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In recent times, poverty analyses and policies against poverty have incorporated women as a relevant factor. Nevertheless, some criticisms have been raised against them: first, most of the time, they have relied on an instrumental perspective which does not guarantee better conditions of gender equity; second, poverty analyses have generally become reactive tools that seek to compensate for a current situation, not to prevent it from occurring in the future. This paper therefore proposes to go beyond poverty analyses to identify distinctive features of households derived from social constructions that have an effect on vulnerability, particularly in households headed by women. We point out the importance of an analysis from a gender perspective in order to identify the features which make households more vulnerable to suffering or worsening their conditions of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Amartya Sen's theoretical insights, this paper analyzes indigenous women's poverty in the Sierra Negra, Puebla, as well as their development capacity resulting from their participation in the "Sociedad de Productores Indígenas Ecológicos Sierra Negra Sociedad Civil" (SPIESN, S. C.). Data was collected using a quanti-qualitative approach: a survey, eight in-depth interviews, three participatory workshops and field participant observation were conducted. Results indicate that women value literacy, own-income generation, and land ownership. However, they also face structural limitations when attempting to develop capacities in these areas. Their participation in the organization has given positive results to this effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses microcredit as a possible instrument for local development, especially when some financial institutions arrive in local towns of limited resources with credit possibilities in soft conditions and when there is a constant training for the use of said resources on individual or collective projects for the production and the services. The paper analyzes the specific program of the Sistema de Financiamiento Rural Alternativo (SIFRA, System for Alternative Rural Financing), which has been implemented in the state of Jalisco for several years, with the support and collaboration of the government's Secretaría de Desarrollo Rural (Department of Rural Development) as well as that of several non-government organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a study on the relation existing between the concepts of vulnerability and victimization. Victimization is not limited to the situation of a person who has suffered from a crime. "Tacit" victimization --as we have labeled it-- may be suffered by any person due to endogenous and/ or exogenous causes; among the latter, poverty is one of the most harmful. In this sense, tacit victimization which derives from vulnerability must be tackled by means of public policies of social orientation. The State must comply with this purpose, in stead of spending Money on patrol cars and weapons, because the millions of victims that erratic public policies cause surpass the thousands of crime victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]