to live in poverty. In the light of this global crisis, it is clear that anti-poverty strategies have not been as successful as they should have been. This paper argues that continuing poverty may be related in part to the fact that policies developed to alleviate the problem are mainly based on monetary definitions developed by ‘experts’, rather than by the poor themselves. Thus this paper will demonstrate that expert definitions invariably neglect the more qualitative aspects and experiences of poverty. In contrast, it is argued here that the poor are the ‘real’ poverty experts and their voices should be included in the definition of poverty and the formulation of solutions. While there is increasing recognition of this latter approach in developing nations, often taking a human needs perspective, this response is only in its infancy in Australia. After a discussion of the conceptualisation of human needs, this paper reports on a small pilot study that presents the voices of 10 disadvantaged men, identifying what poverty is for them in Melbourne

Micro enterprise initiative in water sector and poverty reduction

The author reports on the Kerala model for water sector development, broadly adopted as a role model for poverty reduction and build up of social capital. It is a community based organisation with its focus on facilitating a stable income to the poor, and composed of a People's Plan Campaign, the Kudumbashree (women-based poverty eradication programme), with grassroot level neighbourhood groups, federated into an area development society. It promotes savings and credit channelling, capacity building and entrepreneurship development. Activities include awareness raising on water conservation and hygiene, utilization of student power, promotion of small, cheap and low technology projects that people can understand and undertake (small reservoirs, tanks, rainwater harvesting structures, water meters), as well as microenterprises, and training of women-based repair groups.

Food and nutrition security and poverty alleviation in the Philippines

Poverty, food and nutrition insecurity remain as critical problems in the Philippines. The average Filipino in 1997 needed an annual income of at least P7710 to meet food requirements or P11 319 to meet both food and non‐food requirements. Approximately 4 511 000 families (31.8%) are poor and most of these are in the rural areas. Economic growth in the country has been characterized as a ‘boom and bust’ cycle with growth derailed by a combination of natural calamities, adverse domestic political factors, energy shortages, and external shocks such as the Asian currency crisis. In 1988 the gross national product (GNP) reached a peak of 7.2% and then declined to less than 1% in 1991. The economy started to recover in 1992, and the GNP peaked at 7.2% in 1996. The Asian financial crisis, compounded by the drought in 1998, led to a fall in the output of the agricultural sector by 6.6%. A stronger world economy, however, in 1999 helped the Philippine economy to recover. The Food Balance Sheet 1997 indicates that there has been a steady increase in the aggregate net food supply in 1992−1997 with the cereals group contributing approximately 25% of the total food supply. Translating this into calorie supply, this has provided approximately 2400 kcal/person per day or approximately 25% more than 2000 kcal/day. The fact that mean per capita intake is low indicates a gap between supply, distribution and consumption. The 1998 Food and Nutrition Research Institute survey showed that nutritional deficiencies still persist. Among 0−5‐year‐old children, underweight was approximately 32.0%; stunting 34.0% and wasting 6.0%. Underweight among 6−10‐year‐olds was 30.2% while stunting was 40.8%. Vitamin A deficiency, iron deficiency anaemia and iodine deficiency disorder continue as public health concerns. Food security and poverty alleviation are among the top priority programmes. The Medium‐Term Philippine Development Plan (1999−2004) enunciates the country's vision of creating a modern and humane society through improved quality of life characterized by food‐secure and poverty‐free Filipinos, in an ecologically healthy state. The different government programmes are the following: the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 provides the blueprint for developing and modernizing the agriculture and fisheries sectors; the National Anti‐Poverty Alleviation Commission was created as the coordinating and advisory body for the implementation of poverty eradication programmes of the different sectors; the vision of the Medium‐Term Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition is of a nutritionally improved country whose people are well nourished, healthy, intelligent, and socially and economically productive with a strong sense of human dignity.

A critical assessment of Jamaica's national poverty eradication programme

AbstractIn recent times there have been a proliferation of national, sectoral and local development policies on poverty eradication in the developing countries. This study of the Jamaican poverty reduction initiative aimed to find out whether some of these programmes have transcended some of the elementary policy problems that have been widely covered in the development management literature since the 1960s. The Government of Jamaica contends that its overall social policy, and especially the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NPEP), instituted from 1997–2000 may have contributed towards the reduction of absolute poverty levels that have been recorded in the last half‐decade. This writer argues otherwise. This is because a close examination of the management of the NPEP per se revealed deep‐seated problems. These included a weak political analysis, poor co‐ordination at the macro and street levels and a lack of adequate institutional support from the bureaucracy. The essay suggests ways towards improved governance. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Penanggulangan Kemiskinan dalam Era Otonomi Daerah

This article states the urgency of Poverty Alleviation or Poverty Eradication Law (UU-PPK). The law should contain Indonesian past experiences in poverty eradication programs. The programs are expected to combine the past sectoral, regional, and special programs. The poverty eradication program is intended to reinforce the poors socio-economic institution so there is a need for brotherhood spirit, community self-help, self-reliance, participation, and decentralization. Active participation is obliged for defining, forming, and assisting the poor. UU-PPK has to state the national commitment to poverty eradication, which will have to be implemented in concrete actions. The programs have to be implemented by the people in every region to develop a prosperous community based on Indonesian socio-culture-religion values, that is Pancasila. In the last part of the article, there is a report on Karangawen, a poor village in Gunungkidul, which is a prototype of a successful IDT program. The conclusion is that poverty eradication program in regional autonomy not only depend on central governments initiatives but more on the regional government and the people themselves.

Shifting the Risk: New Employment Patterns, Informalization, and Women's Work

The paper argues that the processes of informalization of jobs observed during the past decades have affected both high and low income countries. Starting at the micro level of the firm, the emphasis is on how economic restructuring and globalization have generated the growth of informal activities—resulting in the vicious circle of poverty and economic insecurity for an important proportion of the population. The second part of the paper analyzes the growth of women's participation in informal activities, emphasizing that there are contradictory forces at work regarding women's employment. Despite a stubborn persistence of gender discrimination and obstacles to women's advancement, progress has taken place on several fronts, such as in the education field and in the absorption of female labor in many production processes. The paper concludes by pointing out that poverty eradication programs must emphasize the need to generate decent jobs without which these programs will continue to be ineffective. In addition, re-distributive mechanisms and different forms of social protection are needed to counteract the forces and policies generating economic insecurity.

Conflict Over Natural Resources in South-East Asia and the Pacific.

Lim Teck Ghee and Mark J. Valencia: commonalities and directions for future research conflict over land-based natural resources in the ASEAN countries Eduardo Tadem: the ASEAN region - great wealth and great strife the plunder of forest resources the transformation of a natural resource - agriculture to agribusiness conflicts over mineral resources development and tribal peoples - resistance to displacement natural resource abuses - a time for change the Japanese economy and South-East Asia - the examples of the Asahan Aluminium and Kawasaki Steel Projects Yoko Kitazawa: the Japanese miracle the miracle ends? a new vision of economic development the vision in action - Asahan Japan's overseas steel industry Kawasaki in Mindanao Kawasaki follows the vision conclusion - the comprehensive security system - what price? international conflict over marine resources in South-East Asia - trends in politicization and militarization Mark J. Valencia: present and future conflict over marine resources superpower militarization in the marine region conflict over natural resources in Malaysia - the struggle of small-scale fisherman Lim Teck Ghee: introduction the 1950s - early developments in the fisheries industry the experience with fishing co-operatives, 1957-1965 a decade of trawling development, 1960-1970 the poverty eradication programme of the 1970s - new deal for small-scale fishermen? policy developments in the 1980s conclusion conflict over natural resoures in the Pacific James M. Anthony: the region and its resources conflicts over marine space conflicts over marine environment conflicting maritime claims conflicts over pelagic resources conflict over seabed mineral resources.

Recent trends in Gender Mainstreaming and Poverty Alleviation: The Kudumbashree Initiative

Kudumbashree was officially launched in 1998 in the State of Kerala, India, with the objective of eradicating absolute poverty in 10 years through community action. It is a comprehensive women-based poverty eradication programme jointly initiated by Government of Kerala and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), scaled up from earlier UNICEF-assisted initiatives in Alappuzha Municipality and Malappuram district. The programme is implemented by community-based organizations (CBOs) of poor women in co-operation with local governments (Panchayats).Kudumbashree focuses on empowerment of women through its CBOs and activities such as service coordination, encouraging thrift and internal lending, and start-up of micro enterprises. There are success stories of enterprises such as catering and canteen services at bus stands and offices in several places across the state. Handling of solid waste in municipalities is another emerging area of activity.