Poverty Reduction Project Research Articles

Hidden Impact? Ex-Post Evaluation of an Anti-Poverty Program

By the widely used difference-in-difference method, the Southwest China Poverty Reduction Project had little impact on the proportion of people in beneficiary villages consuming less than $1 a day-despite a public outlay of $400 million. Is that right, or is the true impact being hidden somehow? The authors find that impact estimates are quite sensitive to the choice of outcome indicator, the poverty line, and the matching method. There are larger poverty impacts at lower poverty lines. And there are much larger impacts on incomes than consumptions. Uncertainty about the impact probably made it hard for participants to infer the gain in permanent income, so they saved ahigh proportion of the short-term gain.

The road to nowhere?

Anthropological understandings of development have often discussed development projects in terms of an extension of the state. Using the example of a participatory poverty reduction project in Laos, this article outlines how development schemes also have the potential to define areas of exception from state services. This project was understood by project officers as an example of a successful “participatory” project. Lao recipients, however, interpreted it in terms of the non-provision of state services, and thus as further evidence of governmental corruption and deceit. These residents—far from resisting the notion of development, or the extension of the state—emphasized largesse and provisioning as the hallmarks of a successful project and a legitimate state. Their forms of “everyday resistance” to the project focused on narratives demanding more incorporation with the state.

Skills development for poverty reduction (SDPR): The case of Tajikistan

Vocational education and training (VET) can contribute to the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. A key to economic and social progress is the training of better-qualified individuals and skilled enterprise staff who will be more productive, improving goods, increasing incomes and adapting to changing markets. Experts from international cooperation agencies see VET projects as suitable instruments for poverty alleviation in target groups working in the informal sector and rural economy. The recent shortages and high prices of rural products in many developing countries support this position. For the past two years a skills development for poverty reduction (SDPR) project has been running in rural areas of Central Asia to address rural poverty. The approach and findings of the project are discussed against the background of the international debate on VET in the context of poverty alleviation. It is hoped that the conclusions will contribute to optimising the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of similar VET projects.

African Economies: The Tensions Between Hope and Inertia

Jeffrey D. Sachs. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York: Penguin Books, 2005. xvi + 398 pp. Bibliography. Index. $16.00. Paper. Joseph E. Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton. Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ix + 315 pp. Bibliography. Index. $30.00. Cloth. Stephen Lewis. Race against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2006. xvi+ 214 pp. 2nd edition. $15.95. Paper. In a famous 1984 essay in the American Economic Review, the Nobel laureate Sir Arthur Lewis decried the dearth of new ideas in development. He attributed this phenomenon to the long gestation period that often ensues following a major scientific breakthrough or an earth-shattering event such as the Great Depression, and lamented the fact that economic thinking since the 1960s lacked the analytical punch and purpose previously associated with postwar development ideas, particularly Keynesianism. Lewis's indictment still rings true today despite the proliferation of books on poverty alleviation, trade liberalization, and the consequences of new diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, for economic development. My reading of these three books proceeds from similar analytic skepticism. All are written by famous development thinkers and practitioners-Sachs, development economics' equivalent of a rabble-rouser in the cause of poverty alleviation and the plight of the poor in Africa; Stiglitz, a World Bank insider-turned-outsider, who embarrasses his colleagues through a stinging critique of the Washington Consensus; and Lewis, the U.N. Secretary General's Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS and longtime crusader for a rational HIV/AIDS policy in Africa. Classical debates on development-over the enhancement of economic growth, or the promotion of equity, or the expansion of political participation-seek to capture the broad array of institutions that facilitate or impede these processes. These three books make a solid contribution to contemporary understanding of development impediments without pretending to make any dramatic breakthroughs. Although they seek answers to the broader dilemma about obstacles to development, their major contribution is to deepen debates on the recurring development challenges: trade, poverty, and disease. The three challenges have their opposites: prosperity, health, and security-issues that most of Africa continually yearns to solve. Sachs picks on a narrow question that is yet salient: Why, in the context of scientific discoveries and technological change, do some countries remain perpetually poor? I salute Sachs for reminding us that the greatest English miracle, the Industrial Revolution, is barely three hundred years old, a very short period in developmental terms. The significance of this revelation is that if modernity itself is new, we cannot afford to give up on the possibility of poverty reduction projects that now form part of the larger development enterprise. It is a tribute to Sachs's sharp policy angle that he insists that there are too many islands of success that need to be nurtured out there-in villages in Africa, urban centers in India, and the barrios of Latin America. The key developmental challenge (which Arthur Lewis would note is not news) is the political context in which economic incentives are mobilized. As the theorists lumped under the rubric of new institutionalism contend, institutions enable and disable rules for economic development, reduce uncertainties, and foster the development of markets. The question for Sachs is why, if this is true, Africa remains mired in poverty. Sachs proposes radical prescriptions that embarrass academics and policymakers who contend that the obstacles to reducing poverty are more cultural than structural. His suggestion of a Marshall Plan to jump-start African economies is treated with skepticism in the champagne-filled rooms of the Davos annual conclave and G-8 meetings. …

A systematic integrated approach for crafting poverty reduction and sustainable development projects

Abstract Poverty reduction and sustainable development programmes lack a systematic, integrated approach that serves to frame issues, simplify complexity and guide action. Responding to five common challenges yields such an approach: 1) How diverse groups can work together effectively, mitigating power inequities and corruption; 2) How to prioritize problems more objectively; 3) How to build sufficient contextual understanding of problems; 4) How to compare alternative solutions for relative sustainability; and 5) How to build sufficient societal capacity to sustain solutions. The approach weaves together five strands: Social learning theory and participatory methods to build collaboration; Vulnerability theory to prioritize problems; Systems thinking to understand context; Sustainability assessment to compare alternative solutions; and integrated capacity building to sustain the preferred solution: SVSSC for short. Existing projects often fail to recognize several of these strands and synergy is not exploited, undermining progress. Globally, the approach seeks to strengthen Agenda 21 and Millennium Project plans that are prescriptive. The literature foundation is complemented by case study applications: urban industrial poverty and health risks in Massachusetts, USA (design and implementation using SVSSC); malaria in the Lake Victoria Region, East Africa (framing and design); and watershed stress in Central Mexico (framing and design). The SVSSC model can strengthen governance, can be scaled up or down, applied across different sectors, tailored to existing contexts yet remain adaptive to change.

Hidden impact? Household saving in response to a poor-area development project

The possibility that poor households may prefer to save the income gains from a development project raises concerns about how well standard evaluation methods–using data collected over relatively short periods–can capture the true welfare impacts. By the widely used difference-in-difference method, the Southwest China Poverty Reduction Project had little current impact on the proportion of people in beneficiary villages consuming less than US$1/day—despite a public outlay of US$400 million. However, the program had much larger impacts on incomes than consumptions. Uncertainty about the project's future impact probably made it hard for participants to infer the gain in permanent income, so they saved a high proportion of the current income gains.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of Development Projects: Issues Facing Nepal

M&E are, perhaps the least emphasized areas in development programs/projects implementation of Nepal, as reflected in the continuous low performance of the periodic plans themselves. This paper attempts to present an analysis of the methodologies used in whatever scanty exercise done in the area in the recent past and highlights their limitations due to the differences in the techniques of surveys and studies. Following this, an effort is made by the author to develop a comprehensive framework for an effective M&E of development projects. Particular emphasis is placed on the M&E of poverty reduction projects as the basic goals of the Tenth Plan as well as development of a methodology for the active role of local government in the process. Basic issues such as income measurement and other indicators to development are discussed along with highlights on the specific desirable characteristics and the robustness of the indicators. A proposed M&E arrangement for poverty reduction is presented from the central to the grassroots level. Relevant critical issues in data generation and use in M&E are discussed with specific emphasis on poverty reduction focused development projects including pro-poor strategies. An analytical framework is also presented on critical development performance issues, in general and for the meaningful public participation in M&E. Economic Journal of Nepal Vol.28(3) 2005 pp.127-148

Monitoring Toward the Achievement of Project Goals – The Practical Experience of the Southwestern Poverty Reduction Project in China

The Southwestern Poverty Reduction Project is widely recognized as a successful project in achieving its goals in China. Its monitoring system played a very important role in project management. To ensure project impact, the system employed both traditional and innovative methods in monitoring. However, this donor-oriented monitoring system also caused delay and distortion during information flow to a certain degree.

Book Reviews

Auty, R.M. and Toye, J. (eds) Challenging the OrthodoxiesBamberger, Michael, Yahie, Abdullahi M. and Matovu, George (eds) The Design and Management of Poverty Reduction Programs and Projects in Anglophone AfricaCulpeper, Roy Titans or Behemoths?Edwards, Michael and Hulme, David (eds) Beyond the Magic Bullet: NGO Performance and Accountability in the Post‐Cold War WorldEnglish, E. Philip and Mule, Harris M. The African Development BankFry, Maxwell, J., Goodhart, Charles, A. E. and Almeida, Alvaro Central Banking in Developing CountriesGilpin, Alan Dictionary of Environment and Sustainable DevelopmentHadjimichael, Michael T., Nowak, Michael, Sharer, Robert, Tahari, Amor and a Staff Team from the IMF African Department Adjustment for Growth: the African ExperienceHardy, Chandra The Caribbean Development BankHilling, David Transport and Developing CountriesKappagoda, Nihal, The Asian Development BankKing, Kenneth, Jua Kali Kenya: Change and Development in an Informal Economy 1970–95Lal, Deepak and Myint, H. The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity and GrowthMishra, Pramod K. Agricultural Risk, Insurance and Income: A Study of the Impact and Design of India’s Comprehensive Crop Insurance SchemeNdulu, Benno and van de Walle, Nicholas (eds) Agenda for Africa’s Economic RenewalRaffer, Kunibert and Singer, H.W. The Foreign Aid Business: Economic Assistance and Development Co‐operationRoeleveld, A.C.W. and van den Brook, A. (eds) Focusing Livestock Systems ResearchSimon, David Transport and Development in the Third WorldTussie, Diana The Inter‐American Development Bank