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Given the poverty challenges to sustainable development and its relationship with various macroeconomic factors, the aim of this research is to appraise the implications of energy security, economic growth, trade openness, and foreign direct investment (FDI) on the poverty in Sub-Saharan African (SAA) countries, which are at the forefront of the countries with the highest poverty. The data sample comprises 38 countries from this region, for the period of 2000–2021. The methodology applied consists of the AutoRegressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimator, with Pooled Mean Group (PMG) method in order to examine the short- and long-term relationship between variables. The main findings provide important evidence that the economic growth is not reflected in reduction of poverty in the current economic system of SSA countries, due to the fact that poverty is closely related to income distribution. Therefore, the need to support and redesign the economic growth system in SSA with policies that reduce poverty comes to the fore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the impact of a government-initiated CSR project on corporate misconduct using the unique setting of China's Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program. The difference-in-differences estimates show that firms participating in the TPA program engage in fewer misconduct activities than do their counterparts. This finding is robust to the parallel trends test, the placebo test, alternative regression specifications, alternative research designs, the reverse causality analysis, and the bivariate probit model with partial observability. Further analysis shows that TPA participation enhances the ability of external financial professionals to monitor performance by stimulating the dissemination of TPA-related incremental information, thereby contributing to the decline in corporate misconduct. The cross-sectional heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of TPA participation on corporate misconduct is more pronounced in firms with higher information asymmetry, with weaker political connections, and with weaker internal governance. Furthermore, we find evidence that TPA participation improves corporate financial performance but does not deteriorate information transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the various fundamental causes of rural poverty in China and justifies its eradication within the framework of a new rural renewal strategy. The main objective of this research lies in conducting a multidimensional analysis of the causes of rural poverty in China, examining the trends in its evolution, and substantiating the prospects for the development of rural territories within the country. The primary research methods are multidimensional quantitative and qualitative analyses of rural development in China and poverty and its causes. According to the study, rural households' economic well-being is still very low in Central and Western China's 22 provinces and other comparable administrative units. In 2022, per capita disposable income of rural households was 40.9% of the income of urban households nationwide. Compared to the year 2000, the average Engel Coefficient has decreased from 48.3%, indicating a moderately prosperous standard of living, to 33%, an excellent qualitative indicator of a certain improvement in rural living standards. The research uncovered a direct relationship between the income of rural households and regional gross domestic product, exports, budgetary expenditures, and the proportion of secondary and tertiary industries in the local economy. A dynamic econometric model has been proposed to elucidate the interdependence between exogenous and endogenous factors influencing the genesis of multidimensional poverty in rural regions. Given the global significance of China's rural strategies, the incorporation of these research findings makes an additional contribution to the global discourse on the development of rural areas and their prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically examines whether economic globalization reduces (enhances) the level of poverty in the top (bottom) globalized region by controlling economic growth, urbanization, government expenditure, and public expenditure on education. This issue has taken Europe and Central Asia (ECA) as the top (16) and South Asia (SA) as the bottom (7) economic globalized developing region for the empirical analysis for the period of 1991-2020. Two empirical models, non-linear ARDL and PMG-ARDL, estimate the impact of globalization (trade and financial openness) and education on poverty. This study also segregates economic globalization into de jure and de facto to critically analyze the impact on poverty reduction. The long-run results suggest that economic globalization has a negative (positive) effect on poverty in the top (bottom) globalized region. Apart from globalization, primary education is insufficient for reducing poverty in the ECA region, while primary education is enough to reduce poverty in the SA region. After replacing economic globalization with trade and financial openness, the results reveal that more trade openness is difficult for reducing poverty in top globalized developing countries. On the contrary, financial openness reduces (enhances) poverty in the top (bottom) globalized region. Additionally, the impact of de jure and de facto economic globalization are similar throughout the regions. The effects of control variables are mixed in nature. From a policy perspective, the government of these two regions should use education as a weapon to lower poverty vulnerability by improving its quality and giving extensive focus on trade and financial openness to find out the leakage of the financial flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agroforestry practices (AFPs) play a critical role in enhancing income and reducing poverty. This study assessed the effect of AFPs on income and poverty status of farmers in Lay Armachiho (LA), Bahir Dar Zuria (BDR), and Banja districts of Northwestern Ethiopia. 387 households, and 63 key informants were interviewed. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, FGT index, Gini coefficient, and multiple linear regression. About 49.35% of the respondents are categorized poor with a poverty gap of 18.93 and a poverty severity level of 9.7. Banja was the greatest with persons below poverty level (59.2%), followed by BDR (49.72%). Agroforestry practices contribute 28.43% to household income. Income from AFPs lowered the poverty ratio, poverty gap index, and poverty severity level of households by 13%, 9%, and 7%, respectively. Income from AFPs lowered the area between the line of equality and the Lorenz curve, as well as the Gini coefficient, by 7.97%. AFPs also lowered the income disparity of households in all districts. Age, AFPs land size, road accessibility, irrigation, AFPs experience, and AFPs types affect households AFPs income positively. Family size and membership to credit institutions had a negative effect. Thus, in order to lower poverty and raise household income, labor productivity, the credit service system, the road and irrigation infrastructure, and AFPs all need to be improved and scaled up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livelihood initiatives are common within marine protected areas (MPAs) aiming for poverty alleviation or higher income opportunities. However, results can be mixed in reality, as well as change over time. Furthermore, who benefits is a key consideration, as results can vary based on inequalities, including gender. Here, the monetary outcomes of different livelihood strategies were investigated across three MPA regions in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Using a quantitative approach, the results show that livelihoods have shifted in a six-year period, with livelihood strategies differing in poverty incidence and income. Livelihood initiatives, namely seaweed farming and tourism, did not provide significantly higher monetary returns compared to long-standing livelihoods, such as fisheries. Seaweed farming showed income stability but a high poverty incidence predominantly within women-headed households. During the study period, men primarily remained in fisheries, whilst women shifted to small-scale businesses and fisheries, largely exiting seaweed farming. This underscores a need for adaptive, gender sensitive management within fast changing coastal contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This interdisciplinary paper blends knowledge from computer science and economics in proposing a complex dynamic system subpopulation model for a blockchain form of local complementary currency, generic to the Grassroots Economics Foundation's Community Inclusion Currency (CIC) implemented in Kenya. Our contribution to the emerging economics literature is five-fold: (i) we take a novel meso-economic approach to elicit utility from actual transactions data and reveal an 'optimal' disaggregation number of typical community subgroups; (ii) we relate the local CIC functioning to a nation-wide currency board monetary regime to argue that such a credible CIC implementation ensures trust in the CIC and makes it a valuable market-based channel to alleviate poverty, in addition to humanitarian or government aid channels. However, (iii) we also find evidence in our data that substitutes for real-world money such as CICs are perceived as inferior, and hence CIC systems can only be transitional. Then, (iv) we reveal that, for a poor population, saving dominates as a use of a cluster's CIC balance, accounting for 47%, followed by purchase of food and water, 25%. Despite these dominant patterns, (v) we uncover a considerable heterogeneity in CIC spending behavior. Our contribution to the related computer-science and Tokenomics literature is two-fold: (i) we provide an open-source scaffold for modeling CIC viability and net flows; (ii) to simulate a subpopulation mixing process, we employ a network-based dynamical system modeling approach that is better grounded in economic principles and monetary theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Payment for watershed ecosystem services (PES) has been applied to water conservation and poverty reduction in an increasing number of developing countries. This study evaluates the effect of payment for watershed ecosystem services on farmers' income in conservation intervention areas using a difference-in-differences model and a panel dataset that covers 18 countries in the Xin'an River Basin in China for fourteen consecutive years (2006–2019). The results show that PES programs increase farmers' income and that the poverty reduction effect is sustainable. The PES programs mainly increase the farmers' income in conservation intervention areas through two paths: triggering the transfer of agricultural labor and promoting agricultural restructuring. PES programs are pro-poor and more conducive to increasing the income of farmers in upstream regions and counties with lower levels of economic development. This paper reveals the specific role played by PES in promoting rural poverty reduction in developing countries, providing insights into alleviating the contradiction between poverty and watershed ecosystem protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study on poverty dynamics has become more critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study gives insights into the scale of poverty and vulnerability transitions for 2019–2020 and the characteristics associated with each transition. Since panel data are unavailable for Indonesia, this study uses cross-sectional data and demonstrates the synthetic panels approach. The finding shows that the COVID-19 has induced poverty persistence in Indonesia as the economic shutdown took place. However, the pandemic impact is not uniformly distributed among Indonesian households. Those who fell into poverty during the pandemic most likely came from the vulnerable group, especially those living in rural areas, illiterate or with less education. The findings of this study, therefore, underlines the importance of literacy and education in poverty alleviation. This paper also highlights the urgency for redesigned poverty interventions as the economic shock has created new vulnerable groups. Higher probability of becoming vulnerable to poverty during the pandemic is associated with living in urban areas, having females as the household head, being a university graduate, and working in service sectors. Lastly, this study found that the synthetic panel estimates are sensitive to the assumptions made and how the key parameters are estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship among trade openness, poverty, and human capital development in the pursuit of sustainable development across a panel of ten ECOWAS economies over a 34-year period (1987–2020). Specifically, it examines the roles of trade openness, poverty, and human capital development in sustainable development, while also exploring the moderating role of trade openness on the poverty-sustainable development relationship within the ECOWAS region. To conduct this analysis, the study employs panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) using both the Pool Mean Group (PMG) estimator and Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) techniques, taking into account cross-sectional dependence, cointegration, and other relevant diagnostic tests. The findings indicate that poverty has a consistent negative long-run impact on sustainable development, while human capital is positively associated with sustainability over the long term. Trade openness lacks a significant relationship with sustainability in both the short and long run. Inflation is insignificantly related to sustainability. Exchange rates demonstrate mixed effects. In terms of moderation, trade openness positively and significantly moderates the poverty-sustainability relationship in the long run but not the short run. Robustness testing using the AMG and P-OLS models further validates the significant positive impact of human capital and the insignificant effect of trade openness on sustainable development. Given poverty's significant negative association and human capital's positive link with sustainable development, the findings suggest the need for integrated policy mixes prioritizing multidimensional poverty reduction and human capability enhancement to promote sustainability objectives across both short- and long-term horizons in ECOWAS countries. Furthermore, prudent management of exchange rates and well-designed trade policies should complement these efforts to mitigate potential risks and harness any benefits for sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apiship is conceptualized as a way of earning where one produces honey for sale by rearing bees to earn livelihood. Honey is the primary commercial output of apiship. Because of its expanding and ever-increasing market demand, apiship has become an essential source of self-employment and income, ultimately leading to poverty alleviation. This study examines factors influencing apientrepreneurs to choose apiship as a primary occupation and men's dominant status in apiship. This study adopts a positivist approach to philosophy that undertakes quantitative examination of findings. Data were collected from 800 apientrepreneurs using a survey with closed-ended questionnaires. The study revealed that the pull factors of amount of investment, risk in investment, demand for the produce, amount of work, income stability, and flexibility in working time and the push factor of unemployment all have significant positive impacts on apientrepreneurs' decision to pursue apiship as a primary occupation. The study further found that age, education, and desire for independence are independent of the choice of apiship as a primary occupation. The study also found that the driving factors of reluctance of woman, stinging nature, cultivating related crops, tendency of awareness among women, and work as a helper of man significantly influence men's dominant status in apiship. The study's identification of driving factors influencing the choice of apiship as a primary occupation highlights the need for policymakers to create favorable policies for leveraging these motivating factors to attract unemployed individuals to take up apiship. The study's findings on the driving factors of men's dominant status in apiship could also help policymakers to make proper policies to make women aware of apiship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) receive increasing international attention for landing around 40% of global marine fisheries catches and employing millions of people globally. Their contributions to food security and poverty alleviation, especially in developing countries, make it relevant to consider them when discussing sustainable development goals (SDGs). Achieving SDGs by supporting SSF means understanding fisheries in their broader context, from the health of marine ecosystems to social and economic features such as employment, public health, culture, and the effects of global change. Social–ecological relationships in SSF are complex and poorly understood, thus challenging the identification of policies that could improve and preserve the contributions of SSF to sustainable development. Here, we developed an expert-based rapid appraisal framework to identify and characterize the relationships between SSF and SDGs. The framework serves as a diagnostic tool for identifying strengths and gaps in SSF potential in enhancing SDG achievement in data-limited situations. Our structured approach extends beyond SDG 14 and target 14.b, offering insights into SSF's contributions to 11 other SDGs. As a proof of concept, we illustrate the approach and its potential contributions in two case studies in Madagascar. The method effectively captured the multiple dimensions of the SSF through the SDG lens, providing a contextually relevant understanding of how global UN goals can be achieved locally. Further research is needed to define mechanisms for aggregating and reporting the multiple, case-specific contributions of SSF to monitor progress toward the SDGs at national and global levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hakka people, a branch of the Han nationality with their own language, culture, and customs, are one of the largest immigrant groups worldwide, primarily distributed in southern China. Bobai, a county with the largest Hakka population globally, has a thriving weaving industry that is one of the local pillar industries. This study aimed to systematically analyze the plant source, product function, and development model of Bobai Hakka weaving. The study recorded 33 plant species for weaving, which belonged to 17 families and 27 genera. The weaving plants were mainly bamboo, rattan, grass, and wood, with herbs being the most commonly used (15 species, 45.5%). Most weaving plants were obtained locally (16 species, 41.0%) and from wild sources (13 species, 33.3%). Stems were the most commonly used plant parts (66.7%) in local weaving, followed by leaf sheaths, inflorescence stems, leaves, stem bark, leaf rachis, and female bracts. Additionally, wastes from crops such as wheat, rice, bananas, and corn, as well as invasive water hyacinths, were widely used as weaving materials by the local Hakka people. The products' functions ranged from household appliances, cultural and entertainment products, furniture, to production tools, reflecting a range of conventional cultural connotations. The study found that the Bobai Hakka weaving industry had integrated modern elements and additional use value to expand its market appeal. With the participation of the government, enterprises, and farmers, the Bobai weaving industry has formed a development model of "intangible cultural heritage + industry + poverty alleviation," which has become a successful case of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "welfare-to-work" program is a comprehensive supportive policy in the 14th five-year plan period in China. In this paper, a systematical assessment of the long-run effectiveness of the welfare-to-work policy on poverty reduction is of great significance to stimulate the internal impetus of people who are lifted out of poverty to achieve income growth and prosperity and promote regional economic development. Based on the data at the county (city) level in China from 2000 to 2019 and the sustainable development theory, in this paper, a county-relative poverty evaluation system was constructed. Besides, the double difference method was employed to evaluate the effect of the welfare-to-work policy on poverty reduction and test its action mechanism. The findings are as follows: (1) the welfare-to-work policy has a significant poverty reduction effect and presents an inverted "U" shape. In addition, significant achievements have been made in "maintaining employment stability, ensuring income, strengthening skills, and supporting the economy" ; (2) the welfare-to-work policy boosts poverty reduction in counties through infrastructure construction, fiscal intervention, and financial tools; however, the financial tools play a positive role in poverty reduction in the northwest region and suppressed role in the southwest region, and has an insignificant effect in the central region; and (3) there are differences in the effect of poverty alleviation policies of the counties with different sustainable development levels, and the regions with higher development level have a stronger driving effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is voting behaviour tied to ethnicity in many new democracies? A predominant view, offered by the instrumentalist theory, argues that voters use candidates' identity -ethnic or partisan- as a signal of expected performance. However, voters will reward well-performing politicians by being more likely to vote for them and punish bad performance regardless of candidates' identity. To test these assumptions, we conduct a nationally representative survey in Kenya asking voters about their spending preference for the country's main anti-poverty programme, which is managed by MPs in collaboration with citizens. We find that voters, regardless of ethnicity or party, have an erroneous view of how their MP spent the anti-poverty funds. Then in an experiment, we share with voters the spending made by the MPs and audit results probing for corruption. Once voters are aware that their MP's spending does not match their spending priorities, their approval and likelihood of voting for the MP decreases if primed to view the politician as partisan. Voters also electorally punish MPs for corruption whether copartisan or non-copartisan. In contrast to instrumentalist expectations, if voters are primed to view their MP in ethnic terms, they are more likely to vote for their coethnic overlooking bad performance and corruption. The availability of alternative parties in local elections may explain why voters attach partisanship to performance evaluation. Still, in our case study, as in other new democracies, politicians continue mobilising support along ethnic lines, perhaps explaining why voters prioritise group loyalties if primed to think about ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased interest in urban food security across Southern Africa is a welcome development, particularly given the considerable challenges faced by slum dwellers in accessing food. In Malawi, high urbanization rates, coupled with stagnant economic growth, have stimulated the expansion of slums and highlighted increasing poverty. While other researchers have noted the importance of geographic variance within countries of SSA, there still exists the need to elucidate geographic variance of urban food security within cities. Based on data from Kauma and Mgona settlements, this article argues for the incorporation of situation geography. We discovered that their respective geographies governed both levels of food insecurity and livelihood strategies. Peri-urban Kauma residents accessed multiple livelihood opportunities including satellite urban farming and ganyu (piecework), both of which were more inaccessible for residents of inner city, industrial Mgona. Kauma residents spread risk by employing different strategies, which translated to lower levels of food insecurity. This finding reaffirms the need for geographical, context-based strategies for alleviating urban food insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to social protection in old age is crucial and yet contingent upon negotiations between the social structures of the welfare states and the personal networks within which individuals are embedded. International migration, changing family dynamics, and the transformation of care and other welfare policies in the global North make it challenging for older migrants to negotiate social protection. Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews with first-generation older Turkish migrants in London and 13 semi-structured interviews with professional service providers for the community, the paper aims to investigate the assemblages of formal and informal social protection in the lives of older migrants. Findings indicate the complexity in accessing informal social protection and the navigation of formal care support in the UK for first generation older Turkish migrants and the contingency of access to formal care services on informal support networks for participants. It has been demonstrated that built infrastructure and policies aimed at older adults have great influence on assemblages of care, highlighting the need for more age-friendly and integrated policies to facilitate access to social protection for diverse groups of older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China's Rise" by Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell explores the urban-rural divide in China and its impact on the country's development. The authors argue that the deficiency of human capital in rural areas poses a significant risk to China's modernization and could trap the country in the middle-income country trap. They also highlight the educational injustices stemming from China's urban-rural dual structure. While the book has received praise for its contributions to the discourse on educational inequality in China, some limitations are noted, such as occasional verbosity and neglect of historical intricacies. The authors also express concerns about China following a similar path as Mexico, but the unique characteristics of China, such as its strong national capabilities and unique land system, may mitigate this risk. The book provides insights into the weaknesses of rural education and vocational education in China and offers recommendations for improvement. [Extracted from the article]

We examine the factors and conditions of an economic and resource–environmental nature. It is concluded that the reduction of poverty in Kyrgyzstan plays a key role in terms of the sustainable development and strategic security of the country. This article identifies the reserves of Kyrgyzstan's economy to strengthen the natural capital potential of the region. Regional factors for the development of the strategy to achieve the socioeconomic and environmental security of Kyrgyzstan are identified. It is shown that digitalization, by comprehensively improving the socioeconomic conditions of management, has a beneficial effect on the processes of innovative modernization of Kyrgyzstan, and contributes to improving regional policy to achieve socioeconomic stabilization. It is established that Kyrgyzstan has unique tourism and recreational resources and great potential for developing business activities in those fields. Due to the availability of touristic and recreational resources in the regions of the country, these activities can act as an alternative path for the socioeconomic activity of the population and as a means of reducing poverty. This article shows some socioeconomic and regional features of tourism in Kyrgyzstan, with due regard for the specifics of ensuring socioecological–economic security. The importance of tourism and recreation in terms of socio-ecological and economic stabilization of the region is substantiated. With the burden of environmental and economic problems accumulated in the past in the regions of Kyrgyzstan, the further development of tourism and recreation is a significant precondition for greening the economy. The tourism and recreation sector of Kyrgyzstan may well become a kind of locomotive for the country's green economy under conditions of increased vulnerability and the limited assimilation capacity of the mountainous areas of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellular senescence is an important risk factor in the development of hepatic steatosis. Senolytics present therapeutic effects on age-related hepatic steatosis without eliminating senescent hepatocytes directly. Therefore, it highlights the need to find senolytics' therapeutic targets. Dysfunction of adipose tissue underlies the critical pathogenesis of lipotoxicity in the liver. However, the correlation between adipose tissue and hepatic steatosis during aging and its underlying molecular mechanism remains poorly understood. We explored the correlation between white adipose tissue (WAT) and the liver during aging and evaluated the effect of lipolysis of aged WAT on hepatic steatosis and hepatocyte senescence. We screened out the ideal senolytics for WAT and developed a WAT-targeted delivery system for senotherapy. We assessed senescence and lipolysis of WAT and hepatic lipid accumulation after treatment. The results displayed that aging accelerated cellular senescence and facilitated lipolysis of WAT. Free fatty acids (FFAs) generated by WAT during aging enhanced hepatic steatosis and induced hepatocyte senescence. The combined usage of dasatinib and quercetin was screened out as the ideal senolytics to eliminate senescent cells in WAT. To minimize non-specific distribution and enhance the effectiveness of senolytics, liposomes decorated with WAT affinity peptide P3 were constructed for senotherapy in vivo. In vivo study, WAT-targeted treatment eliminated senescent cells in WAT and reduced lipolysis, resulting in the alleviation of hepatic lipid accumulation and hepatocyte senescence when compared to non-targeted treatment, providing a novel tissue-targeted, effective and safe senotherapy for age-related hepatic steatosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are believed to be the best source of finance for lifting the poor from poverty. However, the vast majority of MFIs' customers in the world appear to be over-indebted. This study investigates the effect of the four attitudes towards money (FAM), namely security, love, freedom, and power, on over-indebtedness among MFIs customers in Tanzania. This relationship has not been investigated in previous studies. The study used an analytical cross-sectional design involving a survey of 428 MFI customers using a semi-structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The findings show that power (β = 0.432, p = 0.000), love (β = 0.114, p = 0.004), and freedom (β = 0.101, p = 0.02) significantly and positively affect over-indebtedness, while security (β = -0.243, p = 0.003) negatively and significantly affects over-indebtedness. This study provides an alternative way for MFIs to reduce over-indebtedness by focusing on borrowers' attitudes towards money. This will, in turn, enhance loan repayment rates, sustainability of MFIs, poverty reduction and quality of life among MFI customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using annual time series data for India, this research paper examines the presence of asymmetric cointegration and asymmetric causality between financial development and poverty reduction using nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model and asymmetric causality test. The empirical findings support the existence of asymmetries in the short-run as well as long-run between poverty and financial development. The asymmetry reveals that negative financial development shocks leave a more profound impact on poverty alleviation than their positive equivalents. The result emanating from asymmetric causality test reveal a unidirectional asymmetric causality between negative shocks in financial development and poverty. Moreover, expansionary policies of financial development are found to serve as catalysts to spur poverty alleviation while contractionary policies of financial sector are found to exacerbate poverty in an asymmetric and nonlinear fashion. The findings of Wald's test also confirm the presence of asymmetric effects in the poverty-finance nexus. The asymmetric cumulative dynamic multipliers used to examine the behaviour of asymmetries and adjustments with respect to time lend credence to the results calculated using NARDL estimator and therefore demonstrate their robustness. The present study divulges the need for investigating asymmetry in finance-poverty nexus in order to draw policy-relevant conclusions. The authors conclude that financial development serves as a panacea and antidote to the scourge of extreme poverty in India. We recommend regulation of informal sources of credit, financial inclusion of poor, credit boost to small and medium enterprises employing rural poor and channelization of credit to productive sectors with high employment elasticity to be persistently encouraged for poverty alleviation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an absolute measure of deprivation poverty fails to capture the impact pandemic-related disruptions had on households. In this study, we use data from the Ypsilanti COVID-19 Study, a cross-sectional survey of 609 residents taken during the summer of 2020, to control for pandemic-related disruptions on bill-paying and food hardship. Using logistic regression models in which specific forms of bill-paying (i.e. late paying rent, late paying utilities) and food hardships (i.e. eating less over 7 days, worried food will run out) served as dependent variables, we find that disruptions to household finances, particularly job loss, significantly increased the likelihood of experiencing bill-paying and food hardship, respectively. Our study also controls for the type of hardship experienced to see which strategies households employed during the pandemic to exit material hardship. Through logistic regression models on methods of exiting material hardship, we find the type of hardship experienced was not predictive of applying for either SNAP or UI. Moreover, we find UI was less accessible to low-income individuals experiencing hardship. The findings from our study elaborate the relationship between pandemic-related disruptions and material hardship, and indicate to policymakers that preventing hardship in the first place is much more meaningful to households than attempting to use policy to bring households out of hardship once they experience it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze the impacts of improved agricultural productivity (IAP) on structural transformation and poverty in Guinea-Bissau (2014–2030) using a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. We found evidence of a positive effect of IAP on growth and sectoral output. Increased wealth accumulation and labor savings in agriculture have favored reinvestments in the manufacturing and services sectors and rural workers' outflows from agriculture. There are long-term positive welfare effects from rising real income and household consumption. The poor in rural and urban settings benefited the most. We suggest an agricultural development agenda that may contribute to structural transformation in this country and improve the living standards of the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eliminating poverty is a shared aspiration of people worldwide. This article analyzes 762 rural poverty-related texts promulgated and implemented by the Chinese Government since 1984 using content analysis based on a three-dimensional framework encompassing the time of policy issuance, policy goals, and types of policy instruments. The study outlines the overall landscape and evolutionary context of the policy system. The results show that, during absolute poverty governance, China's rural poverty governance can be broadly divided into three stages: regional development-oriented poverty alleviation, comprehensive poverty alleviation, and targeted poverty alleviation. Based on the production-oriented welfare model, economic development became the primary goal of poverty alleviation policies, while insufficient attention was given to service support and capacity-building goals. The alleviation of poverty mainly relied on the propulsive force generated by supply-side policy instruments led by the Government and the external driving force generated by environmental policy instruments, with a significant deficiency in the propulsive force produced by demand-side policy instruments. Entering the phase of relative poverty governance, optimizing poverty governance policy instruments requires breaking free from path dependence, following the evolutionary pattern of poverty governance. It involves ensuring that policy instruments support economic development while emphasizing addressing service support and capacity-building goals. It is crucial to increase the frequency of using demand-side policy instruments, stimulate their pulling force on poverty alleviation, and achieve a trend of evolutionary innovation and the collaborative governance of policy instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore success drivers of reward-based crowdfunding for poverty alleviation in China. The results from our econometric modeling using data from 4375 reward-based crowdfunding campaigns suggest that poverty alleviation campaigns, as compared to ordinary ones, benefit from higher funded amounts, larger backer numbers, and greater success rates. The results also suggest that poverty alleviation campaigns perform better when the products sold originate from poorer (as compared to wealthier) regions and when price premiums are lower (as compared to higher). We corroborate important findings from the field study with an experimental study, showing that the consumer's feeling of warm glow accounts for the positive effects of poverty alleviation campaigns (as compared to ordinary) campaigns. We expand the applications of warm-glow theory into the context of reward-based crowdfunding campaigns for poverty alleviation and offer new insights into success drivers of such campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to estimate the net effect of China's entrepreneurship policy on back-home migrant workers since 2015. Using survey data from the provinces of; Zhejiang, Henan, and Guizhou with propensity score matching to control selection bias, the study indicates that the overall entrepreneurship policy has a significant positive impact on the probability of entrepreneurial entry. The poverty alleviation effect of the overall policy is greater than its industrial development effect, while the employment effect is not significant. The infrastructure policy's effect on employment, industrial development, and poverty alleviation is greater than the other policies, and the financial policy's effect on these three aspects is not significant. This study contributes to the existing literature by addressing a well-defined gap regarding the net effect of entrepreneurship policy on entrepreneurship entry and provides well-supported and plausible explanations for the inconsistencies among previous studies on policy effect indicators. As a practical contribution, this study provides China and other developing economies with compelling empirical evidence to support the design and amendment of entrepreneurship policy at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring access to and usage of formal financial services through digital devices can be referred to as "digital financial inclusion" (DFI). In recent years, there has been a growing trend in the use of financial services, including money transfers through mobile phones. This study applies mobile phone subscriptions as a proxy to measure the degree of DFI and explores the individual effects of DFI and remittances and their interaction effects on poverty conditions in developing countries. Using panel data from 2000 to 2020 for 123 countries and employing the dynamic generalized method of moments estimation, the results reveal that DFI and remittance inflows help ameliorate poverty in developing countries. Furthermore, we find that the coefficient of the interaction term between DFI and remittances is statistically significant and positive, suggesting that the impact of DFI on poverty alleviation could weaken as remittance inflows increase in the remittance-receiving country and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of networking and information technology, ongoing advancement of the new business pattern "Internet+ " has enabled the Internet to permeate all facets of rural residents' production and life, with profound effects on their daily choices. Can the Internet continue to help people get out of poverty by making rural households less poor? To test the consequences of the Internet usage on farming people's relative poverty as well as its internal mechanisms of action, we use data from the China Family Panel Studies in 2016 and 2018, employing the model of probit as well as the mediation impact theories. The results are as follows: (1) In terms of comparison to farmers who refrain from using the Internet, farmers who do use the Internet have lower levels of objective and subjective relative poverty. Regarding the marginal effects, each extra Internet use metric, a farmer's likelihood of falling into objective and subjective relative poverty is reduced by 3.84% and 2.67%, respectively. (2) Farmers' use of the Internet concerning their business activities has the most prominent effect on their relative poverty alleviation. (3) The poverty alleviation effect of the Internet varies by region, gender, and age. (4) Human capital, social capital, and non-agricultural employment help alleviate the relative poverty of farm households using the Internet. According to these results, the Communist Party of China may be able to minimize relative rural poverty by strongly investing in information infrastructure, offering online training for residents, and stimulating rural human capital. Those findings convey indispensable theoretical suggestions and pragmatic support for generating an everlasting mechanism to lessen relative poverty and accomplish the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest to eradicate poverty, central to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), poses a significant global challenge. Advancement in sustainable rural development is critical to this effort, requiring the seamless integration of environmental, economic, and governmental elements. Previous research often omits the complex interactions among these factors. Addressing this gap, this study evaluates sustainable rural development in China by examining the interconnection between agricultural production and government-led poverty reduction, with annual rainfall considered an influential factor of climate change impacts on these sectors and overall sustainability. Utilizing a Meta-frontier entropy network dynamic Directional Distance Function (DDF) within an exogenous Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, we categorize China's 27 provinces into southern and northern regions according to the Qinling-Huaihe line for a comparative study of environmental, economic, and governmental efficiency. This innovative approach overcomes the limitations of previous static analyses. The findings reveal: (1) Rainfall, as an exogenous variable, significantly affects agricultural production efficiency. (2) The overall efficiency in both southern and northern regions increases when accounting for rainfall. (3) Government effectiveness in poverty reduction is comparatively lower in the northern region than in the southern region when rainfall is considered. These insights underscore the importance of including climatic variables in sustainable development policies and emphasize the need for region-specific strategies to bolster resilience against climatic challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship plays a pivotal role in fostering job creation and economic growth, underscoring the need to encourage and support youth in establishing and developing businesses. In Tanzania, where the unemployment rate stands at 2.75% as of 2021, the rising rate (from 2.2% in 2019) necessitates a profound discussion on education for poverty reduction. This study addresses three key questions: (i) from the international experiences, can the entrepreneurship education be effectively integrated into mainstream secondary schools? (ii) What strategies are preferably employed in other countries to integrate entrepreneurship into secondary education? (iii) Based on international experiences, what contextual approach can be adopted by Tanzania to integrate entrepreneurship into middle school education? By employing the PRISMA framework, document review was primarily employed to gain valuable insights. The findings highlighted the importance of teaching entrepreneurship from an early age, recommending strategies such as extracurricular activities, integration of entrepreneurship into related subjects like computer education, and offering it as a stand-alone subject, all while considering contextual factors. Although challenges persist, it is evident that Tanzania's main hurdle in entrepreneurship education and reducing unemployment lies primarily on political willingness rather than financial capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularisation of higher education supports UNESCO's aim of developing inclusive and equitable quality education to achieve the fourth Sustainable Development Goal. However, the effect of popularising higher education on economic growth and poverty alleviation remains unexplored. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of higher education and adult education within populations (popularisation of higher education) on economic growth (gross domestic product; GDP) and the poverty line using panel data from 38 countries. OLS and quantile regression were performed using data for the period 1995–2021 extracted from the OECD and World Bank databases. The results showed that the population segments with higher education had a significantly positive impact on GDP growth. Moreover, an increased proportion of the population with higher education, of working age, was found to be a contributing factor to GDP growth. Popularising higher education also played a positive role during the initial stage of social and economic development. This study also highlighted that popularising higher education play a key role to influence a country's educational development and scientific and technological innovation drives the deepening of a country's economy. It suggested that both national and local governments worldwide should pay much attention to the popularisation degree of higher education to greatly improve the innovative ability of talents and scientific and technological innovation in higher education for both the economic growth and poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the sustainable development goal of "no poverty", many attempts have been made to measure poverty so that policy intervention can target the right people with the correct intensity. Since the traditional method of a unidimensional approach using monetary indicators, such as income and consumption, is now considered insufficient, a multidimensional approach has been employed using non-monetary indicators. The latter approach encompasses the different poverty aspects affecting an individual's capabilities and functioning. This study aimed to calculate multidimensional poverty in Pakistan using the Alkire & Foster method and Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data for 2018–19. To further complete the research, a binary logistic regression has been run to measure the effects of a deviation in income status on multidimensional poverty to see the impact of monetary income on non-monetary measures. Results show that the national global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is 0.24, meaning that multidimensionally poor people in Pakistan experience 24% of the total deprivations. The most deprived dimension of the three is education (44.7%), which needs special attention. Furthermore, if a household's total annual income increases and becomes more significant than the mean income of the sample, the household's probability of being multidimensionally poor will decrease. This implies that with the increase in average national income, the national poverty will reduce not only in absolute terms but also multidimensionally. This study's findings have several implications for policymakers, and the results of the MPI should align the allocation of public sector resources calculated to give a geographical and sectoral image of the poverty situation, which will guide policy designs and allocation of budget and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, extensive empirical studies exist on the impact of financial inclusion on socio-economic outcomes such as economic growth, inequality, and poverty. However, research on financial inclusion and population health is limited and still at the infant stage. Therefore, this article adds to knowledge by inquiring into the health implications of financial inclusion using a global panel dataset for 121 countries between 2004 and 2020. After accounting for endogeneity with heteroskedasticity-based instrumental variable regression and cross-sectional dependency with the Driscol–Kraay estimator, we documented that financial inclusion improves population health outcomes. We found that the effect of financial inclusion on population health outcomes also depends on the level of information and communication technology penetration and existing socio-economic conditions in a country. Following this, we showed that financial inclusion improves population health outcomes in countries with lower income inequality and higher GDP per capita, mobile and internet penetration. We further found heterogeneity in the results across geographical regions and income groups. Following these findings, we suggest that financial inclusion policies could enhance population health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to understand mobility within income distribution in cases where there is incomplete information about how individuals transit between income distribution brackets. Understanding these transitions is crucial for evaluating and designing economic policies that affect the population in the long run. For this reason, we propose a methodology that may assist decision-makers to improve policies related to poverty reduction. We start by assuming that the income distribution bracket a person holds exclusively depends on the previous generation's income bracket, i.e. it has the memoryless property. Therefore, our model resembles a Markov chain model with a steady state distribution that describes the distribution of the income brackets in the long run, and a transition matrix that describes the transitions between income distribution brackets from generation to generation. In contrast to a Markov chain, we assume a given steady state, in order to analyze the space of consistent transition matrices that could generate the steady state proposed. Additionally, we used the joint distribution simulation algorithm developed by Montiel and Bickel (Decis Anal 9:329–347, https://doi.org/10.1287/deca.1120.0252, 2012) to analyze the transition matrix, which allows us to understand the effects of partial information. We test the model with official data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography and the Social Mobility Survey in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the myriad of technical approaches and abstract guidelines proposed to the topic of AI bias, there has been an urgent call to translate the principle of fairness into the operational AI reality with the involvement of social sciences specialists to analyse the context of specific types of bias, since there is not a generalizable solution. This article offers an interdisciplinary contribution to the topic of AI and societal bias, in particular against the poor, providing a conceptual framework of the issue and a tailor-made model from which meaningful data are obtained using Natural Language Processing word vectors in pretrained Google Word2Vec, Twitter and Wikipedia GloVe word embeddings. The results of the study offer the first set of data that evidences the existence of bias against the poor and suggest that Google Word2vec shows a higher degree of bias when the terms are related to beliefs, whereas bias is higher in Twitter GloVe when the terms express behaviour. This article contributes to the body of work on bias, both from and AI and a social sciences perspective, by providing evidence of a transversal aggravating factor for historical types of discrimination. The evidence of bias against the poor also has important consequences in terms of human development, since it often leads to discrimination, which constitutes an obstacle for the effectiveness of poverty reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report midline impacts of a community-randomized cash transfer intervention to 1857 vulnerable mothers in 140 rural cocoa-farming communities of Côte d'Ivoire. Compared to mothers in the comparison group who participated in village savings and loan associations (VSLAs), treatment mothers participated in VSLAs and received 8 € each week for up to one year with no conditions attached (the midway point of a two-year program). We find small- to moderate-sized treatment effects on four of six indicators of economic well-being (d = 0.23–0.75), as well as small reductions in maternal stress (d = −0.27). We find no statistically detectable impacts on educational engagement, educational aspirations, or educational expectations for children. Results suggest that cash transfer programs in rural West African communities can improve economic well-being and reduce maternal stress. Implications for children and families and for future cash transfer evaluations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the agricultural productivity and welfare of rural farming households is important for many governments, especially in low- and middle-income countries like Nigeria, where agriculture plays an important role in the economy. Increasing access to agricultural extension is often suggested as a way to raise farmer productivity and incomes. However, empirical estimations of the causal impact of agricultural extension services in Nigeria are few, especially those that address internal and external validity concerns. Improved estimation of the effectiveness of agricultural extension can support evidence-informed decision-making by agricultural policymakers. In this study we used three waves of the Nigerian General Household Survey to advance understanding of the factors associated with farmers' use of agricultural extension services, and to examine how receiving extension support might improve welfare among rural farm households in Nigeria. Through random effects regression with endogenous treatment effects, we found that asset ownership, use of inorganic fertiliser, and access to credit were positively associated with the use of extension services. We also found positive associations between use of extension services and household food security and assets. Receiving agricultural extension service was associated with a 16% reduction in food insecurity and a 64% increase in household assets. Further disaggregating extension services by the type of advice obtained showed positive associations with welfare outcomes for households that received advice on new seeds and fertiliser, but mixed results for those who received advice on animal care and marketing. Receiving advice on new seed varieties and fertilisers was associated with a 12–15% reduction in food insecurity and a 92–113% increase in household assets. Our findings add to the body of evidence that suggests enhancing farmers' access to extension can improve the welfare of farmers. Government policy needs to consider factors that limit or promote farmers' access to agricultural extension services, so that Nigerian farmers can equitably benefit from the potential welfare gains associated with agricultural extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aim is to assess the urban–rural income gap nexus with economic sustainability with the mediating role of energy transition. Communities worldwide are accelerating the energy transition and promoting social justice to combat global warming and poverty. Our experiment examined how the multi-dimensional energy transition rate affects the urban–rural income gap in 30 Chinese regions. The article analyzes China's renewable energy performance and creates an index. We next evaluate how the energy transition affects the urban–rural income gap using panel data from all 30 Chinese provinces between 2009 and 2020. China is increasing its energy conversion, according to our research. This research found that energy conversion has been effective but uneven in addressing the urban–rural income divide. Clean to warm and PV-based poverty reduction, the initiative's positive impact on China's urban–rural income inequalities, and the positive and negative effects of transition methods and ecological factors are also measured. Our study on the urban–rural wealth gap in China illuminates global energy transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing South Asia's poverty, this research presents an exhaustive case study of Pakistan, exploring poverty dynamics at national and provincial levels, emphasizing the urban–rural divide. The study uses the most recent income and expenditure surveys from 2013 and 2015 and applies the Cost of Basic Needs methodology based on strong theoretical and empirical grounds. The research adjusts for price variation within and among provinces. It uses traditional Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measures and innovative measures like the Watts and Sen indices. Findings reveal a poverty decline in Pakistan between 2013 and 2015, with significant provincial variations in this decline. Despite a minor decline in the headcount ratio of the larger provinces, their poverty shares increased in 2013–15, showing a regional convergence trend with growing disparities in poverty headcount and depth. Using indices like Watts and Sen gives a more complete, nuanced poverty understanding, highlighting the need for their adoption alongside traditional measures. The research ends with policy implications, emphasizing the importance of targeted poverty reduction strategies to address regional disparities effectively. This research offers insights into South Asia's poverty dynamics and contributes significantly to SDG 1—ending poverty. The Pakistan case study is a valuable reference for other countries, guiding accurate poverty measurement, effective policy-making, and efficient SDGs performance tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to former investigations in the growth-poverty literature, this research constructs a panel vector autoregressive model to explore the interactive relationship between income inequality, institutional quality, inclusive growth and poverty of 82 low and middle income developing countries from 1996 to 2022. In addition, we employed the impulse response function tool, which is the reaction of any dynamic system in response to some external change, to comprehend the reaction of poverty aftershocks on inclusive growth, income inequality and institutional quality variables. Finally, the study was completed by the variance decomposition of all variables. The empirical results indicate that inclusive growth is negatively significant determinant of poverty, while inequality and institutional quality are positive but insignificant. Meanwhile, income inequality and institutional quality have a significant effect on inclusive growth. From a general perspective, the results reveal that no causal relationship exists between inequality and institutional quality. The results of the variance decomposition confirm the above outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This publication presents the biochemical components, the botanical characteristics, and the significance of African medlar to human nutrition and developments on the fruits' uses in biotechnology and the food industry. African wild medlar (Vangueria infausta subsp infausta) is one of the multitudes of underutilised wild edible indigenous fruit trees that grows naturally throughout Southern Africa. Available literature shows that almost every part of the tree, have known nutritional or medicinal benefits. In-depth literature search using keywords (Vangueria infausta subsp infausta, African wild medlar, biochemical constituents, underutilised crops of Africa, human nutrition and recommended daily intake) was used to source credible literature accessible from online sources such as Scopus, ResearchGate, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Science Direct. The degree of relevance to each item linked to the review were used as an inclusion and exclusion criteria for suitable literature and for data analysis purposes. The results of the study reveal that fresh or processed African wild medlar fruit is consumable. The fruit contains significant levels of vitamins, phenols, macro and micro-nutrients, that humans require in both large and small amounts. Due to its richness in biochemical constituents such as flavonoids, phenols, proteins, vitamin C and zinc, African medlar fruit has a potential to meet the human recommended daily intake (RDI), thus can be considered a potential functional food crop. Rural communities in Southern Africa use African medlar fruit as a raw material for value-added products including jam, juice, alcohol-based products, and medication. Therefore, commercialization of this crop could play a pivotal role in accelerating the sustainable development goals SDG 1 (no poverty), subsequently addressing SDG 2 (Zero hunger). The study unearthed a need for further research, in particular empirical studies and highlights a great potential for government interest in entrepreneurial projects of commercialisation and agro-processing of African medlar fruit tree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of climate change on food security and public health has hindered poverty reduction efforts in developing nations, including Tanzania, resulting in the impoverishment of millions and compromising both health and food production. To unravel these complex interactions, rigorous scientific research is indispensable. Leveraging three waves of the Agriculture Sample Census (2002/03, 2007/08, 2019/20), this study meticulously examines the interplay between climate change, food security, and diarrhoea prevalence in Tanzania. Employing Instrumental Variable Probit and Control Function Approach models to address endogeneity and heterogeneity, temperature anomalies serve as instrumental variables. The findings reveal a substantial impact of climate change on both food security (−0.331142, p < 0.01) and diarrhoea incidence (0.214602, p < 0.01). These results signify that climate change places significant stress on food security, rendering households more susceptible to insecurities, and heightens health concerns through increased diarrhoea prevalence. This underscores the urgency of prioritizing public health and well-being through an agricultural lens in climate change mitigation. A comprehensive strategy is imperative, entailing a synergy of sustainable agricultural practices, robust public health interventions, and targeted policies to fortify the adaptive capacity of communities. Special emphasis should be placed on cultivating climate-resilient agricultural systems, ensuring food security, and implementing health programs tailored to address the unique challenges posed by climate-induced factors. Moreover, community engagement and awareness initiatives play a pivotal role in fostering a collective understanding and commitment to sustainable practices, contributing to the overall resilience of societies amidst the challenges of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction/Purpose: Poverty-reduction efforts that seek to support households with children and enable healthy family functioning are vital to produce positive economic, health, developmental, and upward mobility outcomes. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is an effective poverty-reduction policy for individuals and families. This study investigated the non-nutritional effects that families experience when receiving SNAP benefits. Methods: We conducted a scoping review using the PRISMA Guidelines and strategic search terms across seven databases from 01 January 2008 to 01 February 2023 (n=2456). Data extraction involved two researchers performing title-abstract reviews. Full-text articles were assessed for eligibility (n=103). Forty articles were included for data retrieval. Results: SNAP positively impacts family health across the five categories of the Family Stress Model (Healthcare utilization for children and parents, Familial allocation of resources, Impact on child development and behavior, Mental health, and Abuse or neglect). Discussion/Conclusion: SNAP is a highly effective program with growing evidence that it positively impacts family health and alleviates poverty. Four priority policy actions are discussed to overcome the unintentional barriers for SNAP: distributing benefits more than once a month; increasing SNAP benefits for recipients; softening the abrupt end of benefits when wages increase; and coordinating SNAP eligibility and enrollment with other programs. Significance: What is already known on this subject?: Poverty-reduction efforts that invest in children have especially significant positive benefits by producing positive economic, health, developmental, and upward mobility outcomes. SNAP is among the leading poverty-reducing policies and enrolls the largest number of participants for both nutritional and non-nutritional benefits. What this study adds?: To our knowledge, no study has synthesized the non-nutritional impact of SNAP on family health. We found that SNAP positively impacts family health across five categories of the Family Stress Model (Healthcare utilization for children and parents, Familial allocation of resources, Impact on child development and behavior, Mental health, and Abuse or neglect). Further, we present four policy actions resulting from this scoping review that deserve attention from policymakers, program administrators, and retailer establishments: distribute benefits more than once a month; increase SNAP benefits for recipients; soften the abrupt end of benefits when wages increase; and coordinate SNAP eligibility and enrollment with other programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poverty alleviation effects of digital financial inclusion are widely recognized, while these effects are dependent on the financial environment. However, little is known about how the financial environment influences digital financial inclusion, which leads to a reduction in household multidimensional poverty. Using matching data from Peking University Digital Financial Inclusion Index of China and Chinese Family Panel Studies for 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018, this paper estimates the impact of digital financial inclusion on household multidimensional poverty, considering the financial environment. The results show that: (1) Digital financial inclusion alleviates household multidimensional poverty and has significant alleviation effects on different dimensions of poverty. (2) Digital financial inclusion plays a particularly significant role in reducing household multidimensional poverty in China's rural areas and central-western regions. (3) Credit availability, social capital, and non-agricultural employment are important channels through which digital financial inclusion reduces household multidimensional poverty. (4) A single threshold effect governs the influence of the financial environment on the impact of digital financial inclusion on household multidimensional poverty. When the financial environment crosses the threshold value, the poverty reduction effect of digital financial inclusion is enhanced. For the components of the financial environment, a single threshold effect governs the influence of both traditional financial foundations and household financial literacy on the impact of digital financial inclusion on multidimensional poverty, whereas government financial supervision does so via a double threshold effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change threatens the livelihoods of Sub-Saharan African farmers through increased droughts. Livestock donation programs offer a potential solution, but their effectiveness under climate stress remains unclear. This study assesses the economic viability of integrating climate-smart technologies (cowsheds and biogas plants) into these programs in Rwanda. Using a stochastic benefit–cost analysis from the beneficiary perspective, we evaluate the net gains for households receiving heifers compared to the current program. Our findings reveal that integrating climate-smart technologies significantly enhances economic viability. Households with cows and climate-smart technologies can possibly realise net benefits 3.5 times higher than the current program, with benefit–cost ratios reaching 5:1. Beyond economic benefits, adopting biogas reduces deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and respiratory illness risks. This study demonstrates that integrating climate-smart technologies into livestock donation programs can generate positive economic, environmental, and health benefits, leading to more resilient and sustainable smallholder systems. However, overcoming implementation challenges requires tailored policy packages addressing local barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid population growth, climate change, limited natural resources, and the COVID-19 pandemic contribute to increased global hunger, necessitating intensive efforts to ensure food security and nutrition (FSN). Previous FSN approaches covered some dimensions, but not all, resulting in significant gaps in food security indicators. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions have received less attention in food security studies, thus far necessitating considerable effort to develop an appropriate analytical framework. This study reviewed articles and international reports of FSN indicators, drivers and policies, methods, and models and extracted the challenges and gaps from the global and UAE contexts. The UAE and the world have gaps in FSN drivers, indicators, and methods, necessitating potential solutions to meet future challenges such as rapid population growth, pandemics, and limited natural resources. As a result, we created a newly developed analytical framework that addresses the shortcomings of previous approaches such as sustainable food systems developed by FAO and the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) and covers all aspects of food security. Gaps in knowledge in FSN drivers and policies, indicators, big data, methods, and models were considered in the developed framework, which has specific advantages. The novel developed framework addresses all food security dimensions (access, availability, stability, and utilization), ensuring poverty reduction, food security, and nutrition security while outperforming previous approaches (i.e., FAO and GFSI). The developed framework could be used successfully not only in the UAE and MENA, but also, globally, helping to solve food insecurity and malnutrition for future generations. The scientific community and policymakers should disseminate such solutions to address global food insecurity and ensure nutrition for future generations in the face of rapid population growth, limited natural resources, climate change, and spreading pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social network is an important way to promote subjective poverty alleviation. Based on China Labor Dynamics Survey (CLDS) data from 2014, 2016, and 2018, this paper analyzes the action mechanism of social networks on the subjective poverty of Chinese residents. The results find that social network acts on subjective poverty through social support and reference groups. Specifically, social networks provide emotional and instrumental social support for individuals, which can effectively alleviate subjective poverty. In addition, when the social network members serve as the reference group, the higher the status of individuals in the network, the weaker the subjective poverty. Secondly, objective poverty is the mediating path between the social support function of social networks and subjective poverty. Finally, objective poverty is a regulator of the effect of social networks as a reference group on subjective poverty. When individuals are objectively poor, the alleviating effect of social networks as a reference group on subjective poverty is weakened. In summary, placing social networks' social support and reference group functions under the same framework helps fully grasp social networks' social benefits. As a result, consolidating China's poverty reduction achievements and focusing on the informal social insurance role of social networks are conducive to alleviating subjective poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs a synthetic panel approach based on nationally-representative micro-level data to track poverty and income mobility in Malaysia in the period 2004–2016. On aggregate we observe large reductions in chronic poverty and increases in persistent economic security, but note that those who remain poor in 2016 are increasingly likely to be poor in a structural sense. Further, we find that poverty and income dynamics differ notably across geographic dimensions. Such disparities are most striking when we contrast affluent urban Peninsular Malaysia with poorer rural East Malaysia. Although there are important differences in welfare levels between the main ethnic groups in Malaysia, we observe that mobility trends generally point in the same direction. While our findings show that there is still scope for poverty reduction through the reduction of inter-ethnic inequalities, we underscore the importance of taking regional inequalities into greater account when it comes to ensuring a fairer distribution of socioeconomic opportunities for poor and vulnerable Malaysians. Hence, addressing chronic poverty is likely to require additional attention to less developed geographic areas, as a complement to the largely ethnicity-based policies that have historically played a dominant role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of households globally rely on uncultivated ecosystems for their livelihoods. However, much of the understanding about the broader contribution of uncultivated ecosystems to human wellbeing is still based on a series of small-scale studies due to limited availability of large-scale datasets. We pooled together 11 comparable datasets comprising 232 settlements and 10,971 households in ten low-and middle-income countries, representing forest, savanna and coastal ecosystems to analyse how uncultivated nature contributes to multi-dimensional wellbeing and how benefits from nature are distributed between households. The resulting dataset integrates secondary data on rural livelihoods, multidimensional human wellbeing, household demographics, resource tenure and social-ecological context, primarily drawing on nine existing household surveys and their associated contextual information together with selected variables, such as travel time to cities, population density, local area GDP and land use and land cover from existing global datasets. This integrated dataset has been archived with ReShare (UK Data Service) and will be useful for further analyses on nature-wellbeing relationships on its own or in combination with similar datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]