Poverty Reduction Strategy Research Articles

Determinants of institutional maternity services utilization in Myanmar.

Maternal mortality is a persistent public health problem worldwide. The maternal mortality ratio of Myanmar was 250 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2017 which was the second-highest among ASEAN member countries in that year. Myanmar's infant mortality rate was twice the average of ASEAN member countries in 2020. This study examined factors influencing institutional maternity service utilization and identified the need for improved maternal health outcomes. A cross-sectional study design was used to examine the experience of 3,642 women from the 2015-16 Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey by adapting Andersen's Behavioral Model. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence interval were reported in the logistic regression results. The findings illustrate that the proportion of women who delivered their last child in a health/clinical care facility was 39.7%. Women live in rural areas, states/regions with a high levels of poverty, poor households, experience with financial burden and the husband's occupation in agriculture or unskilled labor were negatively associated with institutional delivery. While a greater number of ANC visits and level of the couple's education had a positive association with institutional delivery. The determinants of institutional delivery utilization in this study related to the institutional facilities environment imply an improvement of the institutional availability and accessibility in rural areas, and different states/regions, particularly Chin, Kayah and Kachin States- the poorest states in Myanmar. The poverty reduction strategies are urgently implemented because problems on health care costs and household economic status played important roles in institutional delivery utilization. The ANC visits indicated a significant increase in institutional delivery. The government needs to motivate vulnerable population groups to seek ANC and institutional delivery. Moreover, education is crucial in increasing health knowledge, skills, and capabilities. Thus, improving access to quality, formal, and informal education is necessary.

Village Development Initiative as an Alternative Strategy of Rural Poverty Reduction: An Evaluation of Village Fund Program in Indonesia

Law Number 6 of 2014 on villages has been ratified due to the persistent poverty suffered by the village community. Through financial decentralization (Village Fund Program) as regulated in the law, poverty reduction policies are expected to be applied by the lowest level of government. This study aims to evaluate the contribution of the Village Law to reducing poverty. Therefore, this study is important not only to assess how deepening process of decentralization works but also evaluate its impact to reduce rural poverty in Indonesia. The study was conducted in three regions in Indonesia, namely West Sumatra, East Java, and North Maluku Provinces represents the western, central, and eastern regions of Indonesia respectively. The findings indicate that although the studied village governments did not specifically design a development program for poverty reduction in their budget, access to basic needs and public facilities improved and rural unemployment reduced significantly.

Analysis of Poverty and Unemployment Reduction Strategies in the Highlands of North Sumatra by the North Sumatra Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappedasu)

This study aims to determine the Strategy for Reducing Poverty and Unemployment in the Highlands of North Sumatra by the Regional Development Planning Agency of North Sumatra (Bappedasu) and to find out what factors hinder the performance of the Regional Development Planning Agency of North Sumatra in Reducing Poverty and Unemployment in the Plains Region. North Sumatra High. The North Sumatra Regional Development Planning Agency is an agency or government agency that aims to coordinate development in the North Sumatra area. This research was conducted at the North Sumatra Regional and Development Planning Agency (BAPPEDASU). This study uses qualitative research methods with the type of exploratory research with data collection techniques through observation, interviews, and documentation. In this study, a purposive sample strategy was utilized to recruit informants. With the results of the research that the Regional Development Planning Board of North Sumatra is still not as expected or has not carried out its overall task. This can be seen from the fact that the development target of North Sumatra Province in 2021 has not been achieved, especially in the highlands. And the factors that hinder the North Sumatra Regional Development Planning Agency are the rupiah exchange rate which shows an increase, the lack of job training centers, low public trust, the low rate of continuing schooling from high school / vocational school to university due to poor family conditions, and the spread of Covid19.

Linking Budget and Policies: The Case of Ivory Coast

In the case of Ivory Coast, some budgetary reforms have been implemented since 1999 in order to improve the budget allocation and ensure a better translation of development strategies into budget. Unfortunately, taking into account national strategies and policies have not always been the main preoccupation during budgeting. However, the requirements of managing for results bring the fiscal authorities to pay particular attention to the establishment of the link between policies and budgets. Moreover, establishing this link between policies and budget is becoming a major issue since the West African Economic Monetary Union (WAEMU) adopted in 2009 new budgetary reforms to promote performance budgeting. So, this study addresses the issue of linking policies and budgets in the specific case of Ivory Coast. To that end, it focuses on the existing gaps between the budgeting process and policies through the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) or simply the National Development Plans (NDPs). The analysis of the current budgeting process shows that the budgeting is not based on the PRSPs and sectoral plans; the integration between planning and budgeting is low, the budgeting is done through a resource-based approach and the medium and long-term budgeting is not established. Moreover, the Parliament has not been involved in the budget process and PRSP elaboration especially in the last years. Only the civil society has been involved in the PRSP elaboration but they are not consulted during the budget process. Therefore, attention should be given to the challenges related to strategic planning, management style and actors to be involved. This must be done through (i) the drafting of sectoral plans based on the NDPs/PRSPs; (ii) the integration between planning and budgeting; (iii) the introduction of a strategic phase and a medium-term perspective to the budget process; (iv) the shifting from a resource-based to a results-based approach; (v) the increase of the involvement of parliament and civil society in the budget process. Further, the MTEF process that started in 2010 should be reinforced through the completion of a Macro-economic framework and a Medium Term Budgetary Framework, a national MTEF to give the ceilings on expenditure to line ministries for a medium and long-term view in order to establish their sectoral MTEFs. Moreover, the public financial management reforms should continue in order to reinforce the budget credibility which is essential in the establishment of good and reliable MTEFs.

Village Development Initiative as an Alternative Strategy of Rural Poverty Reduction: An Evaluation of Village Fund Program in Indonesia

Village Development Initiative as an Alternative Strategy of Rural Poverty Reduction: An Evaluation of Village Fund Program in Indonesia

Towards A Virtuous Spiral Between Poverty Reduction And Growth: Comparing Sub Saharan Africa With The Developing World

• We investigate the link from poverty to growth using data from 129 developing countries, including 44 in Sub Saharan Africa, during 1981–2018. • Faster poverty reduction leads to faster growth in the developing world as a whole (LDCs); but especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). • Initial poverty has no direct impact on growth in both regions. But it weakens the effectiveness of growth in reducing poverty; more in LDCs than in SSA. • Faster growth brings about faster poverty reduction in the developing world as a whole; but not so much within SSA. • For faster poverty reduction, LDCs especially SSA need pro-growth reduction strategies besides the conventional pro-poor growth strategies. The positive impact of growth on poverty reduction has been well documented and confirmed. In contrast, the impact of poverty reduction on subsequent growth has not been systematically investigated. The main objective of this paper is to explore empirically the reverse causality between poverty and growth. Using data from 129 developing countries (44 in SSA) during 1981–2018, this study finds that faster poverty reduction is linked to faster growth in the developing world and especially the SSA region; while faster growth contributes to faster poverty reduction more in the developing world outside of SSA than within SSA. These findings suggest that for faster poverty reduction in the entire developing world but especially in SSA, we need a pro-growth poverty reduction strategy, where interventions directly target poverty reduction, and through that also contribute to faster growth; as a complement to the more conventional pro-poor growth strategy, where interventions directly target growth and only reduce poverty through growth. The main conclusion is that the combined effects of growth on poverty and of the latter on subsequent growth can lead to a virtuous spiral.

A Strategy Design Analysis of the Toronto Poverty Reduction Strategy

Poverty reduction strategies have become a popular policy instrument for addressing poverty across various levels of government. In 2015, the City of Toronto launched phase one of its own municipal poverty reduction strategy, which ran from 2015 to 2018. The following commentary uses strategy design principles to examine the strengths and weaknesses of phase one of the Toronto Poverty Reduction Strategy (TPRS) based on interviews conducted with four key stakeholders involved in the strategy’s design and implementation. Joined-up governance and public participation were both identified as design strengths of the TPRS, while a lack of prioritization and funding were identified as challenges to effective implementation. As governments across Canada and the world search for feasible, acceptable, and effective ways to reduce and alleviate poverty and other health-related issues. strategy design principles provide a valuable framework for analyzing the complex processes which contribute to a strategy’s success or failure.

Does the synergy among agriculture, industry, and the service industry alleviate rural poverty? Evidence from China

ABSTRACT This paper provides empirical evidence that strengthening the synergy among agriculture, industry, and the service industry is an effective rural poverty reduction strategy. Using China’s provincial panel data from 2010 to 2019, we employ a coupling model to measure this synergy and to apply an empirical analysis methodology to examine its impact on rural poverty. The results indicate that the synergy among agriculture, industry, and the service industry results in a significant decrease in rural poverty. The poverty reduction effect is greatest in western China. The growth of the rural economy and the increase in rural households’ business income are the main channels by which synergy plays its role in reducing poverty.

La place des jeunes africains sur les périmètres irrigués dans un contexte de libéralisation et de partenariat public privé : le cas des jeunes agriculteurs du delta du fleuve Sénégal

This article analyzes different approaches to establishing rural youth in irrigation areas in the Senegal
 River delta in the context of new hydro-agricultural developments and massive land acquisitions by agrobusiness.
 Government-led irrigation projects introduced in the 1960s distributed free 0.2-hectare plots of
 land to young workers from the surrounding region. However, in the 1980s, Senegal took a liberal turn
 that led to a shift from public-sector to private-sector initiatives. As a result, young workers, who often
 lack the means necessary to acquire land, have found it much more challenging to pursue farming in
 irrigation areas. Since 2006, few young farmers have acquired any of the 5,000 hectares of new irrigated
 farmland developed through programs based on the public-private partnership model. At the same time,
 agro-industry growth has provided young people with many temporary and precarious employment
 opportunities.
 
 Based on surveys of farmers and agricultural workers in the Senegal River delta, we show how young
 people find it increasingly difficult to acquire land or secure adequate employment in the agricultural
 sector. In addition, we demonstrate that access to irrigated land, as opposed to salaried agricultural work,
 represents the most effective strategy for poverty reduction.

The poverty evolution of typical countries along the Belt and Road and implications from China’s poverty reduction experiences

The world is facing a poverty crisis. Despite the great achievements that have been made in poverty alleviation over the past two decades, the extent of poverty in countries along the Belt and Road is still high. Successful poverty reduction in these countries is crucial to meeting the 2030 SDGs. Improving governance to eradicate poverty is a shortcoming that needs to be addressed urgently in poverty reduction pathways along the Belt and Road. In this study, the Standard Deviational Ellipse method was used to study the spatial trajectory of the poverty gravity center. Results showed that the poverty gravity center moved from east to west by 87.60 km annually, while the poverty population decreased by 1211.14 million along the Belt and Road from 2000 to 2020. In addition, the trajectory of the center has shifted due to the different effects of poverty reduction. Among the countries situated along the Belt and Road, China is the most significant contributor to poverty reduction. Accordingly, this study examined the implications of China’s successful poverty reduction strategies in order to understand how other countries can effectively respond to poverty. Ultimately, we propose that sustainable poverty alleviation development strategies should be established with the objectives of promoting social equity and improving the wellbeing of all people.

Life stabilization and resiliency for disabled people? A critical discourse analysis of the Ontario poverty reduction strategy

In 2020, the government of Ontario, Canada, introduced Building a Strong Foundation for Success: Reducing Poverty in Ontario ( 2020 -2025), the province’s third poverty reduction strategy. This study employs Critical Discourse Analysis to explore the discourses that emerge in this strategy and examine instances of intertextuality between it and previous strategy iterations. Several discourses (re)emerge suggesting that people living in poverty, and disabled people specifically, must ‘realize their potential’ by becoming more ‘resilient’ and work towards ‘life stabilization’. The ‘self-sufficiency’ discourse in prior poverty reduction strategies, recast as ‘independence’ in this newest rendition, anchors the strategy to problematic understandings of ‘dependency’. The systemic causes of poverty are negated, as is a rights-based framework for poverty alleviation. The Ontario government does not define the poverty reduction strategy’s success in terms of poverty reduction, but as mere social assistance caseload reductions, and as such, has built ‘a strong foundation for its lackluster success’. Points of Interest In 2020, the government of Ontario, Canada released its third poverty strategy, entitled Building a Strong Foundation for Success: Reducing Poverty in Ontario ( 2020 -2025). A way of doing research called Critical Discourse Analysis was adopted by the authors to explore how language was used in the poverty strategy to identify how people living in poverty, and disabled people specifically, should behave in order for them to be considered successful. We discuss several discourses (themes in the language of the poverty strategy) in our analysis related to the need for people on social assistance, including disabled people, to ‘realize their potential’ by becoming more ‘resilient’, ‘independent’, and work towards ‘life stabilization’ Recent actions by the government to outsource its employment supports to private companies, and the hiring of fraud investigators to question the authenticity of people’s claims to disability income supports, are worrying trends.

Cash Benefits of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4ps) in Surigao Del Norte, Philippines

4Ps is a poverty reduction strategy that provides grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14. This program is a lead-project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in support of Department of Education (DepEd), and Department of Health (DOH).This study aimed to determine the sufficiency of the actual cash allocation received by the beneficiaries as to health, nutrition and education and problems they encountered with regards to the implementation of the program. Descriptive design using Survey Technique was utilized in this study, wherein the 854P’s beneficiaries of San Francisco, Surigao del Norte were participants of the study. Based on the findings of the study, the cash grant for health and nutrition, and education were insufficient to cover the actual expenses on health and educational needs of the beneficiaries’ children. Moreover, delayed cash releases and strict rules and regulations were the major problems pointed out by the beneficiaries. It is recommended that DSWD in support with other lead agencies must come up with entrepreneurial/livelihood training and workshops for beneficiaries to augment the income and sustain their daily needs.

English

The northern part of Ghana is bedeviled with high incidence of poverty with threatening food insecurity. Agriculture is the main stay of the people in northern Ghana. In spite of the introduction of variety of poverty reduction strategies, the region remains the hardest hit in terms of the numbers of poor people. This study sought to evaluate the constraints to poverty reduction among farmers in the northern region. The study made use of data from a survey of 420 farmers from five randomly selected districts in the region. Multi-stage sampling process was employed. In-depth interviews were used on the key informants. Descriptive statistics and Kendal’s coefficient of concordance were employed to analyse the data. The study reveals that poverty reduction in the northern part of the country is plagued with several constraints. Prominent of these constraints include erratic climatic conditions, inadequate financial credit, poor road network, market volatility of agricultural produce, bush fires, pest and disease outbreak, poor economic opportunities, violent conflicts, corruption and mismanagement of poverty reduction packages. It is recommended that central government, decentralized agencies and poverty alleviation oriented NGOs give priority attention to agriculture in the region. Key words: Smallholder farmer, poverty reduction, constraints, Kendall’s coefficient.&nbsp

Poverty Reduction and Economic Development in Nigeria

Extant literature shows that the incidence of poverty is one of the biggest threats to human development, however, not many studies have acknowledged the important role of financial development and access to internet services in reducing the incidence of poverty to enhance economic development. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between poverty reduction and economic development in Nigeria using data for the period of 2003Q1 to 2019Q4. The data for this study is collected from the United Nations Human Development Reports and the World Bank’s World Development Indicators Database. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model-Error Correction Modelling (ARDL-ECM) estimator, the results of the ARDL long-run estimates showed that poverty reduction, financial development, economic growth, trade openness, and the internet had positive and significant effects on human development. Furthermore, urbanisation had a negative but non-significant effect on human development, indicating a negative coefficient and exact p-value of 0.064735 and 0.8221. Meanwhile, the results of the ARDL short-run estimates except for urbanisation are consistent with the long-run results. Besides, the Error Correction Model (ECM), which indicates the speed of adjustment back to long-run equilibrium level after a short-run disturbance, showed a coefficient which is negative (-0.145327) and significant at 1% level of significance, implying that about 15% of any disequilibrium in the short-run is adjusted back to the long-run equilibrium in each quarter. Based on the long-run estimates, the study concludes that poverty reduction is important for economic development in Nigeria. It is, therefore, recommended that the poverty reduction strategies of the Nigerian government should not be pursued in isolation but rather in connection with access to financial and internet services, among other things.

Impact of productive safety net program on food security of beneficiary households in western Ethiopia: A matching estimator approach.

From various Ethiopian government food security strategies, the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) is one of the strategies to improve households' consumption. As a result, the government needs to know the outcome of the program intervention for further decisions in similar poverty reduction strategies. This study examined the impact of Productive Safety Net Program intervention on food security of rural households in rural western Ethiopia. A cross-sectional survey data were gathered from a total of randomly selected 188 beneficiary and non-beneficiary sample households. Key informants interviews and focus group discussions were employed to triangulate household survey results. A Chi-square test was employed to compare the households' food security status. The propensity score matching method was used to evaluate the impact of a Productive safety net on beneficiary households' food security status. In this study, the Productive Safety net program has significantly increased households' calorie intake. The beneficiaries' households were more food secure than non-beneficiary households by 68% and54% respectively. The mean energy available for the beneficiary and non-beneficiary households is 2488.500 and 2153.394 kcal, respectively. Estimates of the average treatment effect of the treated indicated that a Productive safety net program can impact households food security by 2519.29348 kilocalories, higher in the kernel matching method. This is an encouraging indicator for Programme implementers and funding agents. Therefore, channeling further efforts on this indicator is important for a more pronounced impact of the Programme. Given a certain level of variations of different program impact studies, this study recommends further research with greater scope and at different locations on the impact of PSNP and related Food Security Programs on households' food security status.

Assessing the Impact of Microfinance and Small Loans Scheme (Masloc) as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in the Sunyani Municipality

The study assesses the effects of MASLOC as poverty reduction strategy in the Sunyani Municipality. A case study design was adopted with a descriptive survey as the main study design and approach. Structured questionnaire was employed as the main data collection instruments to collect primary data from 112 MASLOC beneficiaries in the Sunyani Municipality of the Bono East Region. Both purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the sample size. The study outcome shows that the level of poverty among beneficiaries before becoming MASLOC beneficiaries in the Sunyani Municipality was high and could hardly afford basic needs of life. However, after experiencing MASLOC, their status improve and could afford basic needs such as medical bills, school fees and other educational needs and even start and expand businesses and improve product and customer services. Again, the study discovered challenges to the MASLOC beneficiaries: high interest rate on loans, lack of collateral security to secure loans, stringent credit conditions, administrative costs associated with processing loans, biasness of MASLOC staff, among others. Finally, significant positive effects on improving the living standards of beneficiaries were concluded. The study recommended management of MASLOC to collaboratively work with the National Commission for Civic Education and other media organizations to develop and implement an advocacy and sensitization programme. Also, a good system that makes it very easy and fair for poor people to access credit from the scheme should be created. The Government of Ghana (GoG) should implement policies that make it favourable for poor people to access credit facilities from MASLOC and other Financial Institutions that grant credit to poor people. Keywords: Microfinance , Small Loans Scheme, Poverty, Poverty Reduction, Small Business DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-2-04 Publication date: January 31 st 2022

A critical appraisal of the World Bank's structural adjustment programs and poverty reduction strategy papers in Africa

The official aims of the World Bank development programs - SAPs and PRSPs - in Africa and other developing countries are to promote local productivities, advance economic choices, improve living standards, maximise economic competencies, reduce government expenditures, and realise economic development. Based on these promising development policies, many African countries adopted those programs in the early 1980s as a panacea to their worst political and economic problems. Accordingly, this study critically examines the effectiveness of the World Bank's development programs - SAPs and PRSPs - in contemporary Africa. Moreover, the study rationally appraises the multi-dimensional consequences of SAPs and PRSPs in Africa. To this end, the study finds that these programs of the World Bank have brought massive socio-political and economic crises to contemporary Africa. Hence, rethinking the World Bank's development programs should be the prior duty of African states to escape from the existing chaos in almost every sector.

A critical appraisal of the World Bank's structural adjustment programs and poverty reduction strategy papers in Africa

A critical appraisal of the World Bank's structural adjustment programs and poverty reduction strategy papers in Africa

Investigating the Impact of Huanglongbing in Citrus in Southern Lao PDR

Citrus has been promoted in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) as a poverty reduction strategy for at least two decades. However, citrus trees have been in widespread decline for no less than ten years. Since 2010, the authors have observed symptoms on citrus trees consistent with the bacterial disease huanglongbing (HLB). These symptoms included asymmetric leaf mottle, small lopsided fruit, poor fruit production and tree decline. The authors then initiated a long-term study on the occurrence of HLB in southern Lao PDR. Samples of leaf mid-ribs were collected from citrus trees in orchards, nurseries, and backyards across four provinces: Champasak, Sekong, Salavan, and Savannakhet. The presence of ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’, the putative causal agent of the Asiatic form of HLB, was confirmed in 59 of 109 samples collected in all four provinces. The Asian citrus psyllid, the vector of ‘Ca. L. asiaticus’, was also observed on citrus trees and tested positive for the pathogen. The implications of these findings for citrus production in Lao PDR are discussed. 

Status of Rural Household Poverty in West Hararge Zone: In Case of Some Selected Woredas, Oromia, Ethiopia

This study was conducted in a rural area of West Hararghe zone to evaluate the status of household rural poverty. To undertake this study, both primary and secondary data were used. The data was collected from 375 sample households for the study purpose. In doing so, the maximum likelihood estimation method of the logit model was applied to estimate the logit regression model. The study used consumption expenditure as an indicator of welfare in general and the cost of basic needs approach in particular to classify households as poor and non-poor. The result of this study shows in the study area the proportion of people who are stated under the poverty line is 52.8 percent from the surveyed households. The incidence of poverty among the sampled households is 23.8% and 13.54% for the poverty gap, and poverty severity index respectively. In line with, poverty alleviation policies that are based on this identified status should be key ingredients of poverty reduction strategy and targeted groups should involve in development efforts that could address the identified problem to minimize the rate of increased poverty severity from rural areas of West Hararge zone.