Suchergebnisse

The level of income can be directly inferred from the level of education, making education an important variable as a key determinant of better livelihoods and poverty alleviation. However, in most developing countries education is not accessible to all. In Ghana - although basic education is largely free - for secondary education this was not the case until recently. Hence, the high tuition fees and other scholarly expenses continue to be a burden on parents and guardians. The problem was further compounded when government subsidies to upper secondary institutions were delayed. It is not surprising that the government has decided to provide this service as a public good to the benefit of all. In the 2017/2018 academic year the government began an educational reform policy to fully absorb the cost of Senior High School and vocational education for any student who qualifies. Seeing this as a form of benefit to households, this study provides an analysis of the effect of the reform on household poverty and inequality. Analysis is based on the Ghana Microsimulation Model which has the Ghana Living Standards Survey - Round 6 as its base input data. Results provide policy makers with some good ex-ante evidence on the extent to which the reform is contributing to lessening the burden of vulnerable households.

This article explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable people in South Africa in the specific context of poverty and inequality. It does so by first looking at the conceptual context and then highlighting the extent of the impact both from a constitutional and human rights context and from a legislative context. It uses the poor and vulnerable as a proxy to explore the impact of the pandemic (and the measures put in place to contain it) on the specific constitutional rights of vulnerable people, before suggesting a human rights-based approach to managing the pandemic. It concludes that, despite the South African government having undertaken some of the actions recommended, there remains room for improvement and scope for further research, as the pandemic is expected to continue for some time. ; Publisher's version

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic resulted in severe income losses, but little is known about its impacts on diets and nutritional adequacy, or the effectiveness of social protection interventions in mitigating dietary and nutritional impacts. We first assess the likely impacts of COVID‐19 shocks in Bangladesh and Myanmar on poverty and food and nutrient consumption gaps. We then analyze the estimated mitigating effects of five hypothetical social protection interventions of a typical monetary value: (1) cash transfers; (2) in‐kind transfers of common rice; (3) in‐kind transfers of fortified rice enriched with multiple essential micronutrients; (4) vouchers for a diversified basket of rice and non‐staple foods; and (5) food vouchers with fortified rice instead of common rice. The simulation results suggest modest effectiveness of the cash transfers for mitigating poverty increases and little effectiveness of all five transfers for preventing increasing food and nutrient consumption gaps among the poorest 40%. Rice fortification is, however, effective at closing key micronutrient consumption gaps and could be a suitable policy instrument for averting "hidden hunger" during economic crises.

The article explores multicriterial approaches to determine the boundaries of poverty and the middle class. Applied regression analysis confirms the significance of some households' social and economic characteristics that increase the likelihood of their belonging to a certain population group. Based on various methodological approaches, the analysis of the Russian society structure reveals its high polarization and a significant share of poor population fluctuating from 12% to a quarter of the population and even more considering the parameters that determine the quality of life, peculiarities in behavior and self-identification. Applying the multicriterial approach, the authors propose additional measures to support citizens which cover not only the poorest segments of the population and large families, but also a significant cohort of low-income citizens, as well as the measures that contribute to higher-income work and the increment of human wealth.The article explores multicriterial approaches to determine the boundaries of poverty and the middle class. Applied regression analysis confirms the significance of some households' social and economic characteristics that increase the likelihood of their belonging to a certain population group. Based on various methodological approaches, the analysis of the Russian society structure reveals its high polarization and a significant share of poor population fluctuating from 12% to a quarter of the population and even more considering the parameters that determine the quality of life, peculiarities in behavior and self-identification. Applying the multicriterial approach, the authors propose additional measures to support citizens which cover not only the poorest segments of the population and large families, but also a significant cohort of low-income citizens, as well as the measures that contribute to higher-income work and the increment of human wealth.

While in practice, infrastructure decentralisation is gaining ground in developing countries, it is not clear that it is supported by robust literature on its capacity to deliver superior growth and poverty reduction outcomes. Rather, a number of social goals seem to be behind the push for decentralisation. While these lofty goals should be encouraged, the trade-off with economic efficiency can be quite high, particularly when proximity considerations are not weighed vis-à-vis capacity challenges that face sub-national governments. By looking at the literature and showing some results from benchmarking of Nigerian states, we attempt to show in this article that the capacity challenge at sub-national governments is potent. The article also outlines a number of other considerations that need to be incorporated while deciding the effective levels of decentralisation and what services should be in the basket of decentralised sectors. It posits that the procedure and factors affecting such a decision remain context-specific, and where the goals are economic, should be supported by equally context-specific empirical analysis.