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• A quasi-experimental approach is used to test the effect of building capacities on communities. • Capacity building has a statistically positive effect on reducing poverty. • Building human/social capacities is more effective than providing economic capacities. • Capacity building has no effect on forest conservation in communities managing their forests. Community Forestry has been identified as a secure, profitable, and equitable strategy to reach the dual goal of forest conservation and poverty alleviation. This research contributes to the literature exploring the effects of local capacity building in forest communities by analyzing the Community Forestry Program (CFP) in Mexico. This program provides grants to enhance four types of local capacities: human, social, economic, and environmental. We used a quasi-experimental approach to quantitatively compare matched treatment and control communities regarding the effect of these interventions on two response variables: poverty alleviation and forest cover conservation. The treatment and control communities were assessed at two points in time: pre-intervention and after a 5-year treatment period. This approach was possible because we had access to a rich database of CFP grants containing more than 20,000 records from which we identify 5074 that meet the criteria for our study. Impact on poverty is assessed using a Marginality Index produced by a federal agency. Effect on forest cover conservation is evaluated by using two proxies, the rate of change on: forest cover and on forest cover fragmentation. Our results show that enhancement of only human/social capacities or all capacities as a package significantly reduce poverty. However, the first ones have a greater impact that the latter ones. Neither human/social capacities enhancement, nor all-capacities enhancement had a statistically significant effect on forest cover conservation. These findings can assist in better designing and targeting future CFP grants in Mexico. Also, they have implications for public policy since capacity building is cheaper than any other poverty alleviation mechanism such as direct cash transfers or subsidies. Furthermore, they have long-lasting impacts that do not require regular periodical contributions and they don't discriminate by gender, or by the requirement on individual community members of having land ownership rights within the community's land holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education emerged as a nearly uncontested development strategy to tackle several forms of social, political, economic and geographic inequalities in low- and middle-income countries. When it comes to the case of Uganda, the country represents a striking paradox. Significant investments and policy reforms in education (such as Universal Primary and Secondary Education) since 1997, did not translate into the expected results with regards to poverty reduction through human capital investment. Progress in poverty alleviation is not only stagnant but the role of education therein can be described as ‘modest’ at best. Against this backdrop, this article assesses the following research question: Why did Uganda’s investments and policy reforms in education not uplift the poor? In examining the issue, this article introduces a theoretical framework that contrasts assimilative with transformative approaches in poverty alleviation through education. A rigorous review of Uganda’s education sector plans revealed that current strategies to reduce poverty revolve around a strong assimilation-based development agenda, thereby focusing on three main areas of intervention: (a) increased access to education and retention; (b) improved quality of education; and (c) employment generation through education. The article finds that these assimilative approaches do not have an impact on the political, economic and social structures that cause poverty in the first place. Hence, it concludes that assimilative models in education are highly dependent on transformative approaches. Concretely, change cannot emerge only at the very grassroots level, i.e. through educating society at large, but also has to arise from the systemic level, i.e. government institutions at the local, national and global levels. Methodologically, the analysis draws on qualitative data that was collected in the course of two extensive field research stays in 2015 and 2017. In addition, quantitative data in the form of statistical abstracts inform the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The emphasis on rights that individual citizens can claim from the state represents a significant institutional development for poverty alleviation policies. In India, important legislation was passed in 2005 to guarantee rural households 100 days of work paid at a statutory wage rate. This Right to Work legislation has enabled the implementation of the world’s largest public works program—the “Mahatma Gandhi” National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or NREGS. This study explores variation in policy outcomes under NREGS within a rural district of North India (Uttar Pradesh). It finds that this variation is the product of the interaction between formal and informal institutions. As such, the demand for work benefits does not emerge spontaneously from self-selecting rural citizens, but is articulated by local elected officials who are pressurised to accommodate demands for rents from the bureaucracy. Specifically, local elected officials are compelled to proceed to a selective activation of the demand for benefits to ensure the generation of a surplus which will form the basis of bureaucratic rent payments. The study relies on qualitative data, specifically interviews with past beneficiaries of the scheme, bureaucrats tasked with policy implementation, and elected village leaders (the Gram Pradhans in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh) to document the conditions under which a surplus is extracted and rent payments made. The study shows that caste and political leadership structures at the local level affect the generation of surpluses and the payment of rents by Gram Pradhans to the bureaucracy. While the Right to Work legislation represents progress for poverty alleviation, policies such as NREGS that emphasize rights and the expression of a demand for benefits need to consider more carefully the conditions under which this demand emerges as well as the ways in which discretionary authority can thwart the goals of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China's quest under President Xi to eradicate absolute poverty has prompted changes in local cadres' appraisal system. • The appraisal change slows GDP growth but lifts rural income among the poorest in the short term. • This is because local governments diverted financial and manpower resources to the poverty-stricken population. • The GDP impact is mainly from counties entirely removing GDP indicators and not from those merely reducing the weightage. • This suggests that political incentives affect local trade-offs between poverty alleviation and short-term economic growth. • Other developing countries with similar top-to-bottom hierarchical government structures can tap on China's experience. Developing countries need deft strategies to implement policies such as poverty alleviation especially when central and local governments face a misalignment of objectives. We explore this issue with China's anti-poverty drive under President Xi Jinping using county-level data from 2012 to 2018 and a fixed effects model to investigate the impacts of a switch in cadres' performance appraisal to focus on eradicating poverty instead of economic growth. Our study shows that the appraisal change slows GDP growth but lifts rural income among the poorest as resources are reallocated to projects that improve their livelihoods. Heterogeneity analyses further indicate that the GDP impact from the appraisal shift is mainly ascribed to counties that entirely remove GDP-related indicators, and not so much to those that merely reduce the weightage. Furthermore, using data such as fiscal gap and sectoral added value, we explore mechanisms through which the performance appraisal shift affects GDP growth. The experience of China shows that political incentives in a centralized system can facilitate the implementation of equity-targeted public policies, but this efficiency is not cost-free as economic growth might be compromised. Therefore, our study serves as a reference for other developing countries that wish to explore the pathway of applying public governance in poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary We provide the first household survey-based evidence on the impact of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake on the welfare of rural households. Asset and income losses were substantial, especially in seriously affected areas. Our main finding is that there was an overwhelming government response to the disaster. Subsidies provided to households in 2008 were so large that mean income per capita was 17.5% higher in 2008 than in 2007 and the poverty rate actually declined from 34% to 19%. Using distance from the epicenter as an instrument for earthquake damage, we find a strong positive statistical relationship between lost value of housing and other assets due to the earthquake and increases in income per capita and government transfers received, and much weaker responsiveness of private transfers, wage labor supply, and borrowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Our core thesis is that in both low- and middle-income countries, rapid growth in agricultural production and income among small commercial farmers is the dominant means of reducing rural poverty. This effect is generated from increased expenditures from smaller commercial farmers on the poor, labor-intensive, non-tradable, rural non-farm sector, thereby increasing incomes for the rural non-farm population and reducing poverty levels. We illustrate the relationship between small commercial farmers, rural non-farm households, large commercial farmers, and urban households in three contrasting situations. First, we analyze Punjab, Pakistan, a middle-income province with a large urban sector, dominance of small commercial farms in the local economy and significant land area managed by large commercial farms. Second, we analyze Sindh, Pakistan, a middle-income province with a large urban population and dominated in rural areas by large feudal holdings, but with a significant small commercial farm component. Third, we analyze data from Ethiopia, a low-income country with a relatively small urban sector and dominated by small commercial farms. In the two middle-income provinces of Pakistan, the role that agriculture plays in income determination is much less than the urban sector, but it maintains a dominant role in rural poverty determination. In Ethiopia, the low-income country, agricultural growth is a dominant variable both in income growth and poverty reduction—accounting for 73% of employment growth in the fast agricultural growth case. Large-scale commercial farms show little impact of agricultural growth on poverty reduction as compared to areas dominated by small commercial farms, partly because of their small proportion of total agricultural output, and partly due to weak consumption based multipliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The function of poverty relief has been the subject of debate in terms of the tier of government that should perform it. On the one hand, some of the literature in the economics and political science fields argues that this function should be federal because of factor mobility; on the other hand, because of the distance factor, which makes citizens more sensitive to poverty, others argue that it should a subnational responsibility. Finally, others in both fields argue that it is more accurate to view the recent trends witnessed in developing countries as delegation of service delivery by the central government to different sets of agents. The fact is that the different levels of government across countries intervene in this government obligation. This paper employs the case of Mexico to test the different implications of the theories. This country is studied because it decentralized this activity in 1998, and thus, it is subject to evaluation. The results suggest that decentralizing the poverty relief function has not delivered results; thus, they suggest that this task should be a national one. However, the reason for this is the lack of political accountability at the subnational level and not mobility. That is, when accountability is introduced, a subnational government may in fact perform well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Quarterly socioeconomic data from 240 households are used to study the links between forest-related income and rural livelihoods in southern China. Results show average forest-related income shares of 31.5%, which was predominantly derived from cultivated non-timber sources. Forest-related income was important to households at all income levels, although lower income households were more dependent due to a lack of other sources. Higher income households monopolized off-farm income and had more land than low income households. Forest-related income could be increased by making forest land more accessible to the poor, improving productivity, and removing constraints to smallholder engagement in timber marketing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We investigate vulnerability and preferences for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) across social groups. • Lower income households and women are overall more vulnerable to flooding. • Lower income households have relatively stronger preferences for EbA benefits. • Women have relatively stronger preferences for flood protection and livelihood benefits. • EbA has the potential to reduce vulnerability through poverty alleviation and gender equality. Developing countries are increasingly impacted by floods, especially in Asia. Traditional flood risk management, using structural measures such as levees, can have negative impacts on the livelihoods of social groups that are more vulnerable. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) provides a complementary approach that is potentially more inclusive of groups that are commonly described as more vulnerable, such as the poor and women. However, there is a lack of disaggregated and quantitative information on the potential of EbA to support vulnerable groups of society. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the differences in vulnerability to flooding as well as preferences for EbA benefits across income groups and gender. We use data collected through a survey of households in urban and rural Central Vietnam which included a discrete choice experiment on preferences for ecosystem services. A total of 1,010 households was surveyed during 2017 through a random sampling approach. Preferences are measured in monetary and non-monetary terms to avoid issues that may arise from financial constraints faced by respondents and especially the more vulnerable groups. Our results reveal that lower income households and women are overall more vulnerable than their counterparts and have stronger preferences for the majority of the EbA benefits, including flood protection, seafood abundance, tourism, and recreation suitability. These findings strongly indicate that EbA is indeed a promising tool to support groups of society that are especially vulnerable to floods. These results provide crucial insights for future implementation of EbA projects and for the integration of EbA with goals targeted at complying with the Sendai Framework and Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Democratic decentralization and community participation often stand at the center of an agenda of “good governance” that aims to reduce corruption and increase the state’s accountability to its citizens. However, this paper suggests based on empirical studies on the Employment Assurance Scheme in rural West Bengal that the strength of upward accountability (especially to political parties) is as crucial as downward accountability to communities. When these vertical accountabilities are weak, horizontal accountability structures between local civil society and officials can mutate into networks of corruption in which “community” actors become accomplices or primary agents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: A common criticism of antipoverty programs is that the high share of administrative (nontransfer) costs substantially reduces their effectiveness. Yet, there is surprisingly little rigorous empirical evidence on program costs. Improved information and a better understanding of the costs of such programs are crucial for effective policymaking. This study proposes and implements a replicable methodology for a comparative cost analysis of three similar poverty alleviation programs in Latin America, and assesses their cost efficiency. The findings underscore that any credible assessment of cost efficiency requires a detailed analysis of program cost structures that goes well beyond simply providing aggregate cost information. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Few examples exist in the common property literature of community-managed forestry enterprises (CFEs) operating in competitive markets. Yet, in Mexico, there are hundreds of such examples at varying levels of vertical integration. At a time when devolution of rights to forests is expanding worldwide, collective management of timber operations presents an emerging community forestry policy option. CFEs have unusual institutional features that force a reconsideration of theories of the firm, unique management tensions, varieties of possible institutional arrangements governing stocks, and flows of the natural resource, and may have special importance in delivering both economic equity and environmental protection. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper explores local empowerment, income generation opportunities, and environmental sustainability under varying scales of woodlot management in Ethiopia. We find that more devolved woodlot management empowers resource users, providing greater decision-making autonomy regarding harvesting and management. Our economic analysis indicates that there has been limited harvesting of high value products such as poles and fuelwood. Labor inputs declined, tree survival rates increased, and average annual net benefits improved as woodlot management was devolved, indicating improved efficiency with more localized management. Environmental sustainability was associated with less devolved woodlot management. This study highlights the trade-offs inherent in devolution reforms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Little literature available that analyses how governance mediates links between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. • The literature that exists is dominated by forests, policy instruments and sub-Saharan Africa. • Locally owned and inclusive governance increases the potential for ecosystem services to deliver on poverty alleviation. • Co-existence of multiple governance systems make causality hard to trace, but creates opportunities as well as challenges. • Suitable incentives are needed for governance to mediate positive links between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. Many efforts to improve the sustainable management of renewable natural resources in low- and middle-income countries seek to achieve 'win-win' outcomes – improved ecosystem health and improved livelihoods. Yet achieving such win–win outcomes is challenging, since many variables affect the potential for synergies. These variables include the quality and performance of governance. We conducted a systematic mapping of the literature and a thematic synthesis to identify how governance mediates relationships between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. The systematic mapping focused on identifying which components of governance are studied and how much attention each geographic region and natural resource has received. We found that the literature is 'clumped', with some governance components, geographic areas and sectors studied well, and others poorly. The thematic synthesis drew on 191 papers and found very little literature that looked at the three areas of governance, ecosystem health/services and poverty alleviation/livelihoods together in detail, with little evidence of interdisciplinary investigation. Much of the research instead focuses on either governance itself or governance and livelihoods or governance and ecosystem health/services. Three key analytical themes were identified in response to the research question, which are that: locally owned and inclusive governance increases the potential for ecosystem services to deliver on improved livelihoods; there are often multiple governance structures and systems in place making causality difficult to trace, though such multiplicity creates opportunities for improved governance, ecosystem health and livelihoods as well as challenges; and, appropriate and adequate incentives are needed for governance to mediate positive links between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Analysis of potential of Business-NGO partnership to alleviate poverty in Ghana. • Partnerships for development risk merely serving the interests of the business. • Partnership assessment frameworks must focus on impact potential for the poor. • Assessment framework for impact potential of partnerships for development is proposed. Over the past two decades, research as well as practice have praised the promise of cross-sector partnerships as the new transnational governance mechanism for reaching international development goals. Although there is general consensus that partnerships have the potential to contribute to development in the Global South, there is, however, increasing suspicion that in practice, they often do not. On the basis of an empirical analysis of a North-South Business-NGO partnership for poverty alleviation in Ghana, we show that existing assessment frameworks in the management literature are useful but insufficient for assessing partnerships in a development context. Through an integration of theoretical and empirical insights, we propose a novel framework, Partnerships for Development , which puts forward organizational preconditions for cross-sector partnerships to produce societal impact in the Global South, giving way to an assessment system for cross-sector partnerships in terms of their impact potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We evaluate the implementation and potential impact of solar energy-based poverty reduction program in Qinghai, China. • PV stations, precisely planned to fulfill 'targeted' intervention, were aggregated into larger PV farms in implementation. • It is challenging to precisely target the poor, improve income, facilitate energy transition, and enhance local capacity. • Future energy-based development needs to sufficiently consider local contexts and promote local engagement. In 2014, China initiated a nationwide poverty reduction campaign through deploying photovoltaic (PV) systems in its vast rural areas, which aims to support over 2 million households. Despite the significant socioeconomic benefits anticipated by policy-makers, it remains unclear regarding the challenges of implementing such an ambitious program in remote rural areas and its effect on poverty reduction. Focusing on Qinghai, a province that serves as the testbed for solar energy development in China but suffers chronic poverty, we aim to assess implementation status of the program, and examine whether and how solar energy-based development affects rural household well-being and generates socioeconomic spillovers. Using data from multiple sources, including household survey, interviews, policy documents, and large-scale socioeconomic covariates, as well as advanced statistical and spatial analyses, we find there have been substantial adjustments to the plan of building small-scale PV stations across poor villages throughout Qinghai. While total installation capacity was met, the 97 planned PV stations in 39 counties were aggregated into 24 medium- to large-scale PV farms in 27 counties. We also find substantial challenges to precisely target the poor, improve their income, facilitate a transition in household use of energy, and enhance local capacity for economic development. Future PV-based intervention programs need to sufficiently consider local contexts and demands, and promote local engagement to achieve the twin goals of sustainable energy transition and poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Tourism contributes to employment overall, but precarious work conditions and low pay may limit opportunities for poverty alleviation. • The opportunities for tourism-led inclusive growth decrease as destinations are developed or redeveloped to maximise tourist growth and spend. • Economic linkages to local economies are weakened despite the clear potential for strengthening backward linkages in food and non-food sectors. • Low-income households and SME businesses are most affected by large-scale tourism projects with loss of land, business premises and livelihoods. • Privileging large capital, foreign firms and crony conglomerates is a regional trend and a major hurdle for tourism-led inclusive growth policy. Tourism is perceived as driving economic growth for developing countries by generating employment, income and government revenue. In debates over the relationship between economic growth and poverty alleviation, the inclusive growth paradigm emerged in World Bank, OECD and other development publications, becoming a UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 8). However, inclusive growth remains highly contested, and specifically, tourism's role in economic growth has been little discussed. This paper contributes to the debate by interrogating tourism-led inclusive growth using evidence from developing economies in South-East Asia, a region with booming international tourism. It raises the fundamental question whether tourism-led growth can be inclusive in the short- to medium-term, drawing on evidence from fieldwork in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar. Fieldwork utilised a rapid rural appraisal approach using qualitative methods, mainly semi-structured interviews. Although tourism can generate employment overall, this can be precarious and poorly paid, limiting opportunities for poverty alleviation. Tourism-led growth may widen inequalities in host communities and weaken backward linkages to the local economy, despite its potential for strengthening such linkages to food and non-food sectors. Remoteness and transportation also weaken such linkages. Low-income households and locally owned businesses are most affected by the construction of large-scale tourism projects – which although increasing overall tourist arrivals and expenditure - can result in the loss of land, business premises and livelihoods. In addition, privileging large capital, foreign firms and crony conglomerates is a regional trend and a major obstacle for tourism-led inclusive growth policy. Ownership patterns and destination governance also play critical roles in defining a destination's direction/pace of development, steering it towards or away from tourism-led inclusive growth. Given tourism's significance for many developing countries, the paper contributes to wider debates over inclusive growth both for theorising, and in its policy relevance for national development strategies and poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key critique of the use of randomized experiments in development economics is that they largely have been used for micro-level interventions that have far less impact on poverty than sustained growth and structural transformation. I make a distinction between two types of policy interventions and the most appropriate research strategy for each. The first are transformative policies like stabilizing monetary policy or moving people from poor to rich countries, which are difficult to do, but where the gains are massive. Here case studies, theoretical introspection, and before-after comparisons will yield "good enough" results. In contrast, there are many policy issues where the choice is far from obvious, and where, even after having experienced the policy, countries or individuals may not know if it has worked. I argue that this second type of policy decision is abundant, and randomized experiments help us to learn from large samples what cannot be simply learnt by doing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The small pilot CFE transformed into a large, highly profitable timber enterprise. • The CFE employed local people and generated over USD1.5 million in benefits. • Keys to success included partnerships, improved productivity, and market access. • Assistance is needed for new CFEs to overcome initial start-up costs. • Consistently applied research tools are essential for CFE financial analysis. After more than two decades of investment by donors and governments in community forest management (CFM) initiatives for timber production from natural tropical forests, also known as community-based forest enterprises (CFEs), the sustainability of this livelihood alternative aimed at improved prosperity remains uncertain. Although many studies have focused on the environmental and social dimensions of CFEs, very little is known about their financial viability and socio-economic impacts, even though these elements are critical to ensuring the broad potential benefits of CFM. Furthermore, the lack of a consistent methodology for financial analyses severely limits the ability to learn from CFE case studies across initiatives and time. In an effort to measure the financial viability and identify critical factors that contribute to the poverty-alleviation potential of CFE timber production, we applied a simplified tool for financial analysis in collaboration with a CFE in the Brazilian Amazon three times over six years. The CFE operates in a national forest and is organized as a cooperative with more than 200 members from local communities experiencing high rates of poverty. We analyzed changes in labor productivity and the growth in incomes generated for seasonal and full-time workers, the value of goods and services purchased from the local economy, profits generated, and the overall financial viability of the timber operation. During the study period, the cooperative: (1) demonstrated substantial gains in efficiency and financial viability due to increasing returns to labor inputs, consistent with a model of learning-by-doing; (2) quadrupled the value of labor payments to local communities; and (3) generated substantial other economic benefits. We discuss strategies used by the CFE to improve its financial viability over time, maximize income opportunities for local residents, and respond to financial, social, and political challenges. Our findings indicate the importance of initial support from governments and other partners for start-up capital, subsidized access to trainings and technical assistance, and navigating complex bureaucratic systems, and the positive effect that improved productivity over time, scale economies, and access to markets can have in influencing the poverty-alleviation potential of CFE timber production initiatives in the tropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Tree plantations have expanded rapidly at the global scale. This paper examines the possibilities for smallholders to engage in plantations as a potential means for poverty alleviation. The paper analyzes the possibilities through an empirical study of household tree growing in rural Vietnam, with a focus on differences in the capacities of households to gain land endowments and translate endowments into tree entitlements. Employing Heckman regression models and qualitative institutional analyses, the paper finds that better-off households are more likely to possess forestland, grow trees, and invest in plantations than poor ones. In addition, land, plantations, and investment tend to be larger for the better-off than the poor. Better-off households are in a better position to engage in tree plantations due to, among other factors, the institutional mechanisms differentiating household access to land and finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]