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Tying public school funding to property taxes has prevented low-income school districts in the United States from garnering adequate financial and social resources. As a result of this regressive funding system, millions of children find themselves trapped in underfunded schools and neighborhoods that perpetuate intergenerational trauma, tenuous employment, poor health, and poverty. However, in many underserved neighborhoods, including in cities like Philadelphia and Chicago, where poverty rates have been as high as 25 and 40%, respectively, many of the most under-resourced schools border or are adjacent to wealthy universities. Given this proximity of many universities and their wealth of resources spanning medical centers, community organizations, faculty, and students, the potential for mutual benefit, long-term structural change, and the ability to fulfill shared missions is significant, and partnerships that breakdown historical siloes must be encouraged. Therefore, this policy brief advocates for a tax credit at the federal level to incentivize and catalyze scaling of successful university-community partnership models that have been transformative in their respective communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of institutional quality, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and human capital development on Indonesia's poverty rate. Design/methodology/approach: The quantile regression on data ranging from 1984 to 2019 was used to capture the relationship between the impact of the independent variables (FDI inflows, institutional quality and human capital development) on Indonesia's poverty rate at different quantiles of the conditional distribution. Findings: The empirical results reveal that low-quantile institutional quality is detrimental to poverty eradication, whereas FDI inflows and human capital development are significant at higher quantiles of distribution. This implies that higher-value FDI and advanced human capital development are critical to lifting Indonesians out of poverty. Practical implications: Policymakers should prioritise strategies that advance human capital development, create an enticing investment climate that attracts high-value investments and improve institutional quality levels. Originality/value: This study contributes to the existing literature because, compared to previous studies that focussed on estimating the conditional mean of the explanatory variable on the poverty rate. It rather provides a more comprehensive understanding of the quantiles of interest of FDI inflows and institutional quality on the Indonesian poverty rate, allowing for more targeted policies. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0733 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Despite a reduction in poverty the global population in 2015, the incidence of poverty remains very high in Sub-Saharan African countries. Most of the countries in the region are agrarian, with most of their population residing in rural areas, and a majority of the poor in the region are found in Nigeria. This study examined the nexus between participation in nonfarm enterprises (NFEs) and poverty among rural farm households in Nigeria and across the six geopolitical zones. Design/methodology/approach: The Nigerian Living Standard Survey (NLSS) conducted in 2018–2019 by the National Bureau of Statistics was used. We made use of 13,440 farm households with useful information for the purpose of this study. The sample comprises 6,885 households that participated in NFEs and 6,555 nonparticipating households. The data were analyzed with Foster, Greer, and Thorbecke (FGT) (1984) metrics, probit, and fractional probit models at p = 0.05. Findings: The incidence of poverty was lower among the participating households than in the nonparticipating households. Participation in NFEs had a mitigating effect on poverty. We also established that zonal differentials in poverty rates exist among households in all the analyses. Participation in NFEs was influenced by individual, household, and institutional factors and was also able to explain the depth of poverty among the respondents. Practical implications: It is suggested that poverty alleviation policies should be targeted at improving access to nonfarm economic activities by rural farm households residing in vulnerable geopolitical zones. Originality/value: This study is the first attempt to profile household poverty based on the type of NFEs they are involved in. The study also provides an insight into the effect of the state of residence on zonal poverty models, which is expedient if the country must achieve Sustainable Development Goal 1 on the eradication of poverty everywhere. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2023-0493 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit cooperatives not only promote the rural economy but also play an important role in providing effective and green financing. This paper aims to study the role of financial sustainability in the relationship between credit cooperation and income growth. The scale of the credit cooperatives and the financial sustainability were selected as two instrumental variables to mitigate the endogeneity of credit cooperative loans. Based on the data from 74 village‐level surveys collected from Inner Mongolia, the credit effect and income increase impact of the credit cooperative scale and financial sustainability were analyzed by two‐stage least‐squares (2SLS) analysis. The study found that the scale of the credit cooperatives can positively affect credit cooperative loans to increase farmer income, with financial sustainability playing as a moderator; credit cooperatives will have a more significant income‐increasing effect on villages with a better economic foundation or lower poverty rate but will have no significant effect on villages with a poor economic foundation or high poverty rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study aims to analyze and learn from the unanticipated economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine the ramifications of the pandemic on household well-being in Ethiopia, uncovering the layers of socio-economic impact through a rigorous microsimulation exercise. Drawing on robust data from the 2018/19 Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture, we assess the significant disruptions caused by the pandemic. Our findings reveal a 2 to 4 percentage point increase in the poverty rate within the first three months, driven largely by shifts in direct incomes and food prices. The analysis highlights differential impacts across rural and urban areas, as well as between male- and female-headed households. Moreover, the study underscores the vital role of social protection programs in mitigating the effects of such shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indonesian government, including local governments, has spent large sums of money and many programs to reduce poverty. However, in several regions in Indonesia, the number of poor people has increased, as in Central Kalimantan, where the poverty rate has increased in the last three years. The number of poor people in Central Kalimantan in 2020 is 132 thousand people; this number increased to 140 thousand people in 2021, then increased again to 145 thousand in 2022. Research on poverty has been carried out in Indonesia. However, research analyzing poverty caused by natural factors and mismanaged government policies has not been carried out. This research was conducted to analyze poverty in Central Kalimantan between state policy governance factors and natural factors. The research uses analytical qualitative methods and case study designs. The analysis uses the new institutional theory and the natural resource curse theory. The research finds that mistakes in managing government policies (structural dimension) and nature (natural dimension) are factors that both play a role in increasing poverty in Central Kalimantan. As a practical suggestion, the government needs to make more intense and detailed efforts to alleviate poverty in Central Kalimantan that are adapted to natural conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of poverty using the material deprivation scale has become widespread throughout the world. One of the technical challenges in constructing the material deprivation scale is the identification of socially perceived necessities. Researchers have used methods ranging from focus groups to separate public opinion surveys to develop a list of socially perceived necessities. However, material deprivation is a relative concept. As society undergoes economic, demographic and political change, the list needs to be reviewed for relevance. The aim of this study was to examine the stability of perceptions of children's necessities in Japan at a time when public awareness of child poverty in Japan has risen sharply. The results of the analysis show that, using the 50% criterion, the list of socially perceived necessities for children has been surprisingly stable over 20 years. However, there has been a statistically significant change in the public's perception of necessity for 16 of the 25 items, even after controlling for age, gender, income and whether they have children. Furthermore, the analysis shows that although the consensus between genders and between income quintile groups is fairly stable or converging, there is a greater divergence in the consensus between age groups and between respondents with and without children. In a society with increasing numbers of elderly and childless people, we need to be increasingly careful that the items selected for the deprivation scale not only meet the 50% criteria, but are also agreed by different segments of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Latinos/as/xs continue to face many barriers as they pursue engineering degrees, including remedial placement, lack of access to well‐funded schools, and high poverty rates. We use the concept of arrebatos to describe the internal reckoning that Latino/a/x engineering students experience through their journeys, particularly focusing on the impact of socioeconomic inequalities. Purpose: To bring counternarratives in engineering education research focusing on the experiences and lived realities of low‐income Latino/a/x engineering students. These counternarratives are an important step in interrogating systemic biases and exclusionary cultures, practices, and policies at HSIs and emerging HSIs and within engineering programs. Methods: Pláticas were conducted with 22 Latino/a/x engineering undergraduates from four different universities in the US Southwest. These pláticas were coded and analyzed drawing from Anzaldúa's theoretical concept of el arrebato. Special attention was given to participants' arrebatos triggered by their college experiences as low‐income individuals. Results: Analysis indicates that Latino/a/x engineering students' arrebatos arise from events that shake up the foundation of their own identity, including an institutional lack of sociopolitical consciousness. This lack of consciousness becomes evident not only in individuals' attitudes toward these students but also in institutional policies that put them at a further disadvantage. Conclusions: Findings have implications for engineering programs, particularly at HSIs and emerging HSIs regarding the creation of policies and practices that aim to secure the retention of low‐income Latino/a/x engineering students and alleviate the systemic barrier they face by affirming the practice of servingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Smoking households in Indonesia diverted a significant share of their budget to tobacco. Tobacco expenditure is deemed unproductive, as it crowds out resources from essential commodities and increases health care expenditure driven by tobacco-induced diseases. Therefore, despite having adequate resources, some smoking families in Indonesia may spend less on basic needs, which inadvertently puts their standard of living below the poverty line. Aims and Methods Employing data from 2021 (March) Indonesia's Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS), this research aims to quantify the impoverishing effect of tobacco consumption in Indonesia, considering spending on tobacco and tobacco-attributable health care costs as unproductive expenditure. The de facto headcount poverty rate and poverty gap index are calculated by removing tobacco expenditures and tobacco-attributable health care expenditures from the household's total spending. Results Accounting for unproductive spending related to tobacco use, Indonesia's headcount poverty ratio in March 2021 would rise by 3.22 percentage points, equivalent to an additional 8.75 million people living below the poverty line. In addition, the poverty gap index would increase by 0.77 percentage points. The impoverishment effect of tobacco is larger among rural populations than their urban counterparts. Moreover, the impoverishment is mainly driven by direct tobacco spending rather than tobacco-attributable health care expenditure. Conclusions Significant portions of Indonesia's population are exposed to secondary poverty because of tobacco use. A high level of cigarette spending among smoking households is the major source of the impoverishing effect of tobacco use. Implications The study provides quantitative evidence of the true cost of smoking in Indonesia, where the de facto number of the poor population after accounting for tobacco-related spending is higher than what is published in the official statistics. The findings of this study support tobacco control policies in Indonesia, particularly to effectively reduce tobacco use and mitigate the impoverishing impact of tobacco use on low-income households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trapping refers to the event when a household falls into the area of poverty. Households that live or fall into the area of poverty are said to be in a poverty trap, where a poverty trap is a state of poverty from which it is difficult to escape without external help. Similarly, extreme poverty is considered as the most severe type of poverty, in which households experience severe deprivation of basic human needs. In this article, we consider an Omega risk process with deterministic growth and a multiplicative jump (collapse) structure to model the capital of a household. It is assumed that, when a household's capital level is above a certain capital barrier level that determines a household's eligibility for a capital cash transfer programme, its capital grows exponentially. As soon as its capital falls below the capital barrier level, the capital dynamics incorporate external support in the form of direct transfers (capital cash transfers) provided by donors or governments. Otherwise, once trapped, the capital grows only due to the capital cash transfers. Under this model, we first derive closed-form expressions for the trapping probability and then do the same for the probability of extreme poverty, which only depends on the current value of the capital given by some extreme poverty rate function. Numerical examples illustrate the role of capital cash transfers on poverty and extreme poverty dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Chicago UPK expansion increased access to free, full-day pre-K for 4-year-olds. • There was no negative effect on 3-year-old enrollment in free, full-day pre-K. • Most of the full-day expansion was offset by declines in half-day seats. • An earlier, targeted system had increased access in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. • All communities across the city had increases in access through the UPK expansion. In 2019, Chicago began transitioning from a targeted pre-K program to free, full-day universal pre-K (UPK). By design, the transition intended to expand capacity over a few years, prioritizing access in more disadvantaged areas before moving on to more advantaged areas. We analyzed the transition path, showing capacity and enrollment over time across neighborhoods categorized by poverty rates, racial and ethnic composition, and economic resources. We also used a difference-in-differences approach to examine the causal impact of the expansion on access and explore implications for equity. We found that Chicago's UPK increased 4-year-old enrollment in free, full-day pre-K programs in Chicago Public Schools, largely through replacing half-day seats with full-day seats, with no negative effect on 3-year-old enrollment. We also found that capacity and enrollment generally were expanded earlier in neighborhoods with higher levels of disadvantage. Importantly, all communities across the city experienced increases in capacity and enrollment through the UPK expansion, suggesting it is possible to expand access across sociodemographic groups without compromising access for children living in historically underinvested neighborhoods. As local efforts across the nation expand to increase access to publicly funded programs, the Chicago UPK expansion can serve as a model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited access to Justice system services in rural communities of Namibia, stemming from inadequate infrastructure and resources which contributes to a concerning escalation in poverty and crime rates within these communities. The study examines the factors that influence the Namibian Ministry of Justice's services to rural areas. The qualitative methods were employed, and actor-network theory (ANT) was applied as a lens for analysis. The study reveals that a mobile-enabled platform can be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Ministry of Justice service delivery. It highlights the factors that can influence the development of the platform. The findings have significant implications for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Justice system services, from both technology and the Ministry of Justice's perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Pakistan, due to low per capita income and weak socio-economic policies the poverty has remained core problem in every era. Thus, as per sensitivity of the issue, the present study key objectives are to empirically address the dilemma of multidimensional poverty among agrarian and non-agrarian communities of Agro-environmental Regions of Pakistan. For assessment of comprehensive outcomes, one decade survey data (2010/11 to 2019/20) of Pakistan social and living standard measurement and globally acknowledged Alkire and Foster (Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement, 2007) indexing methodology has been adopted. Stepwise outcomes under dual cut-off K = 2 logically reveal that multidimensional poverty is purely an agrarian phenomenon at the national level and across all the nine agro-environmental regions of Pakistan. Further, at the national level in each study year, residents of the agrarian community with poverty estimates 46.40, 39.00, 34.90, and 31.90% are harshly victimized by precise menace compared to their non-agrarian counterparts with poverty measures 23.00, 20.60, 19.10, and 17.70%, respectively. Like national measure, similar trend has also been observed across each agro-environmental region where agrarian community is severely victimized of multiple attributes poverty menace compared to non-agrarian counterpart. Moreover, a comparative analysis of current valuations highlights that over time, especially in the short run, 2010/11 to 2012/13; 2012/13 to 2014/15, and 2014/15 to 2019/20, multiple aspect poverty at national level and across each zone in Pakistan presents fluctuating trend for both communities. However, in the long run, with the time gap of complete decade since to 2010–11 to 2019–20, multidimensional poverty reveals a declining trend at the national level as well as across each study zone in Pakistan. These valuations indicate a noteworthy improvement in all three attributes; education, health, and housing services specifically in longer span of time. Precise improvements are appreciable but still a strong policy like adoption of modern technology as per advance countries in all three aspect is essentially needed to achieve the UNDP agenda within the prescribed time limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty mapping is a powerful tool to study the geography of poverty. The choice of the spatial resolution is central as poverty measures defined at a coarser level may mask their heterogeneity at finer levels. We introduce a small area multi-scale approach integrating survey and remote sensing data that leverages information at different spatial resolutions and accounts for hierarchical dependencies, preserving estimates coherence. We map poverty rates by proposing a Bayesian Beta-based model equipped with a new benchmarking algorithm accounting for the double-bounded support. A simulation study shows the effectiveness of our proposal and an application on Bangladesh is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: This study uses the care poverty framework, focusing on both individuals and structures. In this context, structures are represented by 2 welfare states: Taiwan, an East Asian welfare system and Finland, a Nordic welfare state. This study explores multidimensional care poverty rates and examines 3 realms of individual factors (health status, sociodemographic factors, and care support availability) among older adults in these long-term care (LTC) models. Research Design and Methods: We analyzed data from the 2019 Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Ageing Survey and the 2020 Daily Life and Care in Old Age Survey in Finland to compare the rates and factors of care poverty in these 2 culturally and structurally different countries. Results: Our analysis revealed different rates of care poverty in personal, practical, and socioemotional care needs in the 2 countries. Under a familistic welfare regime, Taiwanese older adults had higher personal care poverty rates than their Finnish counterparts. Those living alone faced more personal and practical care poverty. Conversely, Finnish older adults, under the Nordic welfare model, experienced more practical and socioemotional care poverty. Those with high care needs and disadvantaged social status and support were more likely to experience personal and practical care poverty. Socioemotional care poverty varied with the availability of support and health status in both countries. Discussion and Implications: The study highlights the impact of 2 LTC policies and cultures on older adults' multidimensional care poverty, identifying disadvantaged older adults under different welfare-transforming LTC models. Taiwan's budget-constrained LTC policies and high family reliance contrast with Finland's inadequate attention to the practical and socioemotional needs of its aging population. This study suggests that holistic LTC policies are needed in both countries to improve the well-being of older adults with limited support and health issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the effect of natural resource dependence on employment quality in Africa, analysing data from 2002 to 2020. Our findings indicate that resource dependence is positively and significantly linked to poor employment quality. Specifically, a one‐percentage‐point increase in resource rent dependence results in a 0.026‐percentage‐point rise in vulnerable employment and a 0.282‐percentage‐point increase in working poverty rates. However, this effect of resource rents on employment quality occurs only when institutional quality is low. Once institutional quality surpasses a certain threshold, this adverse effect is reversed. These results highlight the need for policies that diversify economic structures to reduce African economies' overreliance on natural resource rents and enhance institutional quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the combined and individual effects of gross domestic product (GDP), microfinance loan disbursement, per capita power consumption, and total energy consumption on poverty rate in Bangladesh by using annual time series data over the period of 1995–2022. This study determines the direction of causality by applying the Toda–Yamamoto (T–Y) procedure of the Granger causality test in the vector auto regression (VAR) model given the presence of a mixed order of integration of I(1) and I(2). The results of the stationary tests show that all variables except poverty rate are stationary at the I(1) order of integration, according to both the augmented Dicky–Fuller (ADF) and Phillips–Perron (PP) methods, while the poverty rate shows stationarity at the I(2) order in both methods. The T–Y empirical test result shows that the four independent variables combined affect the poverty rate significantly. Power consumption affects both GDP and microfinance and they have bi-directional causality relationship with each other. Our study shows that GDP and total energy consumption individually contribute to poverty reduction. Based on the findings, it is imperative that national policy makers place a greater emphasis on increased domestic production and the proper utilization of power and energy to reduce poverty rates. Policy implications may include strategies to promote sustainable energy development, improve energy efficiency, and provide equitable access to energy services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines poverty and inequality in Pakistan's mountains, using nationally representative data. Our analysis reveals that, despite a slight decline in poverty rates, overall rates remain alarmingly high, with significant variations across provinces and regions. Rural and mountain areas exhibit higher poverty rates (31% in rural areas, 13% in urban areas in 2015/16) compared to urban centers. The national incidence of multidimensional poverty in 2014/15 was 41%, surpassing monetary poverty rates. Notably, rural areas (47%) experienced significantly higher multidimensional poverty than urban centers (12%), with Balochistan's mountainous province recording the highest rates (63%). The four provinces display significant heterogeneity in multidimensional poverty, with district-level variations ranging from 10 to 90% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The majority of districts with high poverty incidence are situated in mountainous regions, where people face multidimensional challenges in accessing basic facilities such as health and education, cooking fuel, and housing. To address this issue, Pakistan needs to prioritize mountain areas and implement targeted programs aimed at improving access to basic services, addressing gender inequalities, and promoting sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the evolution of poverty and well-being indicators in Spain between 2008 and 2023 using the EPDS method. The limitations and difficulties encountered in the application of the method in Spain are mentioned, as well as the need to update it. Poverty thresholds and lack of well-being are established for different autonomous communities, finding significant differences among them. There is a downward trend in the risk of income poverty until 2020, with a slight increase due to the COVID-19 crisis. Poverty and well-being rates in different autonomous communities are also mentioned, highlighting the concentration of poverty in Andalusia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and the Community of Madrid. Additionally, poverty and hidden precarity in Spain are analyzed, focusing on the young population. There is an increase in the proportion of non-independent individuals with incomes below the poverty threshold, especially in the 18 to 34 age group. [Extracted from the article]

Poverty measurement using durable ownership data is an attempt to infer income constraints by observing consumption choices. But what drives household spending choices on durable goods? How do these choices relate to poverty and class? What does it mean to be 'relatively' poor and why should we care to measure it? In this paper, we propose an economic theory of household decision-making that links these questions using a novel wealth-begets-wealth mechanism. We show that the steady state distribution of total (accumulated) household durable expenditures in this model exhibits natural clusters (classes). Furthermore, certain households may be vulnerable to a long run 'poverty of opportunities', being unable to access any of the channels of income generation available in society. Our model shows that relative poverty can be understood as the endogenous outcome of an intergenerational process that perpetuates unequal access to opportunities. This finding has novel implications for the measurement of poverty, which has traditionally hinged on definitions that assume exogenous (often arbitrary) cutoffs. The contribution of this paper also lies in its novel methodology, viz., formulating a theoretical model as the foundation of a data-generating process for synthetic observations, using patterns observed therein to inform the process of poverty measurement. The methodology delivers a framework for generating testable hypotheses around the long-run effect of policy changes (such as income transfers or education subsidies) on relative poverty – an approach that can be applied generally to understand the observed behaviour of economic agents in complex dynamic settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human race has been confronting the issue of poverty which is threatening its continued existence for a long time. Poor access to finance can lead to poverty this breeds health issues, lack of access to social and recreational facilities, social delinquencies, reduced living standard, malnutrition and economic difficulties. The goal of defeating poverty in its various ramification remains a cardinal concern for policy formulators in the Nigerian state and international bodies such as the World Bank and United Nations. Following the thriving emergence of financial technology (fintech) in Nigeria, there exist a dearth in academic researches to examine how fintech can be a driver in the reduction of poverty. This study examined the impact of financial technology on poverty reduction in Nigeria. Data on poverty rate, financial technology, mortality rate, literacy rate and gross domestic products were obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Nigeria and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin for the period of 1991 - 2021. This study employed the multiple linear regression estimation technique to analyse collected data as it examines a cross-section of major key independent variables across a time series data, on the premise of a common effect model. Data analysed indicates a negative and significant nexus between poverty rate and financial technology innovation. The result also suggest that literacy rate and poverty rate have a negative and insignificant relationship. The poverty rate was also found to be positively and insignificantly related to mortality rate and gross domestic products respectively. The study findings have several significant policy implications. Firstly, infrastructures that support internet and mobile telephony should be expanded by providing incentives for investment since technology is the backbone of the operations of fintech. Secondly, education on fintech, information communication technology and finance should be increased to fill the gap among citizens who are not technological inclined especially in the rural areas to increase the use of fintech. Lastly, there should be further regulatory interventions through reforms to remove the barriers to credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Studies examining profit suggest that former tobacco farmers do as well or better than current tobacco farmers. Research has yet to examine the relationship among current and former tobacco farmers, poverty, and receipt of government social assistance. This type of research is critical to understanding the direct and indirect subsidization of tobacco growing. This study analyzed tobacco farmers' poverty levels and receipt of government social assistance programs. Aims and Methods We designed and conducted an original four-wave economic survey of current and former tobacco farming households in Indonesia between 2016 and 2022. We then used descriptive analysis and probit regression for panel data to estimate the relationship between tobacco farming and poverty status. Results Tobacco farmers' per capita income and poverty rates vary across years. The poverty rate was significantly higher in the year with a higher-than-normal rainfall as it negatively affected farming outcomes. During this year, the poverty rate among current tobacco farmers was also higher than that of former tobacco farmers. Regression estimates from the panel data confirm the association between tobacco farming and the likelihood of being poor. We also found a high share of current tobacco farmers who receive government social assistance programs, such as cash transfer programs and a universal healthcare program. Conclusions Our findings show high poverty rates—particularly during bad farming years—and high rates of government social assistance among tobacco farmers. The high rates of government assistance among tobacco farmers living in poverty show that the government is indirectly subsidizing the tobacco industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant poverty levels raise critical questions about the impact of poverty eradication programs. Literature reviews play a critical role in highlighting impactful and ineffective socio-economic approaches. This article presents a review of nine qualitative studies that were reported between 2006 and 2013 in poor urban, semi-rural, and rural communities in South Africa. The main goal of this paper is to describe how low-income communities were impacted by programs to reduce poverty. Themes on strength-based interventions, participation, and holistic-multidimensional approaches, emerge from the content analysis as the best account of the impact of community-based poverty eradication programs. Due to the qualitative nature of the small sample of studies under review, a thematic synthesis of the qualitative data provides baseline evidence for further research to assess progress in the provision of development programs, and to generate more insight to strengthen evidence-informed approaches to address persistently high rates of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we perform estimates of vulnerability to multidimensional poverty for 17 Latin American countries at three points of time: 2005/2006, 2012, and 2017. We use a Multidimensional Bayesian Network Classifier model to estimate the conditional probability of being multidimensionally poor and then we use these probabilities and the standard downside semi‐deviation as the risk parameter to identify the vulnerable households. Despite significant reductions over the study period, in 2017 approximately 150 million people—excluding Guatemala, Nicaragua and Venezuela for which we do not have recent data—remained vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. We also observe that vulnerability to poverty is reduced at a much slower rate than poverty itself, revealing that achievements in SDG1 can be quite fragile. We perform a decomposition and find that as poverty decreases, risk‐induced vulnerability becomes relatively more important than poverty‐induced vulnerability. However, the poor‐vulnerable still constitute the core vulnerability group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the historical review of a series of indicators of energy poverty in Bulgaria, including the recently adopted official definition, and the existing and planned policy instruments to reduce energy poverty in the field of energy efficiency, heating appliances and systems, and renewable energy sources. Targeted heating support and temporary direct support in the form of targeted heating grants and compensation under Operation Support for Vulnerable Households -- SAFE are not analysed. The official definition of energy poverty is used to assess both the level and the effectiveness of the definition and its ability to reflect national specifics and trends, its potential shortcomings in the programme scope, targeted groups and results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, people acknowledge poverty as the greatest tragedy in human history, a serious threat to sustainable living, and a barrier to the development of human capital. Realising the importance of lowering global poverty, the United Nations incorporated 'End poverty in all its forms everywhere' as the first of the 17 SDGs for Sustainable Development. This background motivates us to look into how different lower-middle- or lower-income countries are achieving the first SDG goal. Consequently, the study primarily investigates the efficiency of 43 lower middle- or lower-income countries in Asia, Africa, and America in reaching the SDG goal of 'No poverty' by using the Stochastic Production Frontier from 2019 to 2020. Concurrently, the analysis pinpoints the causes of the nation's inefficiency in accomplishing that objective. According to the study's findings the Korea Republic is the most efficient nation at reaching the objective of 'No poverty.' Guinea is the least efficient. In conjunction with inefficiency issues, the analysis demonstrates that rising CO2 emissions paradoxically promote efficiency in the battle against poverty; conversely, rising corruption increases inefficiency. Conflict significantly impedes any constructive goal, such as poverty reduction. Corruption and intentional homicides serve as proxy indicators of conflict in this context. A rise in conflict variables reduces the nation's efficacy in lowering poverty rates. The article ends by outlining future research goals and making pertinent policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research investigates the Islamic banks' intermediation role (e.g. branches and deposits) in financing. It also examines how financing contributes to the regions' economic growth and poverty alleviation as a predictor and mediator variable. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 297 observations were extracted from 33 Indonesian districts and 14 Islamic banks during the period 2012-2020. Fixed-effect regression analysis was used to examine variable's interactions. Findings: The empirical results indicate that Islamic banks have adopted a channelling role towards redistributing capital from lender to borrower. Besides, there are crucial roles in developing economies and reducing poverty at the district level. This study also reinforces the critical role of financing in mediating the relationship between branches and deposits as predictor variables and GDP and poverty as outcome variables. Research limitations/implications: The current study was limited to Indonesian Islamic banks and the district's perspective. Future research needs to cover sub-districts and other poverty measurements (e.g. human education and development perspectives), including conventional and Islamic banks. It can help practitioners, regulators and researchers observe the dynamic behaviour of the banking sector to understand its role in the economic and social fields. Practical implications - Bank managers and regulators should promote branches, deposits and financing. It also enlightens people about the essential role of Islamic banks and their fundamental operations in business and economics. Originality/value: This study contributes to economic literature, bank managers and local governments' decision-making processes by developing and testing an economic growth and poverty model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in poverty rates among families and individuals in Italy over the past two decades can be attributed largely to repeated periods of economic crisis. Growing concern over the problem has driven interest in the role of policy in supporting household welfare. Responding to the currently limited access to (or provision of) public aid and assistance, private institutions and philanthropic foundations have stepped up their efforts to create new initiatives for alleviating poverty. In this paper, we use a randomized control trial (RCT) to evaluate the impact of a new Italian program aimed at supporting vulnerable individuals in four separate but related areas of household welfare: employment, financial circumstances, family responsibilities and housing conditions. The program, known as Integro, was introduced by the Compagnia di San Paolo, one of Italy's largest philanthropic institutions. Our findings indicate a positive and statistically significant impact of Integro on three of the four target outcomes considered, with only the fourth (housing conditions) not being affected. We also sought to identify any initial conditions potentially influencing the extent to which participants benefit from the program. Is Integro equally effective for everyone? According to our data, the program provides the best outcomes for males reporting lower human capital and greater socio‐emotional stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development can be described as a process of system or non-social system in order to achieve a better condition. It is often related to public welfare as evidenced by the poverty phenomenon experienced by the population. The population growth in a country must be controlled in order to prevent a threat to the country’s welfare, since an increase in the population will lead to an increase in the need for fulfillment. This condition should be balanced with a proper income alignment. East Java Province has the second highest population in Indonesia. In fact, this condition has had an impact on the economic development process, particularly in East Java, where there has been an increase in the poverty rate. Over the past decade, the poverty rate in East Java has fluctuated. It showed an increase in a few years, namely 2015, 2020, and 2021, with an average increase of 0.88%. This study aims to identify the effects of several factors on the poverty rate in East Java between 2017 and 2022. Furthermore, this study used a quantitative method with a panel regression analysis. The independent variables included open unemployment rate, labor force participation rate, minimum wage, and education level. This study found that open unemployment rate and minimum wage affected poverty rate. In contrast, labor force participation rate and education level did not affect poverty rate.

Spurred by the need for increased adequacy and international comparability, absolute poverty measures are gaining in policy relevance around the world. This paper proposes a simple and feasible method of calculating absolute poverty thresholds on the basis of households' minimum food needs in advanced economies. It makes three important contributions. First, it demonstrates that conventional statistical methods used in the developing world deliver either unrealistically low or improbably high poverty estimates in rich countries where household spending on food is modest in relative terms. Second, it proposes a new simulation-based inverse method that focuses on the non-food Engel curve and uses predetermined minimum food bundles not as inputs but as targeted reference points in order to calculate adequate poverty thresholds. Finally, an empirical application of the new method using household budget survey data from Italy shows that resulting poverty estimates are comparable to the official figures of the Italian Statistical Office in terms of both the poverty rate and the poverty profiles. Requiring few and easily procurable resources, the proposed algorithm is well suited to produce robust, consistent and internationally comparable absolute poverty estimates in a large number of developed countries and emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, firms actively participate in poverty alleviation to comply with the national policy and to build political connections. Whether firms curry favor with the government by increasing spending on poverty alleviation is an interesting research question under the context of anti-corruption campaigns. Using hand-collected data from the period 2016–2018, we examine how anti-corruption campaigns have influenced corporate poverty alleviation spending at the city level. Our results show that anti-corruption campaigns are positively related to corporate poverty alleviation spending. We further identify two possible channels through which the anti-corruption campaign increases corporate poverty alleviation spending: (1) political connections and (2) stock price crash risk. Finally, we find that the effects of the anti-corruption campaign on corporate poverty alleviation spending are stronger in firms located in cities with lower degrees of marketization, a lower media index, and a higher poverty rate, as well as in firms receiving fewer government subsidies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking advantage of the 2019/2020 Mozambican household budget survey, in the field both before and during the first phases of the Covid-19 pandemic, we assess the impact of Covid-19 on welfare in 2020, aiming to disentangle this impact from the effect of other shocks. Comparing a number of welfare metrics, and applying propensity score matching and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment approaches, we find that consumption levels are significantly lower and poverty rates substantially higher during the first phases of Covid-19 than in the pre-Covid-19 period. Moreover, the impact was greater in urban areas and accordingly in the more urbanised southern region. Non-food expenditures suffered relatively more than food expenditures, likely a coping strategy, while the impact on consumption levels was greater for people working in the secondary and tertiary sectors than for workers in the primary sector, mainly agriculture. Stunting among under-5 children also suffered. Only a limited number of countries have actual, collected in-person, survey data that span across the initial phases of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, the present analysis adds value to our understanding of the welfare consequences of Covid-19 in a low-income context, where automatic social safety nets were not in place during the early phases of the pandemic. More specifically, it helps in assessing the results of previous welfare impact simulations, compared to real data. Even though our main findings are broadly in line with existing estimates based on simulations or phone surveys, important differences between the predictions and the actual results emerge. We conclude that it is critically important for Mozambique and its development partners to develop stronger and more targeted policies and tools to respond to temporary shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firm clusters are considered as a contributing factor to local economic development. However, there are limited studies on the effect of firm clusters on the well‐being of rural communities, particularly in terms of income improvement, poverty reduction, and migration. Our research aims to shed light on these relationships at both the household and commune levels. For empirical analysis, we employ the propensity score matching method to mitigate endogeneity bias. Our results reveal the role of firm clusters in increasing income and reducing poverty. Firm clusters also contribute to decreasing labor emigration and attracting immigrants. However, the magnitude of these impacts is relatively small, with moderate effects on income and modest effects on poverty and migration. In particular, firm clusters reduce the commune poverty rate by around 2.36%–2.51% and enhance household annual income by approximately 16.46–17.08 million VND (725–752 USD). Furthermore, analyses at the household level highlight the significance of larger clusters in improving household income. Our research underscores policy implications for rural development with a specific emphasis on firm clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial data is data that contains the influence of location with non-homogeneous variance at each location, or spatial heterogeneity. To address spatial heterogeneity, the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model is used. However, in the GWR model, there is a phenomenon of multicollinearity, which is a strong relationship between independent variables that will reduce the accuracy of parameter estimation. To overcome multicollinearity in the GWR model, the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) method is used. The LASSO method estimates the parameters of the GWR model by minimizing the sum of squared errors subject to a constraint function, which is solved using the Least Angle Regression (LARS) algorithm. This results in the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression model to address the problem of multicollinearity in spatial data. Based on the research results, the LASSO method can overcome multicollinearity by shrinking the coefficients of parameters that contribute less and have a strong correlation with other independent variables in the GWR model, resulting in 33 final models. One of the models is for Nias Regency, where the factors influencing the poverty rate are the open unemployment rate, life expectancy, average length of schooling, gross participation rate, and per capita income. In Nias Regency, the value of s is 0.288 with an R-squared value of 0.9403. In Nias Regency, 94.03% of the variation in the poverty rate is explained by the independent variables in the model, while the remaining 5.97% is attributed to external factors not covered by the model. Coefficient of the Human Development Index variable shrinks to exactly zero, indicating that it has no effect on the poverty rate in Nias Regency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring poverty reduction requires frequent microdata on household welfare that can be compared over time. Such data are unavailable in many countries, given limited statistical capacity, shocks that prevent data collection, and regular improvements to survey methodology. This paper demonstrates how jointly deploying backcasting and survey-to-survey imputations can help to overcome this in a setting where estimating a poverty trend is badly needed, given the scale of the poverty-reduction challenge, but where survey-to-survey imputations are more likely to succeed and can be directly tested. In Nigeria, the most recent official survey that can be used to construct an imputation model was collected through the same methodology and in the same year as the target survey. This data landscape could arise in other settings where the methodology for smaller, interstitial surveys is updated more quickly than for larger, official consumption surveys. Naively comparing Nigeria's last two official consumption surveys would suggest that the poverty rate fell by 17 percentage points between 2009 and 2019. Yet the methods presented in this paper both suggest a much smaller reduction in poverty of between 3 and 7 percentage points, echoing Nigeria's performance on nonmonetary welfare indicators over the same period. The paper therefore provides guidance on when and how backcasting and survey-to-survey imputation techniques can be most valuable for monitoring poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on governments' use of social media focuses on the national or federal level. We therefore know little about the way local authorities harness social media platforms to communicate with their constituencies. This paper studies the role structural and political variables played in Chilean mayors' political communication strategies during 2020–2021, a period of municipal elections marked by lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluate whether the volume and characteristics of mayors' social media posts are related to political factors (partisanship; alignment or not with the governing block; years in office), socioeconomic characteristics (poverty rate; age profile; health infrastructure; etc.); and the incidence of COVID-19 cases and deaths at the municipal level. We found that mayors' social media communication strategies depend on the functions that different municipalities perform in the territory, and that socioeconomic variables differentiate these activities. More specifically, we found that mayors of poorer communities made more extensive use of social media during lockdown periods than did mayors of more affluent municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty exists not only in low and middle-income countries but also in high-income countries. Brunei, a rich country heavily reliant on hydrocarbon in Southeast Asia, is not an exception. Though poverty is not a topic that is politically taboo in Brunei, there are no statistics on poverty in Brunei. Yet, having such statistics would aid the government to achieve the target of zero poverty in 2035. Therefore, this technical paper provides a pioneering estimation of poverty rates in Brunei, utilising published data from 'Household Expenditure Surveys' and focusing on the basic need approach. It calculates monthly household poverty rates based on the World Bank's poverty lines and OECD median income approach. It produces poverty rates based on expenditure and income. The research employs two models: a proportional model and a refined model. The results show declining rates of poverty, regardless of the poverty lines and models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food security is a strategic issue for densely populated areas like the Province of DKI Jakarta, which has limited agricultural land. This research aims to analyze the implementation of food security policies in DKI Jakarta, focusing on a case study of PT Food Station Tjipinang Jaya (FSJT) as the policy implementer. The study employs a qualitative approach using literature review methods, with data collected from various written sources such as regional regulations, official reports, scientific publications, and related websites. Through content analysis and data source triangulation, this research identifies FSJT's success in maintaining food availability, improving food access, strengthening the distribution system, and supporting local farmers. However, the implementation of the policy also faces challenges such as land limitations, food price fluctuations, changing dietary patterns, and program sustainability. Supporting data shows FSJT's contribution to the reduction of the poverty rate in DKI Jakarta from 11.5% (2021) to 10.56% (2022), as well as the distribution of 1.2 million tons of rice in 2022. Surveys also noted that 82% of the public were satisfied with FSJT's performance in maintaining food availability. To enhance food security in the future, recommendations include the development of vertical farming, strengthening community food resilience, nutritional education campaigns, and diversification of food sources. Ongoing efforts through these measures are essential to ensure the effective implementation of food security policies and the sustainability of development in the Province of DKI Jakarta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current compounded economic crisis in Lebanon has increased poverty rates and widened the gap between families of different socioeconomic classes. Little is known about the impact of advertising, particularly smartphone advertising, on the self‐esteem and materialism levels of children in developing countries like Lebanon. This study aimed to measure the differences among children coming from lower and upper socioeconomic classes in the following: smartphone advertising exposure, materialism and self‐esteem, vulnerability to the effects of smartphone advertising exposure on materialism, and vulnerability to the effects of materialism on self‐esteem. It was found that advertising affected negatively the self‐esteem of the children coming from lower social classes, including the "newly poor," because in the current economic situation, children who are more exposed to advertising are more likely to believe in advertising, have lower self‐satisfaction, and believe themselves to be inferior for not owning the various products that are advertised, which lead them to become more materialistic than children from wealthier families. On the other hand, advertising had a reinforcing effect on materialism among more affluent children. In addition, and contrary to the expected, children from higher social classes, and not children from deprived households, were more susceptible to the impact of advertising on materialism. These findings enlighten us on the significant role that today's advertising plays in societies with wide socioeconomic disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the interaction between Special Autonomy Fund, Village Fund, and Zakat in poverty reduction efforts in Aceh Province. As a region with special autonomy status, Aceh receives a transfer allocation from the central government, which aims to accelerate development and improve people's welfare. In addition, village funds managed directly by the village government and zakat collected through religious institutions play an important role in supporting the local economy and social of the poor. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of special autonomy fund, village fund, and zakat on poverty rate in Aceh Province in the short run and long run. The method used is Panel ARDL by analyzing data from 23 districts/cities in Aceh Province during the period 2015-2022. The estimation results show that the special autonomy fund variable has a negative and significant effect on the poverty rate in Aceh Province in the short term, but has no significant effect in the long term. The village fund variable has a negative and significant effect on poverty in the short term, but has a positive and significant effect in the long term. Zakat has a negative and significant effect on poverty both in the short and long term. The Aceh Provincial Government should conduct more intensive policies in reducing poverty, especially the variables of special autonomy funds, village funds and zakat so that these problems can be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030 is to end poverty by all means possible. This study aims to analyze the role of the capabilities of the Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus (APIP) in the effectiveness of the Government Internal Control System (SPIP) and the extent of its influence on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Indonesia. This study uses data from 508 District/City Governments in Indonesia with a final sample of 2005 observations. The results indicate that APIP capabilities have contributed to the effectiveness of SPIP. In addition, it was found that the capabilities of APIP and SPIP play a role in reducing poverty levels in Districts/Cities in Indonesia, thus potentially increasing the achievement of the SDGs. Meanwhile, SPIP in this study did not mediate the effect of APIP capabilities on the achievement of the SDGs. The implications of this study are closely related to transformation efforts to achieve the SDGs, in relation to poverty alleviation in the regions. Therefore, as a strategy for achieving the SDGs and simultaneously reducing poverty rates in the regions, the District/City Governments need to establish supporting policies to ensure the implementation of programs that enhance APIP capabilities and the effectiveness of SPIP administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the impact of government and private investment on poverty rates in Indonesia’s nickel-producing provinces (South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Maluku). By utilizing the panel data analysis approach from 2013 to 2022, we can observe how the realization of Foreign Investment (PMA), Domestic Investment (PMDN), and Government Investment (BM) affects poverty reduction. The study’s findings suggest that Domestic Investment (PMDN) has considerable impact on poverty reduction. Meanwhile, the realization of Foreign Investment (PMA) and Government Investment (BM) had no substantial impact on poverty reduction in nickel-producing provinces. Along with the increase in the amount of foreign investment and government investment in nickel-producing provinces in Indonesia, research shows that the results do not have a significant effect on alleviating poverty in these nickel-producing provinces. So investment must be encouraged to be more inclusive or encourage labor-intensive investment. The government and corporate sector can utilize this information to help determine the direction of investment in Indonesia’s nickel-producing provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Widely used in efficiency analysis, data envelopment analysis (DEA) found its use in country efficiency measurement concerning the achievement of desired values of macroeconomic indicators, most often the goals from the category of economic growth. Purpose: The objective of the paper is to examine the possibility of DEA application in sustainable development research. Methodology: The analysis was conducted using a non-oriented DEA model with variable return-to-scale in a group of 26 EU countries and Serbia, as a membership candidate. Four variables were used as input variables: inflation rate, unemployment rate, poverty rate and ecological footprint per capita. Three variables were used on the outputs side: inequality-adjusted human development index, GDP per capita and ecological deficit or reserve per capita. The annual data was collected for the time period of eight years, form 2010 until 2017. Findings: Results show that Finland is the only country efficient throughout the entire period. Average efficiency close to maximum was achieved by the Netherlands. Significant efficiency was achieved by Luxembourg, Germany and Sweden among countries that were EU members before 1995. Among other EU countries, Slovenia and Hungary achieved efficiency on a nearly maximum level. Also, efficient in more than half of the observed years were Cyprus and Romania. The most inefficient countries were the three Baltic countries: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Among the EU member countries before 1995, Italy and Portugal were the most inefficient. Concerning EU candidate Serbia, the efficiency achieved was generally close to average. Limitations: The performed analysis can answer the question of which country is the most efficient on the way to sustainability. However, the DEA method cannot show whether a country is developing absolutely sustainably or unsustainably, because DEA is a relative method and can only measure efficiency compared to the other units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Entramado is the property of Universidad Libre Seccional Cali and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Digital financial inclusion has become an important way to reduce poverty and prevent poverty return; however, few studies examine the relationship between digital financial inclusion measurement with poverty return governance. Based on data from the 2017 China Household Financial Survey, we construct a digital financial inclusion indicator for micro‐households, and explore its impact on the risk of households returning to poverty and its mechanisms. Our findings suggest that digital financial inclusion can reduce the risk of Chinese families returning to poverty, and that it has heterogeneous effects on families and regions with different characteristics. The main function is to improve household income level by promoting entrepreneurship and employment, and to improve risk resistance by enhancing household financial market participation and household asset allocation. Further analysis shows that digital financial inclusion has structural effects, nonlinear effects, and substitution effects with private lending in poverty governance. This paper has implications for understanding and improving the poverty governance effectiveness of digital financial inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a heterogeneous group of medical conditions that commonly occur in underprivileged populations. NTDs are primarily diagnosed in tropical areas. Although South Africa is not situated in a tropical region, the high poverty rate makes the country susceptible to some NTDs. Limited data are available on the burden of NTDs in the Free State province of South Africa. This study aimed to determine the number of NTDs diagnosed on histopathological specimens in the public sector of the Free State province over a six‐year period and to evaluate the patient demographics. Methods. A retrospective, descriptive study was performed. All NTDs diagnosed in histopathological specimens from public sector hospitals in the province submitted to the Department of Anatomical Pathology, National Health Laboratory Service, and University of the Free State between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 were included in the study. The demographic information, biopsy site, and referring hospital were noted for each case identified. Results. A total of 72 NTDs were diagnosed. The five most common diagnoses were echinococcosis (n = 33; 45.8%), bilharzia (n = 13; 18.1%), leprosy (n = 9; 12.5%), mycetoma (n = 8; 11.1%), and intestinal worms (n = 5; 6.9%). Ten (30.3%) patients diagnosed with echinococcosis came from the Free State's neighbouring country, Lesotho. Conclusion. Echinococcosis was the most prevalent NTD diagnosed in central South Africa. We recommend that the South African Department of Health add echinococcosis to the principal NTDs of significance in South Africa, alongside soil‐transmitted helminths, schistosomiasis, leprosy, and rabies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Custodial mothers experience high rates of poverty and income volatility in the United States. Emerging evidence suggests that the regularity of child support is positively associated with the regularity of family income and ability to meet basic needs. However, we know little about how child support regularity matters for mothers' employment. In this study, we examine the associations between child support regularity and custodial mothers' employment in a nationally representative US sample covering 1997–2019. We find that regular child support receipt, versus no receipt, is associated with increases in part-time employment and decreases in full-time employment but find no associations with annual weeks worked or earnings. Among employed mothers, we also find increases in job stability within the year. We find some heterogeneity in these associations by maternal education and age of youngest child. Our findings suggest that child support regularity might support mothers' stable part-time employment without compromising earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the launch of a new publication titled "What Have the Liberals Ever Done for Us?" by the Liberal Democrat History Group. The publication summarizes the achievements of Liberals and Liberal Democrats over the past 350 years, focusing on topics such as human rights, fair votes, government reform, gender equality, international relations, economy, education, welfare, health, and the environment. The article highlights the contributions of key figures such as Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor, David Steel, and Lloyd George. It emphasizes the importance of defending people's rights and acknowledges the challenges faced in the future. The publication is available for purchase online or by mail. The given text discusses various topics related to the Liberal Party and its history. It mentions the party's stance on old age pensions and guaranteed basic income, as well as its commitment to eradicating poverty in the UK. The text also highlights the party's support for free trade, international institutions, and the European Union. It emphasizes the Liberal Party's role in championing the welfare state and its opposition to the Iraq War. The text concludes with a discussion on the party's messaging and the importance of its history in shaping its identity. [Extracted from the article]