The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) launched a joint initiative at the end of 1999, stating that they intended to set the fight against poverty at the heart of their development policies. This book provides the expert, critical analysis of the poverty reduction strategies that is needed. Originally published in French and updated here for the first time in English, the book emphasises three main innovations brought about by focus on poverty reduction, participatory process implemented for policy-making and better coordination of official development assistance.
The contributions also show that there remains a large gap between the principles of the World Bank and IMF's strategies and their application. That this valuable and insightful book will be of great interest to students and lecturers involved in development economics goes almost without saying. What also needs to be understood is that the lessons and policy implications drawn from the book need to be read and acted upon by those involved with the World Bank and the IMF.

The twenty-first century is characterized by extremes of poverty and wealth, of scarcity and abundance. The vast inequalties of wealth distribution between the developed west and the impoverished developing world is a complex problem. This book recognises that Africa in particular has manifested this global disgrace and symbolizes the nature of poverty to the western world.

In order to truly emancipate the poverty stricken around the world we must necessarily understand the reasons for its existence. In a departure from traditional critical realist theory, Gruffydd-Jones argues the benefits of reassessing the relevance of objective inquiry and emphasizes its primacy over normative theory in the battle to truly understand the reasons for the African crisis. This approach brings us a book of real relevance for inequality in the modern world and gives us an important platform from which to move forwards in the fight against poverty.

Originally published in 1997 Working for Women? examines the ways in which women's patterns of paid and unpaid work have been mediated by the policies of governments throughout the 20th century. It looks at the state in defining what is women's work and men's work, and at equal pay and opportunities policies. This book will appeal to academics of sociology, gender and women's studies.

The voices of famous and lesser known figures in America's quest to reduce poverty are collected for the first time in this comprehensive historical anthology. The book traces the most important ideas and contributions of citizens, activists, labor leaders, scholars, politicians, and governmental agencies to ensure American citizens the basics of food, housing, employment, education, and health care.The book follows the idea of poverty reduction from Thomas Paine's agrarian justice to Josiah Quincy's proposal for the construction of poorhouses; from the Freedmen's Bureau to Sitting Bull's demand for money and supplies; from Coxey's army of the unemployed to Jane Addams's Hull House; from the Civil Works Administration to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call for an Economic Bill of Rights; and from William Julius Wilson's universal program of reform to George W. Bush's armies of compassion.You can learn more about the book at http: //www.solvingpoverty.com.

Poor News examines the way discourses of poverty are articulated in the news media by incorporating specific narratives and definers that bring about certain ideological worldviews. This happens, the authors claim, because journalists and news editors make use of a set of information strategies while accessing certain sources within specific social and political dynamics. The book looks at the case of the news media in Britain since the industrial revolution and produces a historical account of how these media discourses came into play. The main thesis is that there have been different historical cycles that reflect particular hegemonic ideas of each period. Consequently, the role of mainstream journalism has been a subservient one for existing elites when it comes to the propagation of dominant ideas.

First published in 1997, this volume looks at the rationale for, the implementation of, and the economic and social effect of the World Bank Structural Adjustment Policy (SAP) in Ghana from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. It shifts the focus from a primarily economic evaluation of these programmes and includes issues such as their impact on vulnerable groups within the Ghanaian society and on poverty in general. Therefore, it must be asked whether the 'ordinary Ghanaian' has gained anything from any wealth creation in Ghana. The book will be useful for both academic and policy purposes.

"Edited by two well-known family researchers at Brigham Young University, this meticulously researched compendium is a trove of useful information on areas where poverty and family issues intersect. This volume should be the first stop for anyone beginning research on poverty and families." -CHOICE The Handbook of Families and Poverty covers hotly debated issues associated with public policy and funded research as they relate to families and poverty. Contributors, bringing multiple perspectives to bear, aim to show alternatives to welfare in subgroups facing specific challenges that are currently not adequately addressed by the welfare system. Readers will appreciate the insightful summaries of research involving poverty and its relationship to couple, marital, and family dynamics. Key Features: Provides a comprehensive view of the issues surrounding families and poverty so that readers may benefit from the findings and insights of their peers in other relevant fields, with the hope that better understanding will bring better solutions. Includes several chapters on application/intervention and theoretical issues Contains writings by contributing authors who are respected experts from a broad range of disciplines and perspectives, including business; child development; family studies; psychology; public policy; social work; and sociology.

The number of poor people in China is huge, despite recent economic advances. The minorities in China constitute less than ten per cent of the entire population, yet they represent forty to fifty per cent of the absolute poor. This compelling book investigates the problem of poverty and inequality in and among Chinese ethnic minorities, focusing in particular on two important questions: Have the minorities shared the fruits of spectacular economic growth in China during the past two decades? Is their backwardness due to ethnic and cultural factors or to extremely low incomes? The authors examine the different factors explaining poverty, the relationship between poverty and ethnicity, poverty indicators that permit a comparison between minorities and non-minorities (or the Han majority), economic and demographic characteristics of minorities and their educational, occupational and gender profiles. They consider whether special measures in favour of minorities introduced by the Chinese government have contributed to an improvement in their standard of living. Poverty and Inequality among Chinese Minorities gives original research findings and new thinking on a highly topical issue in Chinese development economics, and fills a gap in the existing economic literature.

World poverty represents a failure of the international community to see half of the global population secure their basic socio-economic rights. Yet international law foresees cooperation as essential to the realization of these human rights. In an era of considerable interdependence and entrenched economic and political advantage, the particular features of contemporary world poverty give rise to pressing questions about the scope, evolution, and application of the international law of human rights, and the attribution of global responsibility.
This book considers the evolving nature of public international law and human rights with respect to international cooperation as a basis for addressing the role and responsibility of the international community in the creation of an environment conducive to a human-centered globalization. It offers a detailed examination of the historically controversial right to development and, through a careful consideration of its current significance and application, reflects the importance of the rationale of the right to development onto the critical challenge of poverty in the 21st century. Through doctrine and jurisprudence, this book charts recent changes in international law relevant to the ability of states to develop and to fulfill their human rights obligations, and the reality that they are constrained by the actions and structural arrangements of the powerful members of the international community.
This book explores developments in the system of international safeguards meant to correspond to the deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights today. By analyzing the approach, contribution, and current limitations of theinternational law of human rights to the manifestations of world poverty, the reader is challenged to rethink human rights and, in particular, the framing of responsibilities that are essential to their protection.

This book presents a unique analysis of the moral and social dimensions of microeconomic behaviour in developing countries and calls into question standard notions of rationality and many of the assumptions of neo-classical economics, showing how these are inappropriate in communities with widespread disparity in incomes. This book will prove to be essential for students studying development economics.

In contemporary European and American urban policy and politics and in academic research it is typically assumed that spatial concentrations of poor households and/or ethnic minority households will have negative effects upon the opportunities to improve the social conditions of those who are living in these concentrations. Since the level of concentration tends to be correlated with the level of spatial segregation the 'debate on segregation' is also linked to the social opportunity discussion. This book explores the central questions in urban and housing studies: Do poor neighbourhoods make their residents poorer? Does the neighbourhood structure exert an effect on the residents (behavioural, attitudinal, or psychological) even when controlling for individual characteristics of the residents? This issue has offered a locus for multi-disciplinary investigations on both sides of the Atlantic, and this volume demonstrates the rich geographical, sociological, economic and psychological dimensions of this issue. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Housing Studies.

Most, if not all of the global biogeochemical cycles on the earth have been broken or are at dangerous tipping points. These broken cycles have expressed themselves in various forms as soil degradation and depletion, ocean acidification, global warming and climate change. The best proposal for an organic solution to fixing the myriad broken cycles is a deliberate investment in solutions that first acknowledge the historic roles played by both the subjugated peoples, and the economic beneficiaries of the environmental exploitations of the past. Ever since Europeans made contact with the West, a series of global circumstances including the genocide of the indigenous people of the Americas, the enslavement and global subjugation of Africans, and the emergence of Western concepts of trade dominance and capitalism, have led to deleterious impacts on the global biogeochemical cycles. Addressing the broken biogeochemical cycles should be done with a clear understanding that it was not only human subjects which were subjugated, but also land, water, and air. These three global stores must be replenished from the ideological position that poverty is not simply the absence of money, but is also the lack of access to non-polluting energy sources, to clean air devoid of runaway greenhouse gasses, and to local conditions devoid of climate change instabilities. With this in mind, the global powerbrokers can enter into a new deal with developing nations, shifting the paradigm toward a new ecological approach that rewards good behavior and sets new standards of worldwide relations based on ecologic inclusivity rather than the exclusive economic arrangements currently in order. Harnessing a forward thinking approach to analyzing the current global environmental crisis, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainable development, political ecology, sustainable agriculture, climate change and environmental justice.

In this fascinating book, Ann Woodall investigates and compares the work and thought of William Booth and Karl Marx, who both arrived in London in 1849. She draws comparisons between their responses to the intractability of the poverty of the 'submerged tenth' of London's population, and argues that Booth's pioneering work in establishing the Salvation Army and the development of Marx's economic theory began in their interactions with the London residuum. Each recognised that much of the suffering was caused by the workings of laissez-faire capitalism and that its total solution required a challenge to the existing economic system. What Price the Poor? raises important questions about the relationship between theological discourse and the sociological imagination, and it firmly places the development of theoretical and practical social analysis and application within the context of social history. It will appeal to all with interests in classical sociology and the history of social activism.

This in-depth examination reviews fundamental changes of the past decade that have reduced homelessness in the United States and other Western democracies. Focusing on the last decade, Modern Homelessness: A Reference Handbook examines the issue in the United States and in other nations that have adopted new strategies to address homelessness-and achieved notable results in preventing and ending it. The handbook covers the unprecedented reductions first announced in 2007 and the crucial shifts in strategy and investment, and the results that brought them about. These fundamental changes are analyzed to identify the factors that proved most effective in altering the national and local dialogue and response relative to this daunting issue. In addition to a brief history of homelessness in contemporary times, the handbook examines key developments of the past decade in research, policy, housing models, and service delivery that have been shown to decrease homelessness. These include active partnership among the governments of the United States, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, and others that moved the discussion in a new direction. The story is brought up to date with a consideration of the effects of the 2008 economic crisis. A chronology of relevant key events of the last decade in the United States, England, Canada, and Australia A glossary A bibliography of print and nonprint resources, including electronic resources

The poor and the sick-poor have always presented a problem to the governments and churches of Europe. Whose responsibility are they? Are they a wilful burden on the honest working population, or are they a necessary presence for the true Christian to live the true Christian life? In the 18th and 19th centuries what happened to the poor and the sick-poor in the north and south of Europe was different. In the north there occurred first the Reformation in the 16th century, which changed attitudes to the poor, and then the advent of industrialisation, with its far-reaching effects of pauperisation of people both in town and countryside. In the Catholic south, where industrialisation did not appear so soon, the Catholic Church introduced a programme of reform at all levels but along traditional lines. This included the founding of new orders dedicated to the care of the poor and sick, of new institutions within which to house and care for them. At all times it was taken for granted that it was a necessary aspect of being a Christian that one should give for the care of the needy, and that this was not the duty of the state or of secular institutions. The secularising movement did however reach the southern countries by way both of the Enlightenment and - more drastically - in the form of the Napoleonic invasions. But after the defeat of Napoleon, the Church reasserted its right to administer and control the support of the poor and sick, and this situation continued until 1900 in most areas. Moreover the effects of industrialisation and the concomitant increase in population did make itself felt in the south in the course of the 19th century, which put great stress on the institutions for poor relief and health care for the poor. All this is still relevant today, since the situations that governments and the Catholic Church found themselves confronted with, and the stark choices they had to make, are being replayed to some extent today. Who is responsible for the poor, who is to blame for their being poor? How should their poverty be relieved, how should the health care of the many be funded? These are still live issues today. While complete in itself the present volume also forms the fourth and last of a four-volume survey of health care and poor relief in Europe between 1500 and 1900, edited by Ole Peter Grell and Andrew Cunningham

This title was first published in 2000. An analysis of income distribution and development in Kenya, seeking to increase the reader's understanding of the political economy of that country. The author offers three contributions. He provides an estimate of income inequality in Kenya. He presents data on time allocation in Kenya which makes it possible to compare the distribution of work with the distribution of income. Finally, he attempts to construct a class analysis that goes beyond the debates of the 1970s and 1980s, and goes on to draw a number of important conclusions from his findings.

China's explosive economic growth since 1988 has not resulted in an equal increase of income among all Chinese citizens. The authors explore a range of reasons for the disparity and base their conclusions on strong empirical evidence--especially the 1996 survey conducted by the State Statistical Bureau.

There is a crisis destroying the livelihoods of 25 million coffee producers around the world. The price of coffee has fallen by almost 50 per cent in the past three years to a 30-year low. Farmers sell at a heavy loss while branded coffee sells at a hefty profit. The coffee crisis has become a development disaster whose impacts will be felt for a long time. Families dependent on the money generated by coffee are pulling their children, especially girls, out of school. They can no longer afford basic medicines, and are cutting back on food. Beyond farming families, coffee traders are going out of business. National economies are suffering and some banks are collapsing. Government funds are being squeezed dry, putting pressure on health and education and forcing governments further into debt. The scale of the solution needs to be commensurate with the scale of the crisis. Oxfam is calling for a Coffee Rescue Plan to make the coffee market work for the poor as well as the rich. The plan needs to bring together the major players in coffee to overcome the current crisis and create a more stable market. This accessible report, with illustrations and many visual aids, outlines the extent of the crisis in the coffee market and the reasons behind it, and presents a strategy for action.

Many of us grew up hearing our parents exclaim 'you are driving me to the poorhouse!' or remember the card in the 'Monopoly' game which says 'Go to the Poorhouse! Lose a Turn!' Yet most Americans know little or nothing of this institution that existed under a variety of names for approximately three hundred years of American history. Surprisingly these institutions variously named poorhouses, poor farms, sometimes almshouses or workhouses, have received rather scant academic treatment, as well, though tens of millions of poor people were confined there, while often their neighbors talked in hushed tones and in fear of their own fate at the 'specter of the poorhouse.' Based on the author's study of six New England poorhouses/poor farms, a hidden story in America's history is presented which will be of popular interest as well as useful as a text in social welfare and social history. While the poorhouse's mission was character reform and 'repressing pauperism,' these goals were gradually undermined by poor people themselves, who often learned to use the poorhouse for their own benefit, as well as by staff and officials of the houses, who had agendas sometimes at odds with the purposes for which the poorhouse was invented.

The working poor of the world are observed to engage in long hours in hard jobs and to work more if wages are further reduced. Mainstream economics brushes off this tendency to increase labour supply as wages fall as perverse because it does not fit the conventional wisdom and tries to explain it as a result of "subsistence mentality", "limited aspiration", or "target income" behaviour of the poor. This however ignores the observed fact that the poor work long hard hours but most of the time, fail to meet their minimum needs of subsistence and live impoverished lives in absolute poverty deficient of both food and physical rest. This book postulates that the observed behaviour is the result of economic distress the working poor suffer and analyses it as a rational behaviour using the conventional utility maximization framework and derives both theoretical and empirical results consistent with the observation. This book aims to correct a serious misconception persisting in the literature relating to the working-poor labour-supply behaviour that is almost universally observed. It also goes onto develop, using the supply function, a methodology to determine the standard of subsistence income and physical rest for the worker.

This title was first published in 2003. The rapid demographic aging of populations worldwide, and most dramatically in developing countries, will result in unprecedented increases in the absolute and relative numbers of the aged in these countries. Whilst developed economies already have the basic infrastructure in place through which to support their ageing populations, developing nations frequently do not, and it should not be assumed that their best course of action is to attempt to duplicate the supportive infrastructures of developed countries. In developing nations these may be culturally inappropriate, geographically inaccessible, economically or politically unsustainable, or all of these. Effective and sustainable support services must be designed with reference to the circumstances of the client group, and it is increasingly evident that knowledge of the lives of the aged in developing countries is currently very limited. This book aims to inform the reader on the livelihoods of elders in developing countries and to stimulate a discussion of appropriate methods of supporting them in maintaining their quality of life during and beyond the coming decades of demographic change. It does so through reporting the lives and livelihoods of the aged population of Kikole (a pseudonym), a highly impoverished village in Uganda. Individual livelihoods are explored from a lifecourse perspective, with present day quality of life being shown often to be the result of earlier enforced changes in circumstances arising in economic, social or cultural marginalization, political or physical insecurity, or macro-economic change, rather than in the physical or mental changes that may accompany advancing age.

Based on case-study research in four low income sub-Saharan African countries (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi) this book brings together the micro-level realities of gaining a living in rural areas with the macro-level that seek to secure rapid poverty reduction in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of halving global poverty by the year 2015.
The starting point is the livelihoods approach to poverty reduction that providesa powerful framework within which micro-level experiences of poverty and vulnerability can be connected to the policy contexts that either block or facilitate people's own efforts to escape from poverty. Initial chapters provide evidence concerning the multiple and diverse character of rural livelihoods. The book then goues on to examine the institutional context of livelihoods, including decentralisation, taxation, markets, land tenure and agricultural research. The natural resource dimensions of agriculture, livestock, fisheries, small-scale irrigation and community-based natural resource management policies are then analysed. The concluding chapters consider micro-macro linkages, including linking micro-level poverty traps to Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers; incorporating rural poverty measurement in such strategies; and tracing macro-micro links.
This book exposes the gap that occurs between the rhetoric of poverty reduction strategies in capital cities and the practice of public sector delivery in rural areas. It will be essential reading for advanced students and researchers in the fields of rural development, rural livelihoods, poverty reduction strategies and Sub-Saharan Africa development as well as advisors andpractitioners in international organizations.

This collection of all new essays seeks to answer a series of questions surrounding the Victorian response to poverty in Britain. In short, what did various layers of society say the poor deserved and what did they do to help them? The project is organised against the backdrop of the 1834 New Poor Laws, recognising that poverty garnered considerable attention in England because of its pervasive and painful presence. Each essay examines a different initiative to help the poor. Taking an historical tack, the essayists begin with the royal perspective and move into the responses of Church of England members, Evangelicals, and Roman Catholics; the social engagement of the literati is discussed as well. This collection of essays reflects the real, monetary, spiritual and emotional investments of individuals, public institutions, private charities, and religious groups who struggled to address the needs of the poor.

This title was first published in 2000: Marking the centenary of Seebohm Rowntree's first study of poverty in York, this volume examines the modern impact of poverty on health, nutrition, crime, gender and ethnicity.

Poverty is an educational issue because it affects children's physical, emotional, and cognitive development. Especially in current times, taken-for-granted ideas about poverty and poor children must be scrutinized and reconsidered. That is the goal of this book. Poverty and Schooling in the U.S.: Contexts and Consequences is in part a plea for educators and future educators to undertake the intellectual and emotional work of learning more about the social causes, as well as the sometimes life-altering consequences of poverty. Although such efforts will not eradicate poverty, they can help form more insightful educators, administrators, policymakers, and researchers. The book is also an effort to bring to the table a larger conversation about the educational significance of the social and legal policy contexts of poverty and about typical school experiences of poor children. Poverty and Schooling in the U.S.: Contexts and Consequences: *describes what teachers need to know or to understand about the contexts and consequences of poverty; *provides information and analysis of the social context of poverty; *examines the experience of many children and families living in poverty; *documents the demographics of poverty and offers a critique of the official U.S. poverty metric; *reports on continuing and significant disparities in school funding; *presents historical context through a broad-brush review of some of the landmark legal decisions in the struggle for educational opportunity; *looks at some typical school experiences of poor children; *considers the consequences of the federal No Child Left Behind Act; and *offers suggestions about the kind of educational reform that could make a difference in the lives of poor children. This book is fundamental for faculty, researchers, school practitioners, and students across the field of education. It is accessible to all readers. An extensive background in social theory, educational theory, or statistics is not required.