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The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are based on the Agenda 2030 according to which ‘no one is left behind’, highlighting the need for inclusive citizenship at all levels. This article examines self-help groups in rural Tanzania as potential arenas for inclusive citizenship, which is defined as bottom-up practices of membership, participation, and livelihood enhancement. However, inclusive citizenship is also characterised by exclusions. Therefore, while acknowledging the important contribution of self-help groups for development, this article scrutinises the question of patterns of exclusion, first, in practices of self-help groups, and second, in the relationships between self-help groups and their wider environments. Based on participant observation, individual interviews, and focus groups discussions in three villages in Mpwapwa District in Tanzania, we found exclusions in the process of establishing groups, while participating in the groups, and in relation to the community and the wider socio-economic system. The findings show how less privileged members of a community are easily excluded from the groups based on criteria related to wealth and perceived trustworthiness, and how the improvements in livelihoods, capacities, and collective action remain local, and do not expand to engagement in wider decision-making nor to addressing the root causes of poverty. peerReviewed

In this era of globalization, with social problems extending across social and geographical boundaries, partnerships between governments and international organizations are key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Agriculture is essential to reducing poverty in Cameroon. Since 2002, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has contributed to agricultural development through various projects in Cameroon. However, research has not been conducted to determine the contributions of agricultural development to poverty reduction. The aim of this study is to outline current agricultural problems and international cooperation projects in Cameroon. A social inquiry involving the collection of qualitative and quantitative data was conducted to assess whether agricultural projects have contributed to increasing income and alleviating other multidimensional indicators of poverty amongst the beneficiaries. In this paper, we provide useful recommendations with respect to solving the problem of poverty and achieving the SDGs. The analysis revealed that agriculture projects have significantly contributed to an increase in income, wellbeing and standard of living of the project beneficiaries. African countries, such as Cameroon, need to address poverty by improving the agricultural sector because these nations cannot currently maintain a stable crop production. International cooperation in the agricultural sector can help to increase crop yields, incomes and quality of life.

Africa's rural population continues to expand rapidly, and labor productivity in agriculture and many rural-off farm activities remains low. This review uses the lens of a dual economy and the associated patterns of agricultural, rural, and structural transformation to review the evolution of Africa's rural employment and its inclusiveness. Many African countries still find themselves in an early stage of the agricultural and rural transformation. Given smaller sectoral productivity gaps than commonly assumed, greater size effects, and larger spillovers, investment in agriculture and the rural off-farm economy remains warranted to broker the transition to more and more productive rural employment. The key policy questions thus become how best to invest in the agri-food system (on and increasingly also off the farm) and how best to generate demand for nonagricultural goods and services that rural households can competitively produce. Informing these choices continues to present a major research agenda, with digital technologies, the imperative of greening, and intra-African liberalization raising many unarticulated and undocumented opportunities and challenges.

Abia state faces severe soil erosion problem which affects agricultural production and poverty of crop farmers. The use of vetiver grass strips technology (Vgt) helps control soil erosion, enhance crop yield, increase farmers’ income and reduce poverty. However, there is a dearth of information on the effect of adoption of Vgt. on poverty in Abia State. Therefore, the poverty status of crop farmers’ adopters in Abia State was investigated. 250 farming households were randomly selected proportionate to the size of the cells. Data on socio-economics of the farmers, awareness and adoption of Vgt, inputs and outputs of crops, expenditure on food and non-food items were collected using a structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke model, and probit regression at α0.05. The results showed that the average age of the respondents was 48 years. The household size and farm-size were 6 members and 2ha. 59.2% of the respondents were aware of Vgt but 49.6% adopted. Most of the adopters of Vgt were females with farm size of 1.57 ha, and 42.7% of them had tertiary education. Adoption of Vgt reduced poverty incidence by 21.0% for the adopters. The study recommends effective extension services for farmers. Vgt being low-cost help to reduce the poverty level of the farmers and hence government should invest more resources on this technology. Further research should be on poverty reduction and involving of government intervention programme in the study area.

Sapera goat is a dairy goat resulting from a cross between a Saanen buck and an Ettawah cross doe. These small ruminants are reared by rural households for poverty reduction and undernutrition prevention. Breeding of Sapera goat through artificial insemination (AI) technique was expected to accelerate the increase in population. Unfortunately, the frozen semen of Sapera buck is not available yet. This study aims to determine the effect of the distance between semen straw and liquid nitrogen surface during pre-freezing process on the quality of frozen semen of Sapera goats. Semen was obtained from 1.5 years old Sapera buck. The ejaculates were diluted in tris-egg yolk extender to obtain a concentration of 120 x 106 spermatozoa/mL, then equilibrated at 5°C for one hour. The extended semen was packaged in 0.5 mL French straws (60 x 106 spermatozoa/straw). The filled straws were pre-frozen in the cold handling cabinet (Minitube, Germany) held at 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 cm above liquid nitrogen respectively for T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, and T6 groups, each with four replicates. After pre-freezing for eight minutes the straws were immediately plunged, and stored in liquid nitrogen (-196°C) for two days, followed by quality assessment. The best post-thawed motility (41.75 ± 2.06 %), viability (49.00 ± 0.82 %) and morphological abnormalities (4.75 ± 0.96 %) were obtained from pre-freezing stage with a distance of 10 cm. It could be concluded that in tris-egg yolk extender, post-thawed spermatozoa viability and motility of Sapera buck were qualified for AI when fresh semen was pre-frozen at 10 cm distance of straws from the surface of liquid nitrogen for eight minutes.

Remittances have always played a central role in strengthening the economies of low-income and middle-income developing countries. The remittances have also provided a phenomenal support to the economy of Uzbekistan, which is the third leading recipient country of foreign remittances in the Central Asian region after Kyrgzstan and Tajikistan. There is a strong need to investigate the impact of foreign remittances upon poverty reduction in case of Uzbekistan. This study has empirically investigated the impact of remittances on poverty in Uzbekistan by taking the variables like remittances, poverty size, capital formation, per capita GDP, savings and unemployment for the period of 2008-2019. Ordinary Least Square Regression was applied, and the results show an insignificant relationship between foreign remittances and poverty reduction. The reason could be that remittances in Uzbekistan are not pro-poor as mostly the workers from the rich families migrate to Russia. Furthermore most of the migrant workers prefer to settle down in Russia along with their families.

The first Sustainable Development Goal expresses the global concern in poverty eradication. We looked at the theory of poverty reduction with a long-term perspective in mind to confirm the congruence of modern approaches and their compliance with the principles of sustainable development. Despite clear signs of targeting Sustainable development goals to the future, we have found that future poverty needs deep discussion. We researched legal acts, policies and scientific sources to prove the possibility and suitability of recognising future poverty as a valid form of poverty. We considered the main possible difficulties that will challenge initiatives of future poverty exhausting. Finally, we proposed several perspective directions of further research to include the future poverty concept into the agenda of governments and supranational organisations.

This paper evaluates the minimum living standard guarantee program (Dibao) in rural China using several methods including the income approach, the multidimensional poverty approach, and a proxy means test approach. We find that the targeting accuracy of the program appears greater the more comprehensive the evaluation method used—but all these methods find low levels of targeting accuracy. Because Dibao fund allocation is largely decided by the villagers, who take a more holistic view in selecting “poor” households than the various evaluation methods, we argue that the low targeting efficacy may be due to the lack of comprehensive evaluation method, as opposed to the low targeting of the program itself. This paper argues that the community-based targeting used by the Dibao program may be a better way to combat poverty in many developing countries, as it requires less administrative capacity and overcomes the difficulties of identifying poor households that qualify for assistance.

Poverty is associated with experiences that can powerfully shape a child’s development and health. Young children growing up in poverty tend to score lower on measures of cognitive and socio-emotional development and are at high risk for developing multiple forms of psychopathology across their lifespan (Evans & English, 2002; Miller, Machlin, McLaughlin, & Sheridan, 2021; Peverill et al., 2021; Reiss, 2013). One avenue by which poverty may contribute to these disparities is by altering the function of brain systems that support emotion processing in children (Farah, 2017; Hao & Farah, 2020; Noble & Giebler, 2020). A well-established measure of emotion processing is frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), an index of the relative difference between left and right alpha activity over frontal regions of the brain derived from electroencephalography (EEG; Davidson, 2000; Harmon-Jones, Gable, & Peterson, 2010; Reznik & Allen, 2018). FAA is thought to reflect individual differences in approach and avoidance/withdrawal motivational tendencies across development, such that higher FAA (i.e., greater left vs. right frontal cortical activity) is associated with increased positive affect and better emotional regulation abilities, whereas lower FAA (i.e., greater right vs. left frontal cortical activity) is linked to greater negative affect and less skill at emotion regulation (Coan & Allen, 2004; Cuevas & Bell, 2022; Marshall & Fox, 2007; Reznik & Allen, 2018). Additionally, young children with lower FAA tend to show greater internalizing behaviour (Baving, Laucht, & Schmidt, 2002; Perizzolo et al., 2017; Santesso, Reker Dana, Schmidt, & Segalowitz, 2006; Fox, Schmidt, Calkins, Rubin, & Coplan, 1996) and there is evidence that lower FAA can predict the onset of depression and anxiety in adolescents and adults (Blackhart, Minnix, & Kline, 2006; Nusslock et al., 2011; Pössel, Lo, Fritz, & Seemann, 2008; Stewart & Allen, 2018). Combined, these data suggest that FAA may be an early life marker of risk for emotional dysfunction and psychopathology. A large body of research further suggests that exposure to socioeconomic disadvantage, as well as to other forms of adversity (e.g., institutionalization, childhood maltreatment, foster care, challenging parenting behaviour, and parental depression), is associated with lower FAA in children and adolescents (Blaisdell, Barker, Giuliano, & Fisher, 2020; Hane & Fox, 2006; Hane, Henderson, Reeb‐Sutherland, & Fox, 2010; Miskovic, Schmidt, Georgiades, Boyle, & MacMillan, 2009; Peltola et al., 2014; Tomarken, Dichter, Garber, & Simien, 2004) and interventions that reduce deprivation are related to higher FAA in children (McLaughlin, Fox, Zeanah, & Nelson, 2011), suggesting that poverty may enhance risk for psychopathology by altering FAA early in life. Despite correlational evidence linking socioeconomic disadvantage and other forms of early life adversity to FAA, it is not clear whether poverty reduction may have a causal impact on FAA in young children. To address this gap, this study will leverage data from the Baby’s First Years study (BFY; https://www.babysfirstyears.com/). BFY is a longitudinal, randomized control trial in which 1000 mothers experiencing poverty were randomized to receive either high ($333 USD) or low ($20) monthly cash gifts for the first several years of their child’s life. A detailed description of the BFY study design can be found in Noble et al. (2021) and in the BFY preregistration on clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT03595546). Predictions about intent-to-treat (ITT) impacts on infant resting brain activity in four frequency bands (i.e., theta, alpha, beta and gamma) were pre-registered and findings from these analyses were recently published (see Troller-Renfree et al., 2022). The current pre-registration will build on this work by investigating ITT impacts on FAA, a robust correlate of emotional processing and promising marker of risk for psychopathology, in infants. Additionally, we will examine whether individual differences in FAA are associated with concurrent socioemotional development in infants from the low-cash gift (i.e., control) group. Data for the current study will be drawn from the BFY baseline survey and Age-1 assessment.

The prime goal of the United Nations is to reduce poverty to the barest minimum in all economies of the world. Africa seem to be worst hit by poverty. Nigeria, has also experienced the consequences of poverty in the forms of kidnapping for money, extortion and so on. Although Nigeria has recorded growth in the economy over time, such growth has not succeeded in transforming the economy. This study therefore sets out to examine the relationship between poverty reduction and economic growth through the channel of institutional quality. Trickle-down theory formed the basis for the study which covered the period 1990-2019. Correlation analysis, Granger-causality as well as the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model were used. The study found that an inverse but weak relationship exists between poverty reduction and economic growth. Also, a unidirectional flow exists from voice and accountability (an indicator of institutional quality) to poverty reduction. Moreover, the study found a strong but negative influence of the rule of law on poverty reduction. Therefore, enforcement of law and order is crucial to poverty reduction in Nigeria. In addition, government expenditure on health has had positive impact on poverty reduction, while government expenditure on education has had negative impact on poverty reduction. Hence, government investment in providing more health facilities will help to reduce poverty in Nigeria. However, government should reconsider public spending on education in Nigeria. Government intervention in education should be limited to regulation and the provision of those educational facilities that face the free-rider problem.

Economic growth necessitates the development of human capital and education. It plays a critical and necessary role in the formulation of income distribution policies and alleviating poverty. This study investigates the relationship through ordinary least square (OLS), fully-modified OLS and dynamic OLS models using panel data from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries from 1990 to 2018. According to the findings, imbalance plays an important role in influencing poverty and concludes that the government should embrace procedures that help improve pay distribution to reduce poverty at the strategy level. Furthermore, the findings state that a bi-directional Granger causality exists between schooling and poverty. In terms of strategy, SAARC countries should continue to increase the proportion of sustainable energy used for financial development, thereby decreasing the use of fossil energy for environmental improvements. Additionally, this study shows that the association of pay disparity hoses the positive effect of financial development on poverty, and it supports the contention that the degree of imbalance reduces the impact of comprehensiveness. Pay disparity is now a critical determinant of poverty.

Si bien la literatura de desastres naturales ha evidenciado un amplio consenso sobre los efectos negativos que estos shocks ocasionan a corto plazo sobre el desarrollo individual, sus consecuencias de largo plazo aún son materia de debate. En este trabajo se brinda una revisión de la literatura sobre este tópico. Si bien los resultados confirman una amplia heterogeneidad en la literatura empírica (según el tipo de desastre, país o región de análisis y horizonte temporal considerado), la mayor parte de los trabajos considerados tiende a reportar hallazgos consistentes con la idea de persistencia en el largo plazo de los efectos negativos. Así, surge que la exposición a desastres tiende a incrementar persistentemente la probabilidad de ser pobre o estar desempleado, de tener un bajo logro educativo, bajos ingresos o un deteriorado estatus de salud. De los hallazgos de esta revisión surgen cuatro recomendaciones de política. Primero, cada grupo de desastres provoca efectos diferentes y esto debe ser considerado en la implementación de acciones de preparación y mitigación. Segundo, las embarazadas y niños en sus primeros meses de vida (especialmente en los primeros 1000 días) deben ser especialmente protegidos, dado que los efectos de largo plazo se concentran en este subgrupo. Tercero, debido a que una mejora en la infraestructura básica reduce el riesgo de desastre, las acciones de preparación y mitigación frente a desastres deben entenderse en forma complementaria a aquellas de reducción de la pobreza. Cuarto, la política pública debe incorporar explícitamente la dimensión de género.

Kacang goats can be bred through artificial insemination techniques using liquid semen from a superior buck. The study was aimed to determine the quality of Kacang buck semen in chilled storage when green tea extract (GTE) was added to the semen extender. Specifically, 12 ejaculates from three Kacang bucks were diluted in skim milk–egg yolk extender containing 0 mg, 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15 mg of GTE/100 mL. The extended semen was stored at 5°C, and its quality was evaluated daily for 5 d. Comparatively, semen with 0.10 mg of GTE/100 mL had the best quality (p

The high economic growth and increasing inequality have been the two main features of the Chinese economy since the end of the 1970s. The economic growth contributed to a substantial reduction in poverty, and the worsening income distribution contributed to an increase in poverty. The paper defines and measures patterns of growth through the poverty elasticity of income sources. It makes methodological contributions in the derivations of this elasticity. The paper analyzes the patterns of growth in Rural China in 2007–2013, utilizing the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP). The paper has developed a dynamic decomposition that identifies which policies are pro-poor and which are not. It has drawn many policy conclusions. The empirical results showed that economic growth has been unfavorable to the poor. It amounted to a loss of almost 25% of the growth rate. If China's objective is to eliminate poverty by 2020, such a degree of anti-poor growth should concern China's policymakers. They should make concerted efforts to have pro-poor policies that benefit the poor proportionally more than the non-poor. The paper has identified the income sources that lead to pro-poor outcomes, which help policymakers formulate pro-poor policies.

The study aimed at assessing the contribution of VUP in poverty reduction especially in Kigabiro sector. This study has general objective which is to assess the contribution of Vision 2020 Umurenge programme on poverty reduction supported by three specific objectives which are to assess the contribution of public works on poverty reduction, to determine the contribution of financial services on poverty reduction, and also to evaluate the contribution of direct support services on poverty reduction especially in Kigabiro sector located in Rwamagana district, Eastern province. Internationally, poverty can describe different things in different part of the world to different people, but it can be defined as when people are not able to afford basic needs. USA has come a long way in addressing the problem, but progress seems to have slowed despite the recent years of economic recovery. In Africa, hundred millions of people in the poorer countries are worries only with survival and elementary needs and average poverty rate for sub-Saharan Africa stands at about 41 percent, and of the world’s 28 poorest countries, 27 are in sub-Saharan Africa all with a poverty rate above 30 percent. Referring to Rwanda, because may people in Rwanda live in rural area, they also live-in poverty line which is so hard for GoR to answer each Rwandan’s problem but poverty alleviation program has been established in order to reduce gap of lower bad living condition of Rwandans due to genocide took place in 1994 against Tutsi. In 1994 the poverty rate was 78%, in year of 2000 poverty rate was 60.4%, 2011 poverty rate was 44.9%. 2014 poverty rate was 39.1% and in 2020 poverty rate was 20%. So, even if the poverty rate mentioned above are decreasing, poverty rate of 20% in 2020 is still high meaning that many people are in the poverty which is the main problem in this studies.

The employment opportunities in rural areas have signifi cantly decreased for the last few decades in India. Th erefore, Government of India introduced Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP) to create employment opportunities for ru ral people. Th e Programme is considered as a “silver bullet” for eradicating rural poverty and unemployment in India. Th e purpose of this empirical research study is to develop a new model for poverty reduction in rural India through this Programme. Th e novelty of this article is an attempt to develop an empirical research model that assists the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme when mapping the level of economics service quality and thereby enhance the same. Th is Programme provides an alternative source of livelihood, which will have an impact on reducing migration, restricting child labor, alleviating poverty, and making villages self-sustaining through productive assets creation such as road construction, cleaning up of water tanks, soil and water conservation work, etc. for which it has been considered as the largest anti-poverty programme in the world. Th e paper critically examines the implementation process of this Programme and its impact on tribal livelihoods. Th e following research methodology is used in the article: the data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Th e sampling procedure used for this study is stratifi ed random sampling. Th e stratifi cation is done based on the Taluks are Kumbakonam (Th anjavur District), Keeranur (Pudukottai District) and Nagappatinam (Nagappatinam District) of Tamilnadu state of South-India for the nature of region South, East, Centre, West and North while selecting the MGNREGP Employees from each category, non-probabilistic convenience and judgmental sampling technique is used. Th e fi ndings and conclusions of the study reveal that millions of rural poor with the inclusion of new works under this Programme could able to get some employment which supports their livelihoods. Eff orts are exerted to improve more transparency and accountability in implementing this programme to ensure that the benefi ts reach out to the poor and the needy villagers. Th e regression analysis revealed that the Poverty Eradication on the various dimensions of Economic Development, infl uenced Economic Development followed by Social Development. Th e visual representation of results suggest that the relationships between the dimensions of Economic Development, Social development resulted in a signifi cant impact on the mediated factor ‘Poverty Eradication’. Th e paper suggests the policy framework for the stakeholders in eff ective implementation of the Programme.

Can the United States dramatically reduce the number of its children living in poverty? This article summarizes key conclusions of the report issued by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's Committee on Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty by Half in 10 Years. These conclusions focus on the causal evidence linking poverty reduction and child well-being as well as a host of policy and program ideas directed toward poverty reduction. The Committee found that packages of work-oriented and income support program are able to simultaneously reduce child poverty and increase the number of adult workers in low-income families. Costs of these policies are also considered.

To design and implement effective post-COVID-19 macroeconomics policies to tackle poverty in SSA, policymakers need to understand the factors shaping poverty in the region. This paper investigates the effect of international remittances and financial development on poverty alleviation in 44 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 2010 to 2019. The instrumental variable generalised method of moment technique results indicated that while remittances increase poverty, financial development contributes significantly to poverty reduction. The results consistently revealed that remittances increase both male and female poverty rates, while financial development significantly reduces male and female poverty rates. Other factors such as economic growth, foreign direct investment, and trade openness contributed significantly to reducing poverty. In contrast, government expenditure and foreign aid were found to increase poverty rate in SSA. These results are robust to the Lewbel two-stage least squares estimator. The practical implications of these findings for post-COVID-19 macroeconomic policies for SSA are discussed.

While Myanmar achieved distinct progress in economic growth and poverty reduction over the past decade, extreme natural events; economic, political, and social crises; and the ongoing COVID- 19 shock pose serious challenges. This study complements previous analyses of poverty and vulnerability by providing a dynamic perspective for the period 2015– 2017. Given the lack of longitudinal household data, the analysis relies on the synthetic panels approach to further our understanding of transitions between different states— poverty, vulnerability, non- poverty— and the characteristics of the households associated with these transitions. Among the main results, we find that there was a relatively high probability for people, who were poor in 2015 to exit poverty in 2017,and that the probability of remaining in a vulnerable situation was non- negligible. Moreover, the results point to important differences in the probability of transitioning between different states depending on household and location characteristics. While the COVID- 19 shock has likely increased the proportion of households in the vulnerable and poor groups, these results highlight the need to focus on households with specific characteristics that make them more at risk of remaining or falling into poverty than the rest of the population in a context of diminishing poverty rates and localized vulnerability pockets.

Numerous studies in the literature have investigated the effect of financial development on poverty, and tend to report a poverty reduction effect of financial development. The present paper considers the issue the other way around, by examining the effect of poverty on financial development. In particular, it has investigated the financial development effect of poverty through the human capital channel. Additionally, it has examined whether the effect of poverty on financial development depends on countries' level of trade openness. The analysis is carried out using a sample of 136 countries (both developed and developing countries) over the period 1995–2017, and the two-step Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM). Results have shown that higher poverty rates undermine the development of the financial sector, and this effect works through the human capital development channel. In fact, higher poverty rates are associated with lower financial development in countries that accumulate less human capital. Furthermore, trade openness matters for the effect of poverty on financial development. Specially, higher poverty rates undermine the expansion of the financial sector in the context of lower levels of trade openness. Thus, greater trade openness helps to mitigate the negative financial development effect of poverty, and this negative effect may turn out to be positive for very high levels of trade openness.

The effectiveness of Aid for Trade (AfT) interventions, including with respect to recipient countries’ trade performance, has now been well explored in the literature. However, in spite of the voluminous literature on the poverty effect of the total official development aid, the effect of AfT flows on poverty has received little attention on the empirical front. This paper aims to contribute to the policy debate on this matter by investigating the effect of AfT flows on poverty in recipient countries. In particular, the analysis explores whether this effect translates through countries’ level of export product concentration, as the latter can influence income inequality, and hence the transformation of economic growth into poverty reduction in recipient countries. The empirical analysis, based on 100[Formula: see text]AfT recipient countries, has shown that AfT interventions are associated with poverty reduction in countries that diversify their export products, including toward manufacturing products. Additionally, AfT flows dampen the positive poverty effect of income inequality, and lead to greater poverty reduction in countries with a great extent of fiscal redistribution. Finally, the analysis has shown that AfT interventions mitigate the positive poverty effect of import product concentration. These results have important policy implications.

Poverty reduction and inclusive growth in poor rural areas attracted the increasing attention of governments and scholars around the world. We investigate financial literacy by conceptualizing its impacts on rural households’ poverty reduction, considering current and long-term economic income dynamics. Using a database from 2015 to 2017 China Household Finance Survey, we find that financial literacy has current and long-term effects on promoting rural households’ status by eliminating and effectively improving poverty (dynamic effects). Second, this study reveals that financial literacy and education have a significant complementary effect on rural households’ poverty reduction. The study distinguishes financial literacy from knowledge obtained through general education. Third, financial education is shown to significantly improve rural households’ financial literacy on and enhance poverty reduction. The policy implications of our findings include that the governments and financial institutions are also required to rigorously measure, understand and improve financial literacy. Reform of financial regulatory systems must include a national strategy for education projects and improvement in the quality and supervision of financial products and services.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight the importance of poverty reduction, and call for policy implementation that leads to the socio-economic development of impoverished people. However, there is a lack of knowledge about assessing individual-level socio-economic development, and how financial inclusion through microfinance can contribute to it. Therefore, the role of commercially operated Microfinance Banks (MFBs) is also considered to be controversial in the literature. This study assesses the overall socio-economic development by considering different sustainable livelihoods, multidimensional poverty, living standards, and social development measures. Thus, the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), and Living Standard Index (LSI) have been estimated to gauge poverty and improvements in living standards. Data comprising 503 customers of MFBs, and 500 control respondents, has been gathered through a survey to signify this impact for two years. This paper substantiates that the microfinance obtained from MFBs contributes positively towards sustainable livelihoods, multidimensional poverty reduction, and living standards. However, microfinance does not contribute to social development. Impoverished people, mainly women living in urban areas, reap more benefits from microfinance, than their rural counterparts. Overall, financial inclusion shall be a gateway to achieve the SDGs in the long run through the socio-economic development of an impoverished segment of the society.

These notes are aimed at anyone who wants to become or join an NGO in India. They are based on experience working in the Krishna Delta as a UK registered charity: the Divi Seema Foundation (DSF). D...

The paper reviewed the Waqf literature as a basis to analyze its contribution as a financial tool in addressing Poverty Reduction in Nigeria. The study is purely exploratory that relies on desktop research. The research uses previous studies for the analysis, which include news articles, government publications, and websites. The secondary data were obtained from the Holy Qur’an as the Primary source of Shari’ah (Islamic law), which were used to back most of the arguments put forward for the assessment of Waqf in the study area. The study concluded that Waqf played a vital role in reducing poverty in Nigeria. The study recommends the need of Waqf awareness to be created to enlighten the rich men in the society and also for the government to ensure proper and adequate management of Waqf institution. This will help Islamic value-centric policymakers, regulatory authorities, investors, and researchers to gain an overall insight into the potentials of Waqf as a financial tool in reducing poverty.

The implementation of poverty reduction policies in Makassar City is still reaping many problems. Various poverty reduction programs launched by the government have not been able to eradicate poverty effectively. In the implementation of these various poverty reduction programs, the response of the target group tends to be negative, causing fragmentation at the level of implementation. Therefore, this study aims to identify and analyze the process of implementing poverty reduction policies in Makassar City from the perspective of group behavior. The research method used is a qualitative method with data collection techniques through in-depth interviews, field observations, and review of poverty documents. The research data were analyzed by qualitative analysis. The results show that the community is basically very responsive to the existence of poverty reduction policies in the form of multi-purpose social security assistance distributed by the Makassar City Social Service because some of them feel helped by the assistance, but some also feel that the policies are not well targeted due to incomplete data collection. equitable and fair. The inaccuracy of policy targets (assistance for beneficiaries) for the poor causes social jealousy in the community which has an impact on street level publicity and policy performance so that it does not significantly reduce poverty in Makassar City.

Edible insects are increasingly recognised as a source of nutritional security, poverty reduction and overall household wellbeing, particularly in rural sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, for instance, edible insects such as the African palm weevil larvae are integral part of traditional dishes, which are widely consumed among different strata of the Ghanaian society. Following the limited supply of these larvae from the traditional source, deliberate efforts at domestication are being promoted as an investment option in Ghana. This paper uses the case study approach based on data from a modern weevil larvae (akokono) micro-farm in the Ashanti region to analyse the financial viability of an insect-based business to guide future investment decisions. Standard capital budgeting tools such as net present value (NPV), benefit-cost ratio (BCR), internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period were employed to assess the financial viability of an akokono micro-farm of 5.47×7.62 m dimension. The results show that a capital expenditure of Gh₵ 5,333.17 (US$ 935.61) is required to establish the akokono micro-farm. With a five-year project life and cost of capital of 33.5%, the investment appraisal generates a positive NPV (Gh₵ 6,065.89 = US$ 1,164.3), BCR that is greater than unity (1.34), and an IRR (37%) which is above the current lending rate on the financial market in Ghana. The paper concludes that domestication of palm weevil larvae is financially viable at the micro-scale even in the face of pessimistic assumptions. These findings have practical implications for small-scale enterprise development in addressing problems of malnutrition and unemployment among vulnerable groups like women and youth in the rural economy of Ghana.

Poverty has become paramount, and it is been given much emphasis in different aspects since the declaration and introduction of the Zakat institutions in Yobe State Nigeria. The declaration focuses strongly on the reduction of state poverty within the recent activities of Islamic Financial Institutions as Islam provides an essential tool to completely prove in reducing poverty. The objective of the study is to assess the role of Zakat in addressing some levels of poverty reduction in Yobe State, Nigeria. A survey was conducted within 17 local governments of Yobe State, in which 20 questionnaires were served to each local government with total of 340. The study employed factor analysis for assessing the relation between the variables adopted, and descriptive and independent t-test analyses are considered for the analyses. The result shows that the Zakat has played a significant role in addressing poverty reductions in Yobe State, Nigeria.

This paper provides a systematic assessment of the alleged exceptionality of Malaysia’s development progress and its likely explanations, in comparative perspective. Using cross-country regressions...

In Papua Province, poverty has become an important problem common in other regions in Indonesia and worldwide, especially in developing countries. The Millennium Development Goals targets have pushed the Indonesian government to emphasize poverty reduction programs throughout Indonesia. Rural areas in Papua, particularly villages, have been the target point for the poverty alleviation program because many in rural areas experience poverty that is worse than urban areas. Rural development is considered an effective method for poverty reduction. Meanwhile, the development program as a whole has neglected rural communities. In Papua Province, poverty reduction programs have been implemented ineffectively due to part of the village development program, the top-down approach of the government, and the absence of competent resources. So far, village development policies have been implemented without considering village potential, spatial arrangements, holistic approaches, and lack of budget allocations. In addition, the role of village government shows an ineffective performance. Thus, this study aspires to identify how much influence communication, resources, disposition, and bureaucratic structure have on poverty reduction in Papua Province. This study indicates that communication, resources, dispositions, and bureaucratic structures affect village development policies and influence poverty reduction in Papua Province. This research also shows that the lower the performance of the implementation of village development policies indicated by four variables, the less effective it is in poverty alleviation in Papua Province. In this study, a novelty that previous researchers have not found has been found, namely; that in the effectiveness of poverty reduction, it is necessary to develop an effective communication so that program implementation can run optimally, and it needs to be supported by the character or behavior of the implementers of the village development program.

The research was undertaken to access the impact of Non-Government organizations (NGOs) on poverty reduction in Makurdi local government area of Benue State. Using descriptive approach to analyze the primary data obtained from the respondents through a structured questionnaires and semi-structured interview administered to the staff and officials of selected NGOs in the study area. Result shows that the respondents confirm benefits in terms of increased income, use of good transportation means, good accommodation, feeding and sleeping materials. Despite these benefits, there were challenges confronting the NGOs in the study area. One of the biggest challenges was finance to execute all their programmes as well as disburse to beneficiaries as loans and grants. The activities of NGOs were found only limited to Makurdi while the majority of the people were residing outside the state capital. Therefore, recommendations made include: awareness creation for more participation by people in entrepreneurship and financial independence since it is only through such skills that they can propel themselves out of poverty and the NGOs should seek for more sources of funding including soliciting financial support from the international community to enable it fund diversified economic activities of the vulnerable people in the country.

Over the last three decades, microfinance has featured in the Global South development policies as a potential contributor to inclusive financial services, poverty reduction and women empowerment. However, why women are the primary customers of microfinance banks and institutions remains an ongoing research subject. This article presents a study of women in Rivers State, Nigeria, using qualitative research approach. It was found that microfinance financial inclusion objectives in Nigeria are targeted at the active poor—those who own small business and rely on group lending methodology and collateral substitutes to minimize lending risks. Of the active poor, microfinance prioritizes women because of gender stereotypes that women have more “integrity,” show more commitment to loan contracts and are more susceptible to social pressure and sanctions. Targeting women is, therefore, a deliberate and strategic policy to advance the interest of microfinance backers. Therefore, this author contends that microfinance is not a scheme that provides whole-scale financial inclusion and poverty reduction. Instead, it seeks to leverage income-generating activities of the active poor to extract profits. Consequently, the article contributes towards illuminating the role of gender and local context in microfinance practices.

The relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction, although well established, is heterogeneous. The heterogeneity stems not only from socio-economic factors but also from the structure of output growth. In Indonesia, the secondary sector seems to be less poverty-reducing than other sectors. This study examines the impact of sectoral growth on poverty in Indonesia, with particular attention to the disaggregated secondary sector, and also analyzes the relative sensitivities of poverty reduction to the labor-intensive and non-labor-intensive sectors. The empirical analysis uses provincial panel data on Indonesia for the period 2003–2018 and employs the pooled OLS method. The results show that sectoral growth has little effect on improving the condition of the poor in Indonesia. Nevertheless, this conclusion has a high potential to be inappropriate. Perhaps a better conclusion on the linkage between sectoral growth and poverty can be drawn if the characteristics of mining-driven and nonmining-driven provinces in Indonesia are taken into account. In nonmining-driven provinces, the secondary sector pales in comparison to services in alleviating poverty. Six-sector disaggregation of the economy (with or without controlling for the distributional effect through labor intensity) reveals that, within the secondary sector, the subsectors that significantly reduce poverty in nonmining-driven provinces are mining and construction. Mining-driven provinces, however, do not display a linkage between sectoral growth and poverty. The significant role of labor intensity in determining whether sectoral growth is pro-poor suggests that adopting policies that lean toward discouraging businesses from employing labor is inadvisable.

There is growing science and policy interest in multi-sectoral action, but bridging the gap between family planning and urban development is challenging. This paper analyses the experience of integrating these sectors in sub-Saharan Africa via building research capacity. Family-planning researchers were supported to link with urban-development actors, one goal being to generate lessons on the process of getting their research into the policy domain. The urban governance sector’s dynamic and complex nature was a particular challenge for family-planning researchers; in future, structured familiarisation with a sector might facilitate multi-sectoral action and better enable researchers to link with the policy world.

The article describes the genesis and application of a training programme for analytical and research skills for NGOs in the ex-soviet republics of Central Asia. This modular course was used in dif...

The examination of poverty-causing factors and their mechanisms of action in poverty-stricken villages is an important topic associated with poverty reduction issues. Although the individual or background effects of multilevel influencing factors have been considered in some previous studies, the spatial effects of these factors are rarely involved. By considering nested geographic and administrative features and integrating the detection of individual, background, and spatial effects, a bilevel hierarchical spatial linear model (HSLM) is established in this study to identify the multilevel significant factors that cause poverty in poor villages, as well as the mechanisms through which these factors contribute to poverty at both the village and county levels. An experimental test in the region of the Wuling Mountains in central China revealed the following findings. (1) There were significant background and spatial effects in the study area. Moreover, 48.28% of the overall difference in poverty incidence in poor villages resulted from individual effects at the village level. Additionally, 51.72% of the overall difference resulted from background effects at the county level. (2) Poverty-causing factors were observed at different levels, and these factors featured different action mechanisms. Village-level factors accounted for 14.29% of the overall difference in poverty incidence, and there were five significant village-level factors. (3) The hierarchical spatial regression model was found to be superior to the hierarchical linear model in terms of goodness of fit. This study offers technical support and policy guidance for village-level regional development.

Objective: Financial inclusion through digital means has initiated the concept of digital financial inclusion (DFI) which is intended to reach out vulnerable community without having digital financial access. This study is an attempt to analyze the various prospects and challenges concerning digital financial inclusion. As the main intention of this study was to assess the challenges and prospects of digital financial inclusion, ABCD analysis also has been undertaken to assess its Advantages, Benefits, Constraints and Disadvantages. Methodology: This research is conducted through secondary sources in order to provide a full-fledged evidence-based study on the prospects and challenges of digital financial inclusion. The semi-systematic review is done through various published reports and articles from RBI, ABD, G20, Springer, Tailor & Francis, Emarald, Google Scholar, Srinivas Publications, Research Gate, SSRN etc. Findings: The result of extensive review revealed that digital financial inclusion acts as a major catalyst for socio-economic, sustainable and inclusive prosperity. Various challenges concerning digital financial inclusion includes lack of financial literacy, inefficient utilization of technology by the rural population, lack of trust and data privacy concern. Apart from that the study strongly argued that digital financial inclusion promotes socio-economic development of the citizens and it also reduces cost, improves efficiency and competitiveness of the service providers. Practical Implications: This research provides a guide for the financial institutions and FinTech companies to realize the various challenges tackled by the citizens to improve their service delivery and provide better digital services. It also acts as a source of information to the users of DFI to understand the benefits of being digitally inclusive for their finance. Originality/value: As a secondary data based study it may provide overall view on DFI and may help the policy makers and financial regulators to promote financial inclusive growth; but the concept of DFI can also be better understood by conducting a primary survey, hence it acts as limitations of the study. Paper type: Case Study

Objective: Financial inclusion through digital means has initiated the concept of digital financial inclusion (DFI) which is intended to reach out vulnerable community without having digital financial access. This study is an attempt to analyze the various prospects and challenges concerning digital financial inclusion. As the main intention of this study was to assess the challenges and prospects of digital financial inclusion, ABCD analysis also has been undertaken to assess its Advantages, Benefits, Constraints and Disadvantages. Methodology: This research is conducted through secondary sources in order to provide a full-fledged evidence-based study on the prospects and challenges of digital financial inclusion. The semi-systematic review is done through various published reports and articles from RBI, ABD, G20, Springer, Tailor & Francis, Emarald, Google Scholar, Srinivas Publications, Research Gate, SSRN etc. Findings: The result of extensive review revealed that digital financial inclusion acts as a major catalyst for socio-economic, sustainable and inclusive prosperity. Various challenges concerning digital financial inclusion includes lack of financial literacy, inefficient utilization of technology by the rural population, lack of trust and data privacy concern. Apart from that the study strongly argued that digital financial inclusion promotes socio-economic development of the citizens and it also reduces cost, improves efficiency and competitiveness of the service providers. Practical Implications: This research provides a guide for the financial institutions and FinTech companies to realize the various challenges tackled by the citizens to improve their service delivery and provide better digital services. It also acts as a source of information to the users of DFI to understand the benefits of being digitally inclusive for their finance. Originality/value: As a secondary data based study it may provide overall view on DFI and may help the policy makers and financial regulators to promote financial inclusive growth; but the concept of DFI can also be better understood by conducting a primary survey, hence it acts as limitations of the study. Paper type: Case Study

Purpose- Lately after the occurrence of the Covid-19, there has been a substantial wave of the foreign aid funds from developed to developing economies aimed to back up the most effected countries. The concept of the foreign aids with the primary goal to eradicate poverty is not new to economy and social development scholars since it has been researched for decades. Methodology- The poverty eradication was adopted from what so called the Millennium Development goal (1990-2015) and Sustainable development goal that is expected to come to an end in 2030. This study qualitatively accesses the impact and the effectiveness of the foreign aid given to most developing countries with the aim to eradicate the poverty level. Findings- The main objective of this paper is having an empirical conclusion on the effectiveness of the foreign aid through the critical empirical reviews of the both quantitative and qualitative works done by different scholars in different countries. Conclusion- The study concluded that quantitatively it is illogical to conclude weather the foreign aid really contributes to poverty reduction in recipient’s country or not. This backed up by the presence of both empirical studies both in favour and against of foreign aids. The study further revealed that the effectiveness of the foreign aid toward eradication of poverty depend on many factors on both recipients’ and donor countries. Those factors include conditions attached to aids, allocation of the aids to targeted areas, authority of the states in decision making related to foreign aid and political influence. Finally, the study suggested that for efficient use the foreign aids countries should have a clear stipulated goals and area of prioritization. The countries also should have a clear monitoring mechanism to supervise the progress of the funds expenditure over time Keywords: International review, foreign aid, millennium development goals, poverty reduction, qualitative analysis. JEL Codes: F35, I30, I32

Children growing up in poverty are disproportionately affected by diseases, including HIV. In this study, we use data from Suubi+Adherence, a longitudinal randomized control trial (2012–2018) with 702 adolescents living with HIV (ALWHIV), to examine the effectiveness of a family-based multifaceted economic empowerment (EE) intervention in addressing economic instability and multidimensional poverty among ALWHIV in Southern Uganda. We constructed a Multidimensional Poverty Index of individual and household indicators, including health, assets, housing and family dynamics. We computed the proportion of multidimensionally poor children (H), estimated poverty intensity (A) and adjusted headcount ratio (M0). Using repeated measures at five-time points (baseline, years 1, 2, 3 and 4-post baseline) across two study arms: treatment (receiving the EE intervention) vs. control arm (not receiving EE), we find that both the incidence and proportion of multidimensional poverty decreased in the treatment arm vs. the control arm. Given that there is a direct link between economic instability and poor health outcomes, these findings are informative. They point to the potential for family EE interventions to decrease multidimensional poverty among vulnerable children, including ALWHIV, impacting their overall wellbeing and ability to meet their treatment needs and improve HIV care continuum outcomes.

Domestic revenue generation occupies a central domain in most countries, leading to continuous mapping of strategies towards its enhancement. Taxation is a dependable and foreseeable avenue to generate revenue for governments to fulfil their key obligations of employment creation, economic growth and infrastructural development, poverty reduction and state security. Despite these plausible arguments, tax revenues are minimal and tax bases narrow in developing countries. Contemporary tax debates point out that informal sector represents a lucrative fountain of tax revenue for governments, yet opponents of taxing the sector suggest that taxation might cripple small firms. Zimbabwe introduced presumptive tax in 2005, further enforcing to expand the tax base by including the sector into the tax basket in 2011. Researchers have focused on tax evasion and non-tax compliance when studying this sector, this paper focuses on the stakeholders perceptions on the impact of informal sector taxation on revenue generation and growth. This study adopted a sequential exploratory mixed method approach, argued to be ideal for under-researched areas such as this one. Key findings were that the current one size fit all tax framework suffocates small firms. Governments have to strike a balance between revenue mobilisation and the sector’s key economic contributions, without crippling informal firms. Key words: Informal sector, taxation, growth, stifling, revenue mobilisation.

The article reveals the essence of the concept of social protection and analyzes the activities of the social protection system in our country during the years of independence. The content of reforms aimed at reducing poverty in the Republic of Uzbekistan is highlighted. Strategic directions for poverty reduction have been explored.

Ghana is an example of a developing economy where both output and employment have shifted from agriculture to services and where structural change has not followed the standard pattern observed for...

Many studies at the macro-level have proved the direct influence of savings and credit on poverty reduction. This study aimed to correct this finding and employed commercial banks as the research c...

Education is the basis for poverty eradication and economic growth. Education provides the aim of this research is to explore educational and other environmental, economic and social determinants on poverty. The aim of this study is to measure an econometric estimation to measure the role of education on poverty reduction. The model was estimated using time series data from 1980 to 2018, using the Engle-Granger two-step co-integration technique, to obtain the economic long-term and short-term dynamic characteristics of education in reducing poverty rate in this era. This model is used to test the hypothesis that how education can uplift the economic progress of the country. Education significantly reduces the level of poverty, whereas the role of higher education seems more significant tool for alleviating poverty. The public and monetary sectors incorporate institutional features with relevant policy actions, while foreign sectors, particularly the oil sector, represent interactions with the rest of the world. A series of policy scenarios influence the industry-wide model, which is used to evaluate the government's various options for increasing economic productivity, resulting in sustained acceleration of growth and poverty reduction in the South Asian economics.

PurposeResearch on entrepreneurship toward poverty reduction has outlined how micro-level characteristics of entrepreneurs capture entrepreneurial opportunities in settings of poverty; however, little is known about the influence of previous military experience in this context. This paper investigates how previous military experience influences poverty-reduction entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses data from two main sources. First, individual-level and firm-level information come from a nationwide survey of founders of private enterprises. Second, province-level information is taken from the Marketization Index and the China Statistics Yearbook. An analysis of the Logit moderation model renders strong support for our conjectures.FindingsVia novel integration of imprinting theory and research on previous military experience, we propose that entrepreneurs with previous military experience have a strong sense of self-sacrifice, and as a result, are better able to participate in poverty-reduction entrepreneurship. In addition, we build on the resource availability and stakeholder expectations arguments and predict that the main effect of previous military experience on poverty-reduction entrepreneurship will be strengthened by reduced corporate philanthropy and increased government intervention.Originality/valueOur study adds to the extant literature in the following ways. First, it enriches the literature on entrepreneurship toward poverty reduction. Second, it contributes to imprinting theory in the entrepreneurial field. Third, it adds knowledge to the social entrepreneurship literature.