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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of pro poor interventions with a special focus on wealth accumulation and diversity in income generating programs. The study used a Recursive Bivariate Probit model. The study used secondary data gathered by the Local Development Fund (LDF) in 2020 which drew a sample of 1396 households (868 beneficiaries, 528 non-beneficiaries). The study finds that participation in Livelihoods and Skills Development (LSD) programs significantly improved household asset accumulation by 14.8% and petty trading by 31.8%. Participation in Public Works Program (PWP) significantly improved asset accumulation by 17.7%. The study therefore concludes that the LSD program is more effective in helping households accumulate assets and engage in trade activities that result in improvement of income. Since the study demonstrates that the LSD program is more successful in assisting households to accumulate assets and participate in trade activities, the government should consider implementing a graduation model that extends the LSD's financial trainings to PWP and Social Cash Transfer (SCT) groups.

This paper constructs a mathematical model to study China's urban real estate markets, in which there are different types of demands from house buyers, and housing suppliers adopt the strategy of quality differentiation second-degree price discrimination. Our theoretical result shows that, in China's case, without government intervention in the housing market, it is almost inevitable that the prices of both housing and the related resources will rocket. To achieve the goal of "houses built for inhabitance", we put forward a policy scheme to achieve "houses built for inhabitance" in China's cities from the perspectives of "speculation limitation" and "price control". We also conduct a numerical analysis to consider the macroeconomic effects of these two policy solutions on the housing market, and we conclude that Chinese authorities should introduce a resale tax in the housing market and learn from Singapore's experience in housing market regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined the effectiveness of pro-poor tourism strategies on local communities in Uganda taking a case study of the Lake Bunyonyi tourist area. Using a descriptive research design, data was collected from a total of 120 community members with the aid of questionnaires. Interviews were also conducted on 10 key informants. The study found that pro-poor tourism strategies that are aimed at enhancing economic benefits to the poor are generally moderately effective as established by the composite mean. This is because the tourism enterprises have employed locals within their ranks, created opportunities for the informal sector and small businesses, boosted household income through home projects such as poultry rearing, bee keeping and fish farming. However, this has been undermined by failure by the enterprises to increased access to market opportunities indirectly to tourism enterprises and to increase community access to investment funds, loans, and micro credit schemes. The study also found that pro-poor tourism strategies that are aimed at enhancing non-financial benefits to the poor are generally moderately effective The strategies have really not succeeded as such in enhancing other non-economic livelihood benefits like; increasing access to health care, health care education for example reproductive health, HIV and malaria prevention; increasing local access to infrastructure and services for example roads, running water, internet, and telephones and improving environmental support. The study found that pro-poor tourism strategies that are aimed at enhancing community participation and partnership are generally moderately effective. The strategies have not fully succeeded in enhancing the participation and involvement of the poor in tourist activities. The study concluded that the pro-poor tourism strategies are only moderately effective in improving the economic benefits to the community, in enhancing non-economic benefits and enhancing of community participation and partnership of the poor in tourist activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a household panel dataset for the 2008–2016 period, we analyze the heterogeneous effects of livelihood change on household well-being in rural Vietnam. We use an unconditional quantile regression (UQR) model with fixed effects to control for unobservable time-invariant household characteristics. We find that when a fixed-effects estimator is employed, households switching from a crop livelihood to any non-crop livelihood (e.g., livestock, wage-earning, nonfarm, private or transfer livelihoods) increase their per capita income and food consumption. However, the results from the UQR with fixed effects reveal a significant variation in the effect of such a switch in livelihood across various quantiles of well-being distribution, with a larger effect for poorer households. The income effect, however, tends to decline with higher quantiles and even turns negative with a switch to a wage-earning or public transfer livelihood for the better off. Notably, our study confirms the pro-poor impact of changing livelihood from crop to non-crop activities in rural Vietnam. Our research results also suggest that a mean regression approach that often assumes a homogeneous/mean effect of livelihoods on well-being, may miss some heterogeneity that is useful to researchers and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The objective of this paper is to analyse the olive oil value chain (OVC) in the Governorate of Medenine (south-east of Tunisia) and the relationships between its main operators for an effective involvement and better performance and resilience of olive sector. Based on semi structured interviews and participatory multi-stakeholders’ workshops, OVC has been analysed and described. MACTOR approach has been applied to establish linkages among chain operators and activities in a partnership approach. Innovative interventions were proposed to strengthen farmers’ organizations to increase profitability of OVC. Empirical findings suggest that public-private-civil society partnerships are essential for the development of pro-poor approaches for uncovering technological and institutional innovations which may involve more inclusive olive oil value chains. The underpinnings of our argument will be of interest and value to both development practitioners and the research community engaged within Tunisia, and the wider region more generally, on initiatives aimed at fostering effective, inclusive and contextually relevant processes for agricultural innovation. "

Abstract Background Health inequity has mainly been linked to differences in economic status, with the poor facing greater challenges accessing healthcare than the less poor. To extend financial coverage to the poor and vulnerable, Kenya has therefore implemented several pro-poor health policy reforms. However, other social determinants of health such as gender and disability also influence health status and access to care. This study employed an intersectional approach to explore how gender disability and poverty interact to influence how poor women in Kenya benefit from pro-poor financing policies that target them. Methods We applied a qualitative cross-sectional study approach in two purposively selected counties in Kenya. We collected data using in-depth interviews with women with disabilities living in poverty who were beneficiaries of the health insurance subsidy programme and those in the lowest wealth quintiles residing in the health and demographic surveillance system. We analyzed data using a thematic approach drawing from the study’s conceptual framework. Results Women with disabilities living in poverty often opted to forgo seeking free healthcare services because of their roles as the primary household providers and caregivers. Due to limited mobility, they needed someone to accompany them to health facilities, leading to greater transport costs. The absence of someone to accompany them and unaffordability of the high transport costs, for example, made some women forgo seeking antenatal and skilled delivery services despite the existence of a free maternity programme. The layout and equipment at health facilities offering care under pro-poor health financing policies were disability-unfriendly. The latter in addition to negative healthcare worker attitudes towards women with disabilities discouraged them from seeking care. Negative stereotypes against women with disabilities in the society led to their exclusion from public participation forums thereby limiting their awareness about health services. Conclusions Intersections of gender, poverty, and disability influenced the experiences of women with disabilities living in poverty with pro-poor health financing policies in Kenya. Addressing the healthcare access barriers they face could entail ensuring availability of disability-friendly health facilities and public transport systems, building cultural competence in health service delivery, and empowering them to engage in public participation.

For aquaculture to continue along its current growth trajectory and contribute towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, value chains must become more inclusive. Smallholders and other local value chain actors are often constrained by circumstances and market failures in the global aquaculture industry. Integrating these actors into aquaculture value chains through inclusive business models (IBMs) is often touted as a solution to sustainable and ethical trade and business that can generate development outcomes. We reviewed 36 papers under seven business models commonly used in agriculture development to assess their application in aquaculture value chains in lower‐income countries. A global value chain (GVC) analysis is used to unpack the economic and social upgrading objectives of the different IBMs, as well as the types of relational coordination used between actors in the chain to achieve development outcomes. The extent to which these IBMs helped poor actors overcome certain barriers is evaluated with a focus on how they may ensure or be a risk to inclusiveness through the relations and upgrading opportunities evident in their make‐up. The analysis found that the majority of the models focused on economic upgrading over social upgrading. Providing opportunities for the latter is key to achieving the inclusive objectives of IBMs. Greater horizontal coordination between actors can create further opportunities for economic upgrading established under vertical coordination with other nodes upstream and downstream in a value chain. There is a need to further contextualize these models to aquaculture systems and develop clear indicators of inclusiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tries to verify if in the decade 2004 to 2014 the economic growth experienced in the legal Amazon region can be considered pro-poor, that is, if it benefited more the poorest. From a recent perspective in the literature on pro-poor growth, the methodology used was the income-poverty elasticity, estimated through the use of econometric models of panel data. The results showed that although the majority of the states in the region performed below the country average in reducing the poverty indicator, the estimated income-poverty elasticity for the region was sufficient to configure growth in the pro-poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides empirical evidence on heterogeneous effects of local market-oriented organic vegetable and honey certification schemes on household income, thereby identifying who benefits most from the schemes in Kenya. Proliferation of pro-poor local market-oriented certified organic production systems in developing countries justifies the need for the study to inform research and policy perspective. The study uses stratification multilevel and matching-smoothing approach in estimating heterogeneous treatment effects that controls for pretreatment heterogeneity bias and treatment effect heterogeneity bias. Findings were that despite the objective of certified organic vegetable production program to improve the income of socially and economically disadvantaged farmers, the farmers with higher propensity scores benefited most. Farmers across all propensity score strata significantly benefited in organic honey production system. Moderate socially and economically advantaged farmers benefited most from certified organic honey certification. To policy makers and program planners, implicit assumption of homogenous effect of organic certification does not always hold. Program design could play important role in enhancing effectiveness of agricultural interventions in achieving higher income among the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The village fund allocation is a policy strategy of the government of Indonesia for development in rural areas. Each village has funds sourced from the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget. The uniqueness of this strategy is the community’s involvement in determining the allocation expenditure of funds. Therefore, the program is carried out in line with the needs of the community. Rural areas generally rely on agriculture, which has lower productivity than other sectors, so they need support to achieve inclusive growth. This study analyzes whether the village fund allocation is a pro-poor, pro-equality, and pro-job policy. It uses secondary data from the Ministry of Finance, Statistics Indonesia, and the National Development Planning Agency from the period of 2015–2019 for 33 provinces of Indonesia. The data were analyzed using panel regression with three models: income inequality, poverty levels, and unemployment rates. Other variables supporting inclusive growth, including economic growth, infrastructure, and the expansion of public services, were examined. The results showed that government expenditure through village fund allocation encourages inclusive growth as a policy that is pro-poor and pro-job but not pro-equality. Economic growth, on the other hand, reduces income inequality but increases poverty. Economic infrastructure increases income inequality, while increasing access to public services reduces poverty levels and increases unemployment.

Using the methodology of growth incidence curves; this paper analyzes the distribution of income produced during Paraguay’s economic growth in 2007-2012. The results indicate that growth in the total period was pro-poor. Growth rates of people located in the lower and middle percentiles were higher. This favored the reduction of poverty and income inequality. By analyzing the interannual variations and his classification in expansive and recessive, it was found that expansive were generally pro-poor, while recessive had different effects.

Scaling up promotion of land rights and improved access to land for the poor, women and other vulnerable groups has been at the core of the global land community’s agenda. The pro-poor land recordation tool (PPLRT) offers an alternative approach to both conventional and emergent responsible land tools, which can be implemented on its own and in combination with other tools. It has recently been tested for various types of rural contexts. This article further develops the PPLRT based on literature review on peri-urban challenges and three documented peri-urban cases in sub-Saharan African cities. It recommends refinement of three design elements, especially related to peri-urban characteristics of rapid changes in landholdership, land fragmentation and asymmetry of actors in conflict resolution. Further research needs to include other continents, contexts with land appropriation, and attend to topics of local weighting of evidence, impacts of pro-poor land recordation, and contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.

Though Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has made considerable progress in improving maternal and child health (MCH), significant disparities exist nationwide, with the poor and geographically isolated ethnic groups having limited access to services. In its pursuit of universal health coverage, the government introduced a Free MCH initiative in 2011, which has recently been subsumed within the new National Health Insurance (NHI) programme. Although this was a major national health financing reform, there have been few evaluations of the extent to which it improved equitable access to MCH services. We analyse surveys that provide information on demand-side and supply-side factors influencing access and utilization of free MCH services, especially for vulnerable groups. This includes two rounds of household surveys (2010 and 2013) in southern Lao PDR involving, respectively 2766 and 2911 women who delivered within 24 months prior to each survey. These data have been analysed according to the socio-economic status, geographic location and ethnicity of women using the MCH services as well as any associated out-of-pocket expenses and structural quality of these services. Two other surveys analysed here focused on human resources for health and structural quality of health facilities. Together, these data point to persistent large inequities in access and financial protection that need to be addressed. Significant differences were found in the utilization of health services by both economic status and ethnicity. Relatively large costs for institutional births were incurred by the poor and did not decline between 2010 and 2013 whereby there was no significant impact on financial protection. The overall benefit incidence of the universal programme was not pro-poor. The inequity was accentuated by issues related to distribution and nature of human resources, supply-side readiness and thus quality of care provided across different geographical areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Bangladesh has achieved remarkable success in reducing the prevalence of open defecation to almost zero, from as high as 34 per cent in 1990. However, significant disparity exists in sanitation coverage, with relatively low coverage and poor quality sanitation in poor communities. In addition, poor management of faecal sludge is leading to serious environmental degradation and is becoming a major public health concern. Local government institutions (LGIs) (i.e. city corporations and municipalities) are responsible for sanitation services in urban areas. In this study, the Burke-Litwin model of organizational capacity has been used for capacity assessment of three city corporations (Dhaka North, Chattogram, and Rangpur) in Bangladesh with regard to sanitation. Analysis based on the model clearly identified a number of 'external' factors such as existing rules and regulations, public opinion, political commitment, and role of support organizations that have very strong influence on the attitude and performance of the city corporations. The analysis also identified a number of 'internal' factors (e.g. leadership, organization culture, structure, management practice, individual skills and motivation) affecting organizational capacity and performance. Currently all three city corporations studied have very limited capacity in sanitation/pro-poor sanitation planning, investment, and management. Based on the analysis, a number of recommendations aimed at improving capacities of the city corporations in addressing inclusive sanitation planning, investment, and management are made. Lessons learned from this study could be useful in assessing and improving sanitation service delivery by LGIs in cities and towns in Bangladesh and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Pro-poor land recordation tool promotes land rights and improves access to land. • Tool is positioned relative to other responsible land administration approaches. • Further incorporation of foci on institutional, political economy, community aspects. • Ten refined and one new design element and modification of graphical depiction tool. • More research recommended on impact assessment and future alignment of approaches. Abstract The global land community has increasingly recognized the need to work towards practical, coordinated integration and scalable implementation of alternative approaches to land administration, ones that better serve the interests of the majority of groups in society. The pro-poor land recordation tool (PPLRT) contains a set of design elements developed to improve protection and access to land for the poor, particularly women, youth and vulnerable groups, especially in areas with (rapidly) changing land use. Building on earlier PPLRT work, this article positions the PPLRT relative to other responsible land administration approaches (especially Fit-For-Purpose). It further develops the PPLRT design elements and system based on incorporating increased foci on institutional and political economy aspects and a more complex notion of community, stemming from four documented cases of records keeping, and expert feedback. The paper recommends refinement of all but one of the design elements, addition of a new design element, and modification of the PPLRT's graphical depiction. Recommended strategic areas for further research are: assessing the impacts of pro-poor land recordation on achievement of the SDGs (particularly land related indicator 1.4.2) and New Urban Agenda (particularly paragraph 35); identifying the necessary conditions for improved, coordinated, and scaled PPLRT implementation in various contexts; and articulation of the circumstances for effective future alignment, conversion and integration of land data collected by local communities with those of existing land administration agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pro-poor Growth comes as a new tool to assess the outcomes of economic growth in developing countries, helping to study the nature of growth and it contribution to poverty reduction. It objective is to acknowledge income growth within the population under the poverty line and the comparison of this growth with the rest of the population in order to perform absolute and relative assessments, being absolute for a plain positive growth and relative for poor’s income growth over the population average. In a national and regional context of deceleration of growth due to the fall of commodities prices, this work aims to study the period from year 2007 to 2014, when the outcomes of agriculture guided a high growth. The analysis done using the STATA package DASP. The results shows that poor’s income had grew by 58% in the 8 years lapse and growth has been pro-poor for both assessments in almost every indicator given by the pro-poor DASP package, as national outcome. For rural population, growth has also been pro-poor, absolute and relative, even though the relative assessment lack the strength and some indicators show growth not relatively pro-poor. For urban population growth has been pro-poor and the result is positive for all indicators in both assessments.

Sustainable tourism has become lately an important issue addressing the question of over-exploiting and degradation of resources. The topic is quite more challenging and presents particular importance in the case of developing countries, facing also social issues and the poverty of large segments of population. This paper investigates, based on surveying experts’ opinion, the impact of mass tourism vs. voluntary tourism vs. pro-poor tourism in India and Romania, two very different countries but facing similar challenges, and it highlights the similar issues but also the differences concerning the economic, social and environmental effects of these forms of tourism.

This paper introduces the terminology of (mal)adaptation opportunism - a situation in which projects undertaken in the name of climate change adaptation (CCA) are overrun by interests other than the stated or intended objectives of the CCA project. A goal of CCA projects is to reduce poverty and promote social justice. The case of the threat of displacement of the community of Kewunor by the Trasacco Estate Development Company (TEDC), after the construction of the Ada Sea Defense System (AdSDS) of Ghana as a CCA, is illustrative of this concept of (mal)adaptation opportunism. Through a narrative presentation of eight different accounts concerning this issue, I demonstrate how (mal)adaptation opportunism arises and is often motivated by economic interests. This case illustrates how economic interests can take over not only CCA projects but also their maladaptive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymakers and scholars are increasingly concerned with how nanotechnology can reduce inequalities and provide benefits for disadvantaged and poor communities. This paper simultaneously addresses two concerns related to nanotechnology and equity: the lack of research and development focused on nanotechnology applications that benefit developing nations (pro-poor R&D) and the lack of women in nanotechnology fields. The paper focuses on Canada, an affluent country committed to both pro-poor and gender responsive policies. Social network analysis is used to examine the relationship between gender and collaboration patterns of authors and inventors whose work is related to pro-poor applications of nanotechnology. Findings reveal that female first-authored papers have a lower citation rate and are published in higher ranked journals compared to those papers first-authored by men. Nevertheless, when women are last or corresponding authors, their papers receive equal or higher citation rates and are published in lower or similar ranked journals. Women are as, or more, collaborative as their male peers in their co-authorship and co-inventorship networks. While the majority of male authors and male inventors collaborate exclusively with men, those involved in a mixed-gender team outperform male-only teams. Women, as both authors and inventors, are involved in more gender-balanced collaboration teams. The study calls for development and implementation of gender-related policies in Canada to increase the prevalence of female scientists in collaboration networks, and to support the participation of women in pro-poor areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores which African countries had relatively low rates of underweight children and relatively high birth coverage (percentage of births with a skilled attendant) in the poorest quintile. Swaziland and Rwanda emerged as relatively ‘pro-poor’ in that both measures were more than one standard deviation better than predicted by GDP per capita. Unlike Swaziland, Rwanda’s status as an outlier was eliminated in regressions controlling also for urbanisation, medical professionals per 1000 people and health spending, suggesting that its pro-poor outcomes were related to these factors. AIDS funding may have helped Swaziland provide primary health care to the poor, but its high birth coverage preceded the HIV epidemic. Although relatively pro-poor in international terms, Swaziland and Rwanda emerged as relatively unequal by the CIX measure of health inequality with regard to percentage of underweight children across quintiles. It is important not to conflate relatively equal with relatively pro-poor health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the most effective ways to influence nutrition through value chains, based on CARE's long history in food and nutrition security. With implementation experience in 90 countries and evidence from 11 existing projects, the article argues that the best ways to impact nutrition through value chains and market systems are to focus on gender equality and pay attention to market systems contexts. Furthermore, experience in emergencies programming has different lessons and important caveats to strengthen markets rather than default to subsidised distribution systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to the substantial finance gap for achieving Sustainable Development Goals 6.1 and 6.2, the water and sanitation sector has mobilized to launch new blended finance vehicles with increasing frequency. The sustainability and scale-up of financial solutions is intended to support increased access to unserved, marginalized populations. However, without addressing foundational issues in the sector, any finance mechanism, whether public, private or blended, will be a short-term, band-aid solution and the sector will continue the cycle of dependency on external assistance. This paper presents the results of a collaborative effort of Water.org; the IRC water, sanitation and hygiene sector (WASH); and the World Bank Water Global Practice. Drawing from the latest research on effective public financial management and based on evidence from the countries where these organizations work, the paper demonstrates that sustainable success in mobilising finance on a large scale is dependent on a reasonable level of performance across 10 foundational areas. The paper presents evidence on the 10 foundational areas and discusses why other aspects of finance and governance, while necessary, are not sufficient. Better coordination amongst all development partners and governments, including a collective commitment to and prioritization of working on these foundational issues, is a necessary first step.

Land degradation is a widespread problem throughout the Tigray Region in Ethiopia, and establishing exclosures to restore degraded land has been in practice for many years. The authors examine how outputs obtained from exclosures are distributed among households adjacent to the exclosures and identify factors that influence the distribution of values of outputs. Data were collected from 446 households living next to nine exclosures in Tigray. The Gini coefficient, probit regression, and multiple linear regression were applied to the data sets. The results revealed that the distribution of values of outputs varied from fairly equal to quite unequal, depending on the exclosures' attributes and the appropriators' attributes. A more equal distribution values of outputs from exclosures was found where the density of appropriators was higher or/and in villages next to exclosures that were protected for longer periods. Wealthier households with larger herd sizes obtained a larger share of outputs from the exclosures, while households in the lowest income quantile received almost nothing. This may raise concerns among those interested in pro-poor measures. The authors did not find any evidence that household responsibility for managing and protecting exclosures had significant impacts on the distribution of values of outputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation finance is the generic term for resources used to assist institutions and populations addressing climate risks. As donors aim for adaptation at scale, a conceptual and practical transition is underway: first, policy framing concepts of ‘adaptation’ and ‘vulnerability reduction’ are yielding to ‘resilience’ as emphasis grows on theoretical frameworks for the design of ‘resilient systems’ particularly suitable for institutional change; second, the practice of adaptation increasingly takes the form of mainstreaming climate resilience that reforms ongoing development policy. This viewpoint documents emerging evidence that the conceptual and practical shift away from adaptation finance – towards what is more accurately termed ‘resilience finance’ – influences the objectives of policy, and perhaps most importantly, the actors privileged by policy. Resilience finance tends to raise the capacity of higher level government institutions, meaning that as funds increase, disproportionately fewer small-scale local/community-level projects directly benefit the poorest with highest exposure to adverse climate effects. Policy-makers need to ensure the poorest are privileged in the design of climate mainstreaming, through initiatives such as integrating climate resilience into social protection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Inclusive growth and pro-poor growth are terms embraced but not fully understood in the tourism community. This paper discusses the main concepts of inclusive growth and their implication for tourism development across the developing world. Is inclusive growth simply another term for pro-poor in tourism? Discussion of current approaches utilized by the development community and its institutions highlights differences and notes a shift from pro-poor thinking to inclusive growth efforts. Within that context, the authors suggest the need for an improved understanding of the inclusive growth approach in tourism development, particularly for emerging countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic Growth has been volatile in Pakistan; so is the case with poverty and inequality. It is a matter of great intellectual concern to know why growth has been pro-poor at some occasions of history in some specific regions while anti-poor in other areas. This paper disaggregates Poverty Equivalent Growth Rate (PEGR) at urban-rural sectors of Pakistan and across its provinces to measures growth pro-poorness in both relative and absolute terms from 2001 to 2012. Results show an overall counteracting effect of increased inequality on growth elasticity of poverty at national level but with significant regional contrast. Growth at urban level is found pro-poor (anti-poor) for all poverty measures in relative (absolute) term. This is contrary to the rural regions that experienced anti-poorness in both relative and absolute terms. Growth rate and degree of pro-poorness exhibited inverse relationship during different sub-periods. Sub-national PEGR analysis shows differential pattern of pro-poorness across regions and time. Growth proved relatively pro-poor in Balochistan and Sindh while it turned to be anti-poor in the Punjab and, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Though the relative pace of rural poverty reduction is found higher across different provinces, yet rural areas still markedly lagged behind their urban counterparts in terms of growth pro-poorness. This is suggesting relatively fewer growth gains to the rural poor across different regions of the country. A consistent doses of long term pro-poor and distributive policies through fiscal and monetary management can be a workable option to minimize the gap between the rich and the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores ways pro-poor political messages in cultural-heritage tourism are expressed by tour operators and differentially received and re-communicated by tourists dependent upon whether the experience is located at the center or periphery of national cultural-heritage brands. Two types of cultural-heritage tourism are compared, urban slum tours and rural performances of tradition. Within these types four examples are reviewed, township tours in South Africa and slum tours in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and Maasai tours in Tanzania and Kenya, and Batwa tours in Uganda. Township tours in South Africa and Maasai tours in Kenya and Tanzania are located at the center of authorized forms of national cultural-heritage brands, whereas slum tours in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and Batwa tours in Uganda operate at the periphery as alternative, less-authorized, forms of cultural heritage. Through a survey of online advertisements, media reports, and reviews, the paper finds that despite all four examples being framed as pro-poor cultural-heritage tourism by tourism providers, typically only tourists that visited the peripheral examples consumed and re-communicated messages of poverty and political marginalization, whereas visitors to central cultural-heritage products typically framed their reviews in terms of historical and cultural authenticity. By comparing cultural-heritage products central to national cultural-heritage brands with peripheral ones, which are conceptually similar (e.g. pro-poor cultural-heritage tourism) despite other outward differences (e.g. urban versus rural), this paper contributes toward the illumination of an aspect of the cultural work of heritage tourism regarding the creation and maintenance, and ability to contest cultural identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast-growing cities in the global South have an important role to play in climate change mitigation. However, city governments typically focus on more pressing socioeconomic needs, such as reducing urban poverty. To what extent can social, economic and climate objectives be aligned? Focusing on Kolkata in India, we consider the economic case for low-carbon urban development, and assess whether this pathway could support wider social goals. We find that Kolkata could reduce its energy bill by 8.5 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by 20.7 per cent in 2025, relative to business-as-usual trends, by exploiting readily available, economically attractive mitigation options. Some of these measures offer significant social benefits, particularly in terms of public health; others jeopardize low-income urban residents’ livelihoods, housing and access to affordable services. Our findings demonstrate that municipal mitigation strategies need to be designed and delivered in collaboration with affected communities in order to minimize social costs and – possibly – achieve transformative change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the distributional effects of tourism expansion applying a social accounting matrix model to the case of Ecuador. Specifically the study examines what share of tourism expansion benefits poor people. The study finds that tourism has large multiplier effects on the Ecuadorian economy and has the potential for substantial benefits to the poor. The study also found that distributional effects of tourism development are spread across all household incomes in both urban and rural areas benefiting the lowest and low households the most. Tourism has the potential of reducing inequality and is pro-poor in the case of Ecuador. Benefits to the poor seem to hinge on how and where tourists spend their money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elements that determine the success of development projects on goats and the prerequisites for ensuring this are discussed in the context of the bewildering diversity of goat genetic resources, production systems, multifunctionality, and opportunities for responding to constraints for productivity enhancement. Key determinants for the success of pro-poor projects are the imperatives of realistic project design, resolution of priorities and positive impacts to increase investments and spur agricultural growth, and appropriate policy. Throughout the developing world, there exist 97% of the total world population of 921 million goats across all agro-ecological zones (AEZs), including 570 breeds and 64% share of the breeds. They occupy a very important biological and socio-economic niche in farming systems making significant multifunctional contributions especially to food, nutrition and financial security, stability of farm households, and survival of the poor in the rural areas. Definitions are given of successful and failed projects. The analyses highlighted in successful projects the value of strong participatory efforts with farmers and climate change. Climate change effects on goats are inevitable and are mediated through heat stress, type of AEZ, water availability, quantity and quality of the available feed resources and type of production system. Within the prevailing production systems, improved integrated tree crops - ruminant systems are underestimated and are an important pathway to enhance C sequestration. Key development strategies and opportunities for research and development (R and D) are enormous, and include inter alia defining a policy framework, resolution of priority constraints using systems perspectives and community-based participatory activities, application of yield-enhancing technologies, intensification, scaling up, and impacts. The priority for development concerns the rainfed areas with large concentrations of ruminants in which goats, with a capacity to cope with heat tolerance, can be the entry point for development. Networks and networking are very important for the diffusion of information and can add value to R and D. Well formulated projects with clear priority setting and participatory R and D ensure success and the realisation of food security, improved livelihoods and self-reliance in the future.

Protection from care–related catastrophic expenditures through equitable access to affordable health services is the hallmark of a pro–poor health policy. Over the past two decades, the Government of Ethiopia has implemented policies with a clear intent of reducing poverty and improving the daily lives of its citizens, especially the poor. Guided by these cross cutting pro– poor government policies and spurred by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the health sector has implemented multi–pronged initiatives towards ensuring every citizen an access to affordable health services without catastrophic expenditures. The health sector initiatives have been guided by evolution of the innovative health programs nationally introduced as well as the needs of the community in each village across the country. Primary focus on the poor and ownership of new health initiatives by the community have been the linchpin for investment at scale.

Pro-poor rewards for environmental services (RES) link global priorities on poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. Emerging approaches to payment for environmental services vary in mechanism and form of payment. Rural poverty is multidimensional and the poverty syndromes vary with the intensity of landscape use and management, with the solution to lack of access to markets, education and healthcare associated with loss of natural capital. RES mechanisms have to balance effectiveness and efficiency with fairness and pro-poor characteristics, with transaction costs as obstacles to both. The economic perspective on financial transfers needs to be balanced with the social and environmental paradigms of fairness. Our first hypothesis is that only under specific circumstances, actual cash incentive to individual participants of RES will contribute substantially to poverty alleviation of ES providers. The second hypothesis is that non-financial incentive to ES providers will contribute to reducing poverty by linking the community (participants and non-participants) to access to capital types (human, social/political, natural, infrastructure and financial, such as microcredit). Review of key ratios of relative number and wealth of service providers and beneficiaries supports the first hypothesis and rejects the notion of widespread potential for reducing upstream rural poverty through individual cash payments. Results of community focus group discussions support the second hypothesis through context-specific preferences for the mechanisms by which RES can trigger conditions for sustainable development.

Recent major earthquake disasters have highlighted the effectiveness of financial soft policies (e.g., earthquake insurance) in transferring seismic risk away from those directly impacted and complementing 'hard' disaster risk mitigation measures (e.g., structural retrofit). However, the benefits of existing financial soft policies are often not guaranteed. This may be attributed to: (1) their low penetration rate (e.g., in the case of earthquake insurance); (2) the fact that they typically neglect the explicit needs of low-income sectors in (developed and developing) modern societies, who are often disproportionately impacted by natural-hazard driven disasters; and/or (3) their failure to consider the time-dependent nature of urban exposure. We contribute towards addressing these shortcomings by proposing a flexible framework for designing and assessing bespoke, people-centred, household-level, compulsory financial soft policies (including conventional earthquake insurance, disaster relief fund schemes, income-based tax relief schemes, or a combination of these) across cities under rapid urban expansion. The proposed framework leverages the Tomorrow's Cities Decision Support Environment, which aims to facilitate pro-poor disaster-risk-informed urban planning and design in developing country contexts. The framework specifically enables decision makers to strategically design and then assess the pro-poorness of mandatory soft policies, using financial impact metrics that discriminate losses on the basis of income. We showcase the framework using the hypothetical expanding city, "Tomorrowville", successfully identifying pro-poor seismic-risk-related financial soft policies for different instances in the lifetime of the urban system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]