This report assesses drivers of the economic empowerment of chronically poor women and girls in rural Bangladesh and rural Nigeria. The focus is on drivers related to assets, both intangibly in terms of education, and tangibly in terms of ownership of consumption and productive assets including land.
Read MoreThe potential for inclusive green agricultural transformation: creating sustainable livelihoods through an agroecological approach in Tanzania
This paper explores agroecology as an alternative approach to agricultural transformation, offering low-input but knowledge intensive agriculture as a more inclusive and sustainable way forwards.
Authors: Anna Mdee, Alex Wostry, Andrew Coulson & Janet Maro
Read MoreCan locally-developed indicators catalyse more responsive local government? Findings from the research
This briefing paper provides recommendations for stakeholders on how toimprove accountability and performance in local governance through a local governance performance index (LGPI) at the district level in Tanzania.
Authors: Rachel Hayman, Anna Mdee and Patricia Tshomba
Read MoreDesigning a Local Governance Performance Index (LGPI): a problem-solving approach in Tanzania
This working paper details the process of creating a Local Governance Performance Index (LGPI) in Mvomero and Kigoma-Ujiji Districts of Tanzania and of studying its applicability.
Authors: Anna Mdee, Patricia Tshomba & Andrew Mushi
Read MorePoverty dynamics and disability in rural Bangladesh: learning from life-history interviews
This paper explores the relationship between disability and poverty dynamics in rural Bangladesh drawing from 293 life-history interviews conducted by the author and a small team of researchers in 2007. The aim of the paper is to use existing life-history interviews to provide initial insights into the relationship between poverty and disability in Bangladesh.
Author: Peter Davis
Read MoreExploring development and accountability: laying the basis for a local governance performance index in Tanzania
This briefing paper summarises findings around the key questions of what ‘development’ means at the local level, who is responsible for it, and how local government can be held to account in practice. Findings are illustrated with selected quotes from interviews, focus groups and workshops, which demonstrate the challenges that need to be overcome to design and implement a performance index.
Read MoreExploring the Links Between Poverty and Disability in Rural Bangladesh
This paper explores the links between poverty and disability drawing from 60 qualitative life-history interviews conducted in rural Bangladesh, in 48 households, in three districts, in March 2016. The paper provides insights into the relationship between poverty and disability with the aim of informing policy and practice concerned with both reducing poverty and improving the life chances of people with disabilities.
Author: Peter Davis
Read MoreA tale of triple disadvantages: Disability and poverty dynamics amongst women in rural Bangladesh
The focus of the paper is on persistently poor women with disabilities in Bangladesh. It seeks to contribute to the disability and chronic poverty policy discourse and work towards developing effective poverty reduction measures by investigating daily activities and coping strategies of poor persons with disabilities.
Author: Vidya Diwakar
Read MoreAnti-discrimination measures in education: A comparative policy analysis
Efforts to tackle discrimination in access to basic services have shown mixed results in different country settings. This study examines the positive and negative outcomes attributed to anti-discrimination measures adopted in different country contexts and analyses the factors contributing to these outcomes, with a specific focus on anti-discrimination measures in education.
Read MoreExploring lines of blame and accountability in local service delivery
The selection of indicators for the creation of an index is critical if it is to be used as a mechanism to hold local government to account. Clear lines of responsibility and accountability need to be incorporated into the selection of indicators so the index can be applied at the local level.
Read MoreHousehold economic diversification: Policies to support smallholder agriculture, the rural nonfarm economy and casual wage labour
The purpose of this Working Paper is to explore a menu of policy recommendations to support smallholder agriculture, the rural nonfarm economy and casual wage labour. Developing country governments could use these recommendations to think through their policy-making decisions and ensure the poorest people participate in economic growth on good terms, such that they can sustainably escape poverty.
Author: Andrew Shepherd
Read MoreGetting the long-term macro development perspective right: Diversification of the economy with strategic investment and increased protection from risks
The purpose of this Working Paper is to explore a menu of policy recommendations that developing country governments can use to think through their policy-making decisions and ensure the poorest people participate in economic growth on good terms, such that they can sustainably escape poverty.
Authors: Chiara Mariotti and Andrew Shepherd
Read MoreLeaving no one behind: The contribution of pro-poorest growth
Pro-poorest economic growth is necessary to improve all poverty dynamics and to eradicate extreme poverty. This Working Paper outlines what pro-poorest growth is and why it is necessary, building on the concept of pro-poor growth popularised in the 2000s.
Author: Chiara Mariotti
Read MoreDo Anti-Discrimination Measures Reduce Poverty Among Marginalised Social Groups?
This report is a rigorous review of 470 pieces of evidence on the effectiveness of anti-discrimination measures in low and middle-income countries. The review focuses on women and girls, children, young people, disabled people, marginalised ethnic and racial groups and marginalised castes.
Read MoreGetting the world thinking about chronic poverty: a case study on how research can lead to change.
This case study tells the story of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), and demonstrates
how its research has made an impact in many interesting, diverse and sometimes surprising places.
How can public policy enhance female employment and empower women economically as countries urbanize?
Urbanisation and labour force participation can be powerful drivers of women economic empowerment. This paper reviews the empowering and disempowering effects of urbanisation on the the main areas of work performed by women in cities and analyses the interventions which have been implemented to support the different types of female urban livelihoods
Read MoreImproving the delivery of public services What role could a local governance index play?
One of the most powerful ideas in development in recent years has been good governance. This review of available evidence considers how the performance of local governance can be improved in relation to the better delivery of services, through the use of a local governance performance index. It also considers how the public tracking of locally meaningful measures of governance can be used to improve the accountability of local government bureaucracies and politicians.
Authors: Anna Mdee and Lisa Thorley
Read MoreCompatible or contradictory? The challenge of inclusive structural economic and environmental transformation
Multiple transformations are being sought in our societies in the face of the accelerating risk of climate change and the need to eradicate poverty. This paper sets out to explore current evidence and debate on structural economic transformation and environmental (green) transformation in relation to the eradication of poverty.
Authors: Anna Mdee, Richard Emmott and Alberto Lemma
Read MoreChronic Poverty and the Environment: a Vulnerability Perspective
This paper highlights some of the key thinking on poverty-environment relationships before introducing a framework focusing on the importance of environmental vulnerability in explaining poverty dynamics.
Author: Lucy Scott
Read MoreChronic Poverty and Remote Rural Areas
This paper is a first attempt at putting the case that people living in remote rural areas (RRAs) account for a substantial proportion of the chronically poor. The paper argues that there has been a widespread ‘policy failure’ in RRAs. The focus on livelihoods development, based on successes in non-remote areas did not take account of the special risk, exclusion and marginalisation characteristics of RRAs. Attacking these causes of persistent poverty would involve a greater emphasis on human capital and security.
Authors: Kate Bird, David Hulme, Andrew Shepherd and Karen Moore
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