Poverty In Low-income Countries Research Articles

Impact of digital divide on energy poverty across the globe: The mediating role of income inequality

Energy poverty is an important reality facing the whole world, and the rapid development of digital technology has great potential in eradicating poverty. However, the differences in the level of information development have led to the existence of the digital divide within countries. In this context, this paper explores whether and how the digital divide affects energy poverty from a global perspective. Based on cross-country panel data, this study focuses on the effect and asymmetry of the digital divide on energy poverty. The results show that the digital divide hinders the reduction of energy poverty and manifests itself in a Matthew effect that makes the energy poor poorer. Second, the heterogeneity analysis based on income level and rural-urban areas find that the digital divide has a greater negative impact on energy poverty in low-income countries and rural areas. Finally, the mechanism analysis reveals that the digital divide exacerbates energy poverty mainly by increasing income inequality. Therefore, there is a greater need to focus on the efficiency, equity and inclusive development of the digital economy in the process of its globalization. The findings can also provide an empirical basis for policy design to bridge the digital divide and alleviate energy poverty.

DOWNLOAD PDF DOWNLOAD XML THE IMPACT OF PUBLIC HEALTH POLICIES ON ALLEVIATING MENSTRUAL POVERTY: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Menstrual poverty, a profound public health issue wherein females grapple with obstacles in acquiring menstrual materials, sanitation amenities, and pertinent instruction, has become a global concern. Particularly in regions of resource scarcity and nations with lower income, this predicament gravely impacts women’s quotidian lives, economic status, and psychosocial health. The present study delves into the impact and potential of public health policies in addressing menstrual poverty, underscoring the necessity of comprehensive menstrual health education, provision of free or affordable sanitary products, and consideration of specific environments and diverse population requirements in this process. While external influences, such as economic crises and public health incidents, may affect menstrual poverty, this paper delineates, via literature review, the pivotal role public health policies play in ameliorating menstrual poverty. Such policies not only facilitate the elevation of women’s mental health and social equity but also offer tangible strategies, like infrastructure enhancement, especially in resource-deprived locales. Nonetheless, the study also highlights several constraints and challenges, including cultural and societal impediments, fiscal restrictions, and others necessitating more in-depth exploration and solutions in future research and policy formulation. On balance, this investigation offers fresh perspectives and evidence for public health policy development, significantly aiding in the amelioration of menstrual poverty in low-income countries, thus yielding beneficial insights for promoting menstrual equity and enhancing the welfare of all individuals experiencing menstruation.

Information and Communication Technologies, Poverty and Development

Can information and communication technologies (ICTs) help to alleviate poverty in low-income countries? The paper investigates this question, focusing particularly on the role of ICTs in assisting the development of small and micro-enterprises. The investigation is based on a systemic understanding of both technology and enterprise. This suggests that ICTs will play a role mainly as a communication technology rather than as an information processing or production technology. Serious inequalities exist that constrain the use of ICT-based information by poor entrepreneurs. Information and communication technologies may therefore have a greater role to play in giving ‘voice’ to the poor; that is, in making the poor information providers more than information recipients. However, effective application must first overcome the ‘ICT fetish’ that dominates much development thinking at present, and which creates a series of identified opportunity costs. The paper concludes with a set of development priorities for information and for ICT use in poverty alleviation.

Does International Migration Affect Labor Supply, Non‐farm Diversification and Welfare of Households? Evidence from Egypt

AbstractThis study examines the effect of international migration in Egypt using fixed‐effect regressions and panel data from Egypt Labour Market Panel Surveys in 2006 and 2012. We find that men and people with higher education are more likely to migrate than women and people with lower education. Middle‐aged people are also more likely to migrate than young or old people. International migration does not seem to affect the overall employment of remaining members of migrant‐sending households. However, it tends to increase the self‐employed work of members of migrant‐sending households. Finally, international migration also helps migrant‐sending households increase their wealth index. Remittances are used to improve living conditions (housing) and purchase more assets and durables. This finding supports the theory as well as the policy to increase migration as a way to stabilize consumption and reduce poverty in low income countries.

The evolving role of CSR in international development: Evidence from Canadian extractive companies’ involvement in community health initiatives in low-income countries

Overseas development agencies and international finance organisations view the exploitation of minerals as a strategy for alleviating poverty in low-income countries. However, for local communities that are directly affected by extractive industry projects, economic and social benefits often fail to materialise. By engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), transnational companies operating in the extractive industries ‘space’ verbally commit to preventing environmental impacts and providing health services in low-income countries. However, the actual impacts of CSR initiatives can be difficult to assess.We help to bridge this gap by analysing the reach of health-related CSR activities financed by Canadian mining companies in the low-income countries where they operate. We found that in 2015, only 27 of 102 Canadian companies disclosed information on their websites concerning health-related CSR activities for impacted communities. Furthermore, for these 27 companies, there is very little evidence that alleged CSR activities may substantially contribute to the provision of comprehensive health services or more broadly to the sustainable development of the health sector.

Estimating the impact of trade specialization and trade policy on poverty in developing countries

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the impact of trade specialization on poverty. The empirical findings show that in developing countries manufacturing exports contribute to poverty reduction. But agricultural exports have a more significant effect on poverty in low-income countries. The analysis also confirms that trade specialization reduces poverty but under specific trade specialization patterns and policy conditions.

Psychological Symptoms and Social Functioning Following Repair of Obstetric Fistula in a Low-Income Setting.

Objectives Obstetric fistula is a maternal injury that causes uncontrollable leaking of urine or stool, and most women who develop it live in poverty in low-income countries. Obstetric fistula is associated with high rates of stigma and psychological morbidity, but there is uncertainty about the impact of surgical treatment on psychological outcomes. The objective of this exploratory study was to examine changes in psychological symptoms following surgical fistula repair, discharge and reintegration home. Methods Women admitted for surgical repair of obstetric fistula were recruited from a Tanzanian hospital serving a rural catchment area. Psychological symptoms and social functioning were assessed prior to surgery. Approximately 3months after discharge, a data collector visited the patients' homes to repeat psychosocial measures and assess self-reported incontinence. Baseline to follow-up differences were measured with paired t tests controlling for multiple comparisons. Associations between psychological outcomes and leaking were assessed with t tests and Pearson correlations. Results Participants (N=28) had been living with fistula for an average of 11years. Baseline psychological distress was high, and decreased significantly at follow-up. Participants who self-reported continued incontinence at follow-up endorsed significantly higher PTSD and depression symptoms than those who reported being cured, and severity of leaking was associated with psychological distress. Conclusions Fistula patients experience improvements in mental health at 3months after discharge, but these improvements are curtailed when women experience residual leaking. Given the rate of stress incontinence following surgery, it is important to prepare fistula patients for the possibility of incomplete cure and help them develop appropriate coping strategies.

Poverty and Inequality across the Nations: How Can Governments be Effective in Coping?

The paper focuses on poverty and income inequality in low income countries with special focus on political economics of poverty and role of fiscal policies in coping those problems. The issue of poverty in low income countries and how different factors are fomenting the problems in those nations are explained. The paper links the relevancy of fiscal policies in combating poverty and income inequality presenting examples of different countries. At some point, the paper explains how multilateral organization assisted fiscal policies are hurting the poverty reduction programs in poor income countries. This paper argues that lower income countries need to focus on increasing tax base, increasing the coverage of formal market for increasing the collection of revenue. For improving the efficacy of government expenditure and to reduce the poverty, the paper suggests to focus on agriculture research and development in low income countries, majority of which are food insecure together with investment on rural electrification and education.

Whose poverty really matters when deciding aid volumes?

This study assesses the relevance of poverty in the determination of aid volumes. In particular, it investigates whether donors' decisions about aid volumes are more reactive to changes in domestic poverty than to those in the poverty of prospective aid recipients. This is particularly relevant at times of economic crisis, which may seriously affect the proportion of donors' budgets that is devoted to foreign assistance. The present study is based on the experience of a sample of members of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECDDAC). It finds that faster and greater changes in the volume of foreign aid occurred in response to changes in poverty in the donor countries rather than in potential recipient countries. Furthermore, donors' attitude towards poverty in low-income countries differs from the one towards poverty in middle-income countries.

Making a Case for a Development-Driven Approach to Law as a Linchpin for the Post-2015 Development Agenda

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are milestones on a long road to global development. They were adopted by consensus in 2000 as a policy framework to guide the global development process, ending poverty as the overarching goal. Time-bound, with quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions, the goals have successfully drawn the attention of the world to the virulence of grinding poverty in low-income countries. However, with the deadline in plain sight it has become clear that many of the quantified targets set out in the Millennium Declaration (MD) in the year 2000 are no longer realistic. Recent reviews of the progress so far in achieving these goals suggest a marked discrepancy in outcomes across the regions. Besides, there are concerns that even if these set goals are met, new challenges have emerged with the potential of reversing whatever progress that has been made under the current development framework. For example, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a region seems to be off-track in meeting these goals. While other regions of the world have made significant progress in achieving many of the goals, there is a widespread shortfall in the achievement of most of the MDGs in SSA countries. It is against this backdrop that there is an on-going process of articulating a new development agenda to consolidate and build on the successes of this current development framework, address new, pressing global concerns, and confront the shortfalls and gaps in the outcomes of the MDG framework. This paper argues that law has an inherent development function and can play a significant role in driving the proposed post-2015 development agenda. The paper therefore seeks to make a case for the adoption of a development-driven approach to law as a linchpin for the post-2015 development agenda.

The New Face of Poverty: How Has the Composition of Poverty in Low Income and Lower Middle‐Income Countries (excluding China) Changed Since the 1990s?

To what extent do education, health and nutrition poverty rates differ by the spatial and social characteristics of households? And how has the composition of education, health and nutrition poverty changed since the 1990s in terms of the spatial and social characteristics of households? This paper provides an analysis of education, health and nutrition poverty in low-income countries (LICs) and lower middle-income countries (LMICs) by geography, education, employment and ethnicity characteristics of the household head based on the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from countries with surveys in both the 1990s and 2000s. It should be noted at the outset that such an aggregated attempt to assess the changing pattern of poverty across low and lower middle-income countries would be best viewed as an indicative ‘sketch’ of changing patterns of poverty. The data suggests that the composition of education, health and nutrition poverty –by the indicators chosen in this paper– has changed somewhat since the 1990s in terms of the spatial and social characteristics of households. This can be presented as a set of five ‘stylised facts’ on poverty as follows: I. More than three-quarters of education, health and nutrition poverty in LICs and LMICs (combined) is to be found in rural areas. However, an increasing proportion of education, health and nutrition poverty is in urban areas. II. Half of the education, health and nutrition poverty in LICs and LMICs (combined) is concentrated in those households where the head has ‘no education’. However, this share has fallen since the 1990s. III. A third of the education, health and nutrition poverty in LICs and LMICs (combined) is focused in the poorest wealth quintile (by DHS Wealth Index). And this share is increasing. IV. A third of the education, health and nutrition poverty in LICs and LMICs (combined) is concentrated among those in households where the head is ‘not in work’ and a further third where the household head is working in agriculture. V. Two-thirds of the education, health and nutrition poverty in LICs and LMICs (combined) is to be found among those households where the head is the member of an ‘ethnic minority group’ (meaning an ethnic group which is not the largest ethnic group). However, this finding should be viewed as tentative due to data constraints. Further, the composition of education, health and nutrition poverty differs between LICs and LMICs quite notably. The poor in LMICs – by the indicators used – are more urban and more educated than in LICs. Indeed, there are indications of marked differences in poverty profiles.

Vaccines for the twenty-first century society

Vaccines have been one of the major revolutions in the history of mankind and, during the twentieth century, they eliminated most of the childhood diseases that used to cause millions of deaths. In the twenty-first century, vaccines will also play a major part in safeguarding people's health. Supported by the innovations derived from new technologies, vaccines will address the new needs of a twenty-first century society characterized by increased life expectancy, emerging infections and poverty in low-income countries.

How the World Survived the Population Bomb: Lessons From 50 Years of Extraordinary Demographic History

The world population will reach 7 billion in late 2011, a demographic milestone that is causing renewed attention to the challenges caused by population growth. This article looks at the last 50 years of demographic change, one of the most extraordinary periods in demographic history. During this period, world population grew at rates that have never been seen before and will almost surely never be seen again. There were many concerns about the potential impact of rapid population growth in the 1960s, including mass starvation in countries such as India, depletion of nonrenewable resources, and increased poverty in low-income countries. The actual experience was very different. World food production increased faster than world population in every decade since the 1960s, resource prices fell during most of the period, and poverty declined significantly in much of the developing world. The article considers the economic and demographic explanations for the surprising successes of this important period in demographic history. It also looks at regions that have been less successful, especially Africa, and at the lessons for dealing with the important challenges that still remain.

Globalization, socio-institutional factors and North–South knowledge diffusion: Role of India and China as Southern growth progenitors

Nexus between income inequality and technology capture is explored in a global CGE model to explore the ricochet effect of technology transmission and its capture. In particular, the model shows that exogenous technology shock from developed North, vehicled via trade, transmits to developing Souths and induces productivity growth. This spillover capture, aided by human capital based adoptive capability, better governance and institution, causes increase in income and welfare and subsequently, leads to decline in income inequality. Dynamism of Southern Engines of Growth – India and China – caused them to emerge as ‘core’ South. Thus, triangular innovation diffusion between dynamic and peripheral South is also simulated to show how the backward or peripheral South could catch up via South–South Cooperation in a declining North–South trends in trade. This accrual of benefits could lead to sustained productivity growth and consequential relief of incidence of poverty in low-income countries.

Sub-National Disparities and Inter-Temporal Evolution of Multidimensional Poverty Across Developing Countries

In 2010, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in collaboration with the United National Development Programme (UNDP) introduced a new multidimensional measure of acute poverty for developing countries, referred to as the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) (Alkire and Santos, 2010). A number of updates and innovative analyses have been introduced in 2011 as explained in Alkire et al. (2011). This paper focuses on the new analyses of sub-national decompositions and changes over time. It analyses the incidence, intensity and composition of multidimensional poverty at sub-national levels for 66 developing countries, and presents poverty estimates for 683 sub-national regions which cover 1.4 billion of the 1.65 billion MPI poor people identified by the MPI in 2011. The results show wide within-country disparities in poverty levels across geographical regions and across low-income and lower-middle-income countries. It confirms previous research which shows that even though the incidence of poverty in low-income countries is much higher, a larger number of poor people live in middle-income countries. In addition, it shows that the poorest sub-national regions of middle-income countries are no less poor than the low-income countries as a whole. In fact, there are also a larger number of severely poor people in middle-income countries than in low-income countries. The paper then further investigates the composition of poverty by analysing which indicators are major contributors to the MPI in each sub-national region. It identifies eleven “poverty profiles” across regions and finds striking examples of regions that have similar compositions but different MPI levels as well as regions with different compositions and similar MPI levels. Finally, the paper analyses changes over time for ten countries and their 158 sub-national regions for which we have comparable data across two different periods of time, providing information regarding the reduction of each indicator within each region. While poverty went down in all countries, the ten countries differ in terms of the rate, spatial patterns, relative reduction of incidence or intensity, and the indicators in which poverty was reduced.

Mapping natural resource-based poverty, with an application to rural Syria

This study presents advances in resource-based poverty mapping. It illustrates how agricultural income distribution maps can be generated at small pixel-level, providing an application of the approach in rural Syria. Census data on agriculture and population are disaggregated based on pixel-level agricultural productivity coefficients derived in a GIS environment. The approach, triangulated with survey results and compared with sub-national poverty maps, shows that the better-income areas of Syria are located in the irrigated and higher-rainfall areas, though lower-income pockets exist due to the presence of ecological and topographic factors or due to high population density. The method can be used for developing high-resolution, low cost maps for rapid detection of resource-driven poverty in low income countries where agriculture is a major source of rural income, and where poverty mapping is rarely undertaken due to the high costs involved.

Building and supporting prsps in africa: what has worked well so far? what needs changing?

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (prsp) initiative came out of the 1999 Cologne annual meeting of the G-7 governments, when the leaders of the industrialised countries announced the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (hipc II).1 The joint Boards of the imf and the World Bank officially approved the prsp in December 1999 as a new approach to the challenge of reducing poverty in low-income countries and as a framework for development assistance. The prsp approach is supposed to represent a major departure from previous development strategies whereby the World Bank and the imf dictated the directions of economic policies in poor countries. Implementation of the prsp approach is now in its sixth year and the purpose of this article is to critically examine the challenges that African governments are confronted with in preparing and implementing credible, nationally owned poverty reduction strategy plans. The article further examines the degree to which the prsp approach has transformed donor–recipient country relations, thus allowing African governments the policy space to develop home-grown policies.

The Impact of Globalization on the Poor

A raging issue of academic and public debate, one that has spilled over into the streets in noisy demonstrations in recent years, concerns the impact of globalization on the well-being of the world's poor. Of course, as is common in most contentious public debates, different people mean different things by globalization: some interpret it to mean the global reach of new technology and capital movements, some refer to outsourcing by domestic companies in rich countries, and others protest against the tentacles of corporate capitalism or U.S. hegemony (economic, military, or cultural). In this paper, globalization is interpreted simply as openness to foreign trade and long-term capital flows. I shall ignore here the important issues arising from the devastation caused to fragile economies by billions of dollars of volatile short-term capital stampeding around the globe in herdlike movements, or the substantial poverty-reducing potential of international (unskilled) labor flows from poor to rich countries (even in temporary and regulated doses). In this paper, I mainly provide a brief analytical account of the various processes through which globalization, as defined above, affects the lives of the poor. (Poverty here primarily refers to absolute poverty in low-income countries.) In general, globalization can cause many hardships for the poor in these countries, but it also opens up opportunities that some countries utilize and others do not, largely depending on their domestic political and economic institutions. Thus the net outcome is often quite complex and almost always context dependent, belying the glib pronouncements for or against globalization made in the opposing camps. There have been attempts to positively relate trade liberalization with economic growth and relate growth with poverty reduction on the basis of cross country regressions. The former relation has been found controversial whereas

Assessing the Extent and Nature of Chronic Poverty in Low Income Countries: Issues and Evidence

Discussions of chronic poverty have mostly considered its monetary dimensions, with current evidence suggesting that such poverty is much more transient than chronic. But chronic poverty is a real and important phenomenon, potentially more important quantitatively than it first appears once account is taken of different methodological approaches and inevitable measurement difficulties. The chronic poor have distinctive characteristics, such as lack of assets or high dependency rates, which may account for their persistent poverty. The paper argues that it is also necessary to develop concepts of chronic poverty further, covering relevant nonmonetary dimensions and not just relying on panel data.

The Impact of External Indebtedness on Poverty in Low-Income Countries

This paper explores the relationship between external debt and poverty. A number of observers have argued that high external indebtedness is a major cause of poverty, Using the first-differenced general method of moments (GMM) estimator, the paper models the impact of external debt on poverty, measured by life expectancy, infant mortality, and gross primary enrollment rates, while duly taking into account the impact of external debt on income. The paper thus endeavors to bring together the literature that links external debt with income growth and poverty. The main conclusion is that once the effect of income on poverty has been taken into account, external indebtedness indicators have a limited but important impact on poverty.