The political foundations of poverty are all too often ignored by poverty analysts. This paper presents, from a political-economy perspective, a critique of mainstream poverty analysis. The author argues that the way mainstream research considers poverty separates it from the social processes of the accumulation and distribution of wealth. This serves to depoliticise poverty, as it becomes a kind of a social abnormality, rather than the reality of modern state and market society functions.
Poverty and health
Why understanding of social relations matters more for policy on chronic poverty than measurement
Harriss J: Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), 2006
Applying Q2 methods to understand poverty dynamics: A focus on ill health and HIV/AIDS in Uganda
Lawson D, Hulme D: World Institute for Development Research (WIDER), 2006
This research we combine the strengths of quantitative analysis (representativeness, confidence levels, understanding of correlates and characteristics) and life history analysis (the elaboration of processes that underpin correlations, the understandings that poor people have of their poverty and the critical events that have caused deprivation), to make a genuine attempt at providing thorough insights in to poverty dynamics. Given the relative infancy of applying ‘Q2’ to poverty research, in this way, the paper adopts a joint methodological/themed approach i.e. we explain through the use of examples how the methods were combined to further our knowledge of poverty dynamics before then providing explicit examples of key findings.
Culture fights poverty
Kateta M: Southern Africa Social Forum, 15 October 2006
Imbawula Trust, a Johannesburg based cultural association says culture has a great role to play in the fight of Africa’s poverty. They said the African continent had great potential to develop if citizens were inspired by their cultural and social customs which are 'vital in the development of peoples mental and social stability'.
Evolution and determinants of non-monetary indicators of poverty in Kenya: Children's nutritional status 1998-2003
Kabubo-Mariara J, Ndenge GK, Mwabu DK: World Institute for Development Economic Research (WIDER)
This paper uses Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data to analyse the evolution and determinants of children’s nutritional status in Kenya using descriptive and econometric methods. Our findings suggest that if Kenya is to reduce the current high rates of malnutrition as stipulated in the strategic health objectives and the millennium development goals, policies and strategies for poverty alleviation, promotion of post secondary education for women and provision of basic preventive health care are critical issues which need to be pursued because they have a big impact on children’s nutritional status. Decomposition results indicate that there are significant unexplained differentials in chronic malnutrition between the two years.
Lifelong consequences of early childhood undernutrition: Illustrations of impact on human capital formation in Zimbabwe
Alderman H, Hoddinott J, Kinsey B: World Institute for Development Research (WIDER), 2006
This paper examines the impact of undernutrition among preschool children on subsequent human capital formation in rural Zimbabwe. We use a maternal fixed effects – instrumental variables (MFE-IV) estimator with a long-term panel data set. Representations of civil war and drought 'shocks' are used to identify differences in preschool nutritional status across siblings. Improvements in height-for-age in preschoolers are associated with increased height as young adults and the number of grades of schooling completed. Had the median pre-school child in this sample had the stature of a median child in a developed country, by adolescence, s/he would be 3.4 centimeters taller, had completed an additional 0.85 grades of schooling and would have commenced school six months earlier.
Building public services for poverty reduction
Emmett B, Green D, Laws M, et al: Oxfam , 2006
This report highlights how building strong public services is key to transforming the lives of people living in poverty. The authors show that developing countries will only achieve healthy and educated populations if their governments take responsibility for providing essential services.
Burundi: Hospital officials detain hundreds of insolvent patients
Human Rights Watch, 7 September 2006
Burundian state hospitals are reported to routinely detain patients who are unable to pay their hospital bills, the Human Rights Watch and the Burundian Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons said in a report released in September. The patients can be detained for weeks or even months in abysmal conditions. This practice is reported to highlight broader problems of the health system in Burundi, where patients have to pay for their own treatment. The organisations called on the Burundian government to end the practice and to make access to health care for all Burundians a central part of its new Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.
Causing hunger: An overview of the food crisis in Africa
Oxfam Briefing Paper 91, July 2006
For people to be hungry in Africa in the 21st century is neither inevitable nor morally acceptable. The world’s emergency response requires an overhaul so that it delivers prompt, equitable, and effective assistance to people suffering from lack of food. More fundamentally, governments need to tackle the root causes of hunger, which include poverty, agricultural mismanagement, conflict, unfair trade rules, and the unprecedented problems of HIV/AIDS and climate change. The promised joint effort of African governments and donors to eradicate poverty must deliver pro-poor rural policies that prioritise the needs of marginalised rural groups such as small-holders, pastoralists, and women.
Report reveals global slum crisis
BBC News International, 16 June 2006
Slum-dwellers who make up a third of the world's urban population often live no better, if not worse, than rural people, a United Nations report says. Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN Habitat agency, urged governments and donors to take more seriously the problems of at least a billion people. The report provides an overview of different countries across the world, and highlights the relevance of this growing problem; for example, with respect to the health of these communities.
Rethinking the economic costs of malaria at the household level: Evidence from applying a new analytical framework in rural Kenya
Chuma JM, Thiede M, Molyneux CS: Malaria Journal 5:76, 31 August 2006
Malaria imposes significant costs on households and the poor are disproportionately affected. However, cost data are often from quantitative surveys with a fixed recall period. They do not capture costs that unfold slowly over time, or seasonal variations. Few studies investigate the different pathways through which malaria contributes towards poverty. In this paper, a framework indicating the complex links between malaria, poverty and vulnerability at the household level is developed and applied using data from rural Kenya.