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This paper explores Digital Poverty (DP) in England by adopting the DP Alliance's theoretical framework that includes both Individual Determinants (individual capability and motivation) and Circumstantial Determinants (conditions of action). Such a framework is interpreted as an expression of Strong Structuration Theory (SST), by situating the connection between social structure and human agency in an intertwined relationship. We focus on new potential vulnerabilities that are connected to DP in England by drawing on a survey conducted on a randomised stratified sample (n = 1988) of parents aged between 20–55 with children at school. Exploring parents' experience in the COVID-19 era, we identified economic factors and having children with disabilities as important predictors connected to Digital Poverty. Additional socio-demographic traits (such as age and education), parental status, lifestyles and digital behaviours also play a role in predicting some of the determinants linked to Digital Poverty. This paper adds to SST by empirically exploring how individuals use the Internet according to their metabolised embodiment of external determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on disabled people from the perspective of disability organisations located in the Global South. Drawing on the findings of an online survey, which received responses from 20 representatives of disability organisations located in 13 countries, this study builds on a growing body of recent research highlighting the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on disabled people, many of whom have experienced greater levels of discrimination and deeper levels of isolation and poverty as the result of inadequate state responses to the pandemic. The study also highlights the crucial role played by many disability organisations in supporting disabled people during the crisis, often filling in the gaps in mainstream service provision, and argues that they should be enabled to play a much more prominent role in the long-term recovery process in order to ensure a more disability-inclusive post-pandemic world. This paper argues that: State responses to the pandemic have often failed to take account of the specific needs and priorities of disabled people. During the pandemic, many disabled people have been denied access to essential services, cut off from the support of their caregivers, excluded from education provision and exposed to severe economic hardship. Disability organisations have offered vital to support to their members and beneficiaries, often helping to ensure that their basic needs are met. Policymakers and service providers should collaborate closely with disability organisations in order to ensure that disabled people are not left behind in the long-term recovery process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of literature suggests that access to electricity has a positive impact on household's living standards and social welfare. This paper sheds new light on this discussion. Using expenditure dependent equivalence scales, this paper examines the impact of electricity access on food consumption economies of scale (FCES) and thereby the poverty measurements of households with and without access to electricity in Sri Lanka during 1990-2016. Results indicate that a low-income household of four adults with access to electricity spends about 20% less on food compared to a similar household without access to electricity. The results also reveal that although the incorporation of FCES into poverty measurements reduces the overall poverty levels considerably, the reduction in poverty levels is about 1.2% higher for households with electricity at the national level. These observations are consistent across the national and sub-national levels, however, with varying magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how BRAC's Targeting the Ultra Poor graduation program was globally adopted as a successful pathway for extremely poor households to build sustainable livelihoods and improve their conditions. It explores how this Southern model of development and transformation became an integral part of global knowledge. The paper also highlights a fundamental element of BRAC's vision and pedagogical approach – enabling the powerless, especially women, to organise and exercise their agency for bringing about change – and suggests this as an important next step in graduation programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the challenges and potential benefits of interdisciplinary dialogue between anthropologists and economists. It reflects on a seminar where anthropologists and economists attempted to bridge the gap between their disciplines and highlights the difficulties in understanding each other's language and concepts. The article then focuses on a specific paper presented at the seminar, which examines the impact of a minimum wage increase on poverty reduction in the agricultural sector in South Africa. The paper finds that the wage increase led to significant increases in wages and household incomes, as well as a decline in poverty, challenging the belief that minimum wage increases result in job losses and increased poverty. The authors attribute the success of the wage increase to alternative enforcement mechanisms and the expectations of workers. The article concludes by suggesting that ethnographic research and anthropological perspectives can contribute to economics research and vice versa, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. [Extracted from the article]

Nonprofit organizations operating in civil society have become the main channel for social service provision in most neoliberal welfare economies. Social service nonprofits (SSNs) deliver essential services mainly to vulnerable and marginalized populations. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, SSNs have been at the frontline of dealing with its socioeconomic consequences. This paper focuses on the activities and responses to the crisis of SSNs in Israel. Interviews with SSN directors (N = 17) show that they dealt with growing demands for services due to the social implications of the pandemic, along with operational difficulties, such as deterioration in clients' condition, disruption in service continuity, and reduced funding and staff. Next to these difficulties, the findings highlighted the social innovations adopted by SSNs to maintain service provision, such as implementing remote service technologies, forming collaborations, and recruiting volunteers. Implications for the social services and policies are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of child labour in Bangladesh is a major concern, exposing children to hazardous working conditions with severe physical and psychological impacts on their well being. This ethnographic study investigates the interplay between the agency and vulnerability of child labourers in hazardous battery-recycling workshops, exploring the social, economic, and cultural factors that contribute to their vulnerability. The research posits that while addressing poverty and socio--economic challenges is essential to combat child labour, a blanket ban on child labour in developing countries might be unfeasible due to complex economic factors. Therefore, the study suggests a middle ground between the 'absolutist universalist' and 'contextualist' approaches. This approach entails improving working conditions, enforcing age-related labour laws, and revising child labour policies to reflect the needs and views of children and their families. It emphasises participatory decision-making and introduces support measures for children compelled to work, including residential vocational schools and stipends. The study also advocates treating hazardous child labour as child abuse, legally combating it, and increasing public awareness against such practices. Additionally, the paper underscores the necessity of re-evaluating current social policies and thoroughly assessing anti-poverty initiatives to effectively curb child labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What were the effects of a 52 per cent increase in the minimum wage in the agricultural sector in South Africa in 2013? We estimate the short run effects of this policy change on the income, employment, and poverty rate of farmworkers, using individual-level panel data from the Quarterly Labour Force Surveys (QLFS). Before the implementation date, 90 per cent of farmworkers were paid below the new minimum wage level. We find that the wage gain of farmworkers is strongly quadratically related to pre-implementation wages, suggesting lower compliance as the gap between the minimum and the pre-implementation wage increases. We estimate that farmworkers received a median wage increase of 9 per cent as a result of the policy, and we find no evidence of job losses. Overall, farmworkers were 7 per cent less likely to have household income per person below the poverty line. One possible explanation for these outcomes is that endogenous compliance may mitigate against unemployment effects. While the minimum wage literature is large, our paper adds to the small subset of this literature on large increases, partial compliance, and poverty effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper explores approaches to the classification of ethnic identity. In the framework of research on comparative classifications, we analyse the contextual factors that influence classification in Hungarian education. We compared the number of students who self-reported as Roma with the respective number reported by the school heads (as experts) and examined the discrepancies between the two indicators. We also examined whether there was a correlation between the estimation by the head of the school and the views and attitudes of the teaching staff and school heads. One important finding to emerge was the more than the twofold difference between the external classifications reported by individuals belonging to the majority population, and the students' self-identification. In other words, the school heads tended to overestimate the proportion of Roma students in their schools compared to the students' own self-identification, which was related to their pedagogical practices, beliefs, and commitment. In particular, school heads overestimated the proportion of Roma students in schools where teachers perceived that there were lower expectations and where teachers attributed school failure to cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental racism has long plagued the United States and continues to do so as the effects of climate change worsen and grow. These effects have a broad impact on every aspect of life from physical and mental health to financial stability and access to opportunities. In order to more fully understand the consequences of climate change on people, it is helpful to develop an understanding of the historical, economic, and political dimensions of climate change. This paper aims to assist in understanding as well as provide sources of engagement for social workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, youth (15–34 years) are the most vulnerable age group, assuming a large share of unemployment and NEET rates. This has raised concerns of their living standards, which have a great influence on their overall development. Although much has been written on poverty in South Africa, poverty specifically among the youth remains under-researched. This study analyses factors that determine poverty among youth-headed households in South Africa using the 2018 General Household Survey data from Statistics South Africa. Using a binary logistic regression, the paper provides findings and makes recommendations and imperative insights to policy-makers in advancing the socio-economic status of young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes household data from nine programs in the Sahel region using a harmonized approach to compare Proxy-Means Testing (PMT) and Community-Based Targeting (CBT) as conducted in practice, once geographical targeting has been applied. Results show that the targeting performance measured depends critically on the definition of the targeting objectives, share of beneficiaries selected, and indices used to evaluate targeting. While PMT performs better in reaching the poorest households based on per capita consumption, it differs little from CBT, random or universal selection when distribution-sensitive measures are employed, or when food security is used as the welfare metric. Administrative costs associated with targeting represent only a small share of budgets. Results emphasize the importance of studying programs as implemented in practice instead of relying on simulations of targeting performance. They also suggest that PMT and CBT contribute little to poverty or food insecurity reduction efforts in poor and homogeneous settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 shock resulted in a large number of people becoming newly poor in Bangladesh, for whom recovery was slow and difficult. In response, BRAC implemented a nationwide program – credit, business planning support, and mentoring – targeting the economic recovery of the new poor. This paper estimates its impact using a mixed method and finds that the program had a significant positive effect on employment, income, and assets, indicating a faster economic recovery of program participants. The learnings from this program can have major policy implications for future disaster responses targeting livelihood recovery, specifically during the time-sensitive transitory phase from relief to long-term development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the susceptibility of the youths against political-religious polarisations as presented in the Indian (Hindi) superhero comic books. The focus will be on the character, Doga (Raj comics) as he appears in the comics from 1996 to 2019. This analysis will be carried out within the framework of deconstruction applied via political discourse analysis. The paper will read these titles - Doga Hindu Hai (Doga is Hindu) series, Doga ko Gado (Bury Doga) etc. These texts deal with political issues that are coloured with religious tones portraying situations in which youths usually go astray. However, the response of the protagonist to these challenges, channelises these discontents sometimes through his own example and sometimes through appeal and yet sometimes through use of force, into positive outcomes. These artistic responses offer both the wish fulfilment to mitigate the atmosphere of peril and incites alternate reactions to the quotidian (and generally political) answers. The paper is divided into the following sections – No country for the young, Comics and crisis, People and publication, Origins, Politics and youth delinquency, Poverty and delinquency, Catch 'em Young, Colours of riot, Dalit and Doga and conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 immediately and radically necessitated changes in the way we worked as social researchers; not only in terms of fieldwork, but also in terms of collaboration. In this paper, we outline the rationale, processes, and potential of a collective of 14 research teams both inside and outside of academia working together across the UK to synthesise findings on the experiences of over 4,000 families parents and carers living on a low-income during the pandemic. Drawing on an approach based on meta-ethnography, our collective body of work comprises novel evidence and insights generated with a major cohort of families living on a low-income, through which we examine the impacts of the pandemic, and implications for social policy. This paper focuses on the practical, ethical, and methodological learnings and reflections on the processes of research synthesis in the pandemic context, and beyond. We set out the underpinning principles that guided our collaborative efforts before we explore the possibilities and challenges of working together to produce coherent, timely, and relevant findings that were shared with policy makers and those in power. Finally, we emphasise the significant potential of working collaboratively, and stress the importance of continuing to do so in a post-pandemic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change threatens hard won progress in the education and life outcomes of adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by compounding the harmful effects of gender inequality and poverty. In recent years, there has been a rise in global advocacy for gender transformative education for climate justice that addresses the underlying gender inequalities driving climate vulnerability for adolescent girls in LMICs. But, has the international development and education community responded to this call? This paper seeks to establish a baseline for answering this question through a landscape analysis of actors working on issues of gender and climate change with youth, especially girls, as well as a landscape analysis of publicly available curricular materials on climate justice and gender equality. We find that although there are many nongovernmental efforts focused on different entry points into the nexus of gender, education, leadership, and climate change, there is much more room for aligning gender equality and climate justice programming for girls. This paper highlights the gaps and opportunities for doing so and offers a taxonomy of programming approaches to guide actors and their collaborators toward more intersectional educational programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses illustrations from rural India and Bangladesh to develop a critical analysis of practices and experiences of poverty often overlooked in development policies. It challenges the principle measurement, calculative rationality and static representation in anti-poverty interventions that present poverty as a 'problem' to be resolved. It draws on poststructuralist ideas to express poverty differently and shift from problem-solving to problematisation. Drawing on the concept of 'rhizome' it highlights the connectivity, heterogeneity and multiplicity of poverty. Examples from interviews and photo diaries illustrate manifold poverty as a combination of heterogeneous activities, objects and affects that complicate development ethics and challenge the logic of reason in existing policies. The paper explores improvisation, experimentation, hope and repetition as mechanisms for critically evaluating aquaculture-led development and attending to overlooked objects, uncertain outcomes and untold stories of disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensitivity analysis of random systems may convey important information on the dynamical properties of the system. In this paper, we determine the effects of parameters' perturbation on two dynamic poverty indexes: the headcount ratio and the income gap ratio. This is achieved by perturbing the generator of the Markov process governing the evolution in time of the economic agents among three classes of income, the initial distribution of individuals and the vector of mean income for poverty class. The paper presents two bounds on the aforementioned poverty indexes which show how the perturbations on the model parameters propagate on the poverty indexes. The paper contributes to the literature presenting for the first time effective bounds for dynamic poverty indicators and exploring the applicability of the perturbation approach to real data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The suburbanization of poverty has been noted in many advanced industrial nations including the UK. Theory focuses on economic and labour market restructuring combined with processes of market- and/or state-led housing change. This paper examines the contributions of housing and welfare reforms. In the UK, housing policy has driven low-income households increasingly to find accommodation in the private rental sector at the same time that welfare reforms have constrained the rents these households can afford. This paper traces the spatial consequence of these reforms, drawing on a novel combination of Government data and a database of private rental adverts. Up to 2011, the shift from social to private renting for low-income households was relatively neutral in its impacts on suburbanization. Since then, low-income households in private renting have been increasingly pushed to less central locations as rents in more central areas have risen faster. The role played by housing and welfare policy in the suburbanization of poverty needs wider consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the redistribution and rescaling of societal risk in rural Britain during the COVID-19 pandemic, as one episode of the permacrisis. Drawing on empirical work in three contrasting areas of Scotland and England, we analyse individuals' experiences of risk and of the institutions which offer them support in times of crisis (markets, state, voluntary and community organisations, and family and friends). Our findings reveal the unequal distribution of societal risk during the pandemic, exacerbated by a legacy of precariatisation and individualisation in the labour market and welfare reforms. Although the state acted to mitigate risk and financial hardship during the lockdown, it was often voluntary and community organisations that filled the gaps left by the inability of the state to reach effectively into rural areas. Social infrastructure and institutional capital are therefore central to the mitigation of vulnerability and societal risk. This raises important questions about the capacity of institutions to provide support in times of crisis to rural citizens. Unless there is societal pooling of risk through such institutions to ensure social protection and that nobody is disadvantaged by where they live, future episodes of the permacrisis are likely to exacerbate inequalities and vulnerabilities in rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the biological, socio-economic, and institutional factors shaping the individual risk of death during a major pre-industrial epidemic. We use a micro-demographic database for an Italian city (Carmagnola) during the 1630 plague to explore in detail the survival dynamics of the population admitted to the isolation hospital (lazzaretto). We develop a theoretical model of admissions to the lazzaretto, for better interpretation of the observational data. We explore how age and sex shaped the individual risk of death, and we provide a one-of-a-kind study of the impact of socio-economic status. We report an inversion of the normal mortality gradient by status for those interned at the lazzaretto. The rich enjoyed a greater ability to make decisions about their hospitalization, but this backfired. Instead, the poor sent to the lazzaretto faced a relatively low risk of death because they enjoyed better conditions than they would have experienced outside the hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses poverty dynamics and checks for the existence of poverty traps among refugee and host communities living close to each other in Uganda. Although some non-linearities emerge in asset dynamics, there is convergence towards one stable equilibrium for the whole sample that suggests the existence of a structural poverty trap. However, households are quite heterogeneous: when analysing refugees and hosts separately, refugees converge to a lower own-group equilibrium than hosts. The household size and education are asset growth enablers for both communities. Noticeably, access to land, past history and social cohesion are also significant correlates of refugees' asset dynamics. From a policy perspective, structural poverty traps are bad news, because standard anti-poverty interventions would not unlock the trap. Our results stress the need of more structural approaches aimed at promoting economic growth in the whole area where refugee and host communities live, targeting both communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uganda is home to 1.5 million refugees from DRC, Burundi, South Sudan and other countries. The Uganda political framework is one of the most progressive and inclusive toward refugees. Only a fraction of the refugees is likely to revert to their home countries. The papers collected in this special issue assess Uganda's progressive refugee policy with reference to how it functioned in the era of COVID-19 using a unique panel data collected between 2017 and 2021. The findings of the special issue stress that the support to refugees and hosts is helping to manage daily challenges but not to ultimately get them out of poverty. Further, this support was insufficient to provide a comprehensive response to COVID-19. For the long-term sustainable integration and development, new policy approaches are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe paper examines the fascinating case of middle-income Sri Lanka with pre-existing macroeconomic weaknesses hit by COVID-19. The pandemic created a public health emergency and an economic crisis in 2020, causing economic damage and dampening Sri Lanka’s development prospects. The evidence shows a sudden growth contraction, a steep rise in poverty, falling women’s employment, worsening macroeconomic imbalances, and high external debt levels rising. Rather than requesting early IMF assistance for its balance of payments problems, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government opted for home-grown remedies including ultra-loose monetary policy, import controls, bilateral swaps and loans, and a ban on fertilizer imports. The unconventional policy mix temporarily mitigated economic scaring from COVID-19 and supported the economy. But the distortions introduced by prolonging this unconventional mix and the Russia-Ukraine conflict shock pushed Sri Lankan economy into external debt default, a worsening economic crisis and Rajapaksa’s resignation in 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, factors associated with poverty among refugees were explored using a nationally representative sample in the United States. Relying on the social exclusion theory,) a refugee integration framework was selected as a conceptual framework of the study. Poverty was calculated based on households' income (income poverty) and deprivation in three domains of education, health, and housing (multidimensional poverty). Multivariate models of the study identified limited English language proficiency as the strongest predictor of both income and multidimensional poverty among refugees. The findings call for more attention to English language training among refugees in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely believed that China's socialist economy had relatively high rates of extreme poverty while the capitalist reforms of the 1980s and 1990s delivered rapid progress. This narrative relies on World Bank estimates of the share of people living on less than $1.90 a day (2011 PPP), which show a sharp decline from 88 per cent in 1981 to zero by 2018. However, the World Bank's poverty line has been critiqued for ignoring variations in the actual cost of meeting basic needs. In this paper we review data published by the OECD on the share of people unable to afford a subsistence basket. These estimates indicate that from 1981 to 1990, when most of China's socialist provisioning systems were still in place, the country's extreme poverty rate was on average only 5.6 per cent, substantially lower than in capitalist economies of comparable size and income at the time: 51 per cent in India, 36.5 per cent in Indonesia, and 29.5 per cent in Brazil. China's comparatively strong performance is corroborated by data on other social indicators. Moreover, extreme poverty in China increased during the capitalist reforms of the 1990s, reaching a peak of 68 per cent, as privatisation inflated the prices of essential goods and thus deflated the incomes of the working classes. These results indicate that socialist provisioning policies can be effective at preventing extreme poverty, while market reforms may threaten people's ability to meet basic needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-sought self-sufficiency goal of contemporary social welfare systems has been mostly elusive, even in developed countries. This paper presents a revised version of the Self-Sufficiency Framework as a pragmatic strategy for welfare reform, investigating how the current neoliberal approach centered on promoting employment (workfare) could be made more socially just and freedom-oriented. Thus, the framework proposed here accepts the central goal of promoting employment (self-sufficiency) at the core of current welfare systems, but complements that goal with a strong and non-stigmatizing welfare support package and with labor market reforms aimed at combating exploitative forms of employment. Furthermore, the proposed model emphasizes the need for financial inclusion, notably in the banking system and the mortgage industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identified and compared pathways of childhood undernutrition among 308 rural and 310 urban children from low-income households in the Philippines. Multidisciplinary analyses based on quantitative and qualitative data revealed unique urban and rural constraints accounting for differing nutritional outcomes. Urban poor families were more food secure, though vegetable avoidance and poor micronutrient adequacy were observed. Rather than mitigate threats to undernutrition, rural households' reliance on home food agriculture heightened risk to food insecurity, as the Philippines is vulnerable to crop-destroying tropical storms. Our findings suggest the need to strengthen local governance institutions to implement context-specific multisectoral interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic underachievement of students from disadvantaged backgrounds is an ongoing and unresolved problem. Schools serving vulnerable communities often fail to meaningfully engage their students who are often exposed to significant family and environmental adversities. However, where the educational landscape is overwhelmed with neoliberal processes of accountability and testing, education generally comes to be understood as a cognitive process with little attention to the bodily or affective dimensions of learning. This paper draws on new theoretical ideas in affect and embodiment to build a case for an embodied, affective and creative pedagogy for students who live with poverty and adversity. Specifically, I report on research that investigates how two teachers utilised Creative and Body-based (CBL) provocations to redesign curriculum for disadvantaged students in their sites. In utilising the analysis of two narrative portraits, I highlight examples of bodily affectivity as well as affective pedagogical practices that impact on students' capacity to learn and teachers' capacity to teach. Analysis suggests that embodied and creative approaches enable new forms of communication and learner identities through bodies, senses and imaginings. Such approaches provide much needed affective conditions that 'hook' students in, encourage dialogue and help them to realise their potential as learners. Outcomes of this work signal an epistemological and pedagogical shift toward understanding bodies and creativity as agents of learning and knowledge production. By engaging with notions of a 'learning body' potential exists to challenge neoliberal practices in complex classrooms and support young people to foster stronger connections, hope and a re-inspired aspiration to learn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of a scoping review in which we examined the scientific literature (2010–2021) on faith-based organizations (FBOs) working within the field of poverty alleviation, focusing on the way studies define and use the term FBO. Fifty-two relevant studies were identified and included. Our research shows that the term FBOs is primarily used in American studies. Moreover, there is no broad consensus on the exact definition or meaning of the term nor on its scope. Because of this lack of consensus and the inherent shortcomings of the term, we suggest to replace the term FBO by the term "religion-based solidarity initiatives" (RSIs), We define RSIs as: "Initiatives that, from a religious inspiration, aim at organizing collective action for and/or providing support or services to people in vulnerable positions." These initiatives can range from small scale ad hoc initiatives till large scale formal organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies educational aspirations and grade achievements of teenagers in India, using Structural Equation Modelling with data from the Young Lives Study. The analysis differentiates direct effects of relevant socio-economic and individual characteristics on educational output from indirect effects through aspirations. In this sample, some student characteristics – parents' education, mothers' caste and the student's gender – have no direct effect on educational output, but an indirect effect on educational aspirations going through abilities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and in particular girls, are at a disadvantage at age 12 because they have accumulated lower cognitive abilities. Abilities shape aspirations, which then impact educational output beyond the mere effect of abilities. Girls are at a double disadvantage: besides lower average skills at age 12, they developed lower aspirations than boys of the same characteristics. The economic situation of the household was neither directly nor indirectly related with students' achievements in school. These results help distinguish aspirations as drivers of behaviour from aspirations as correlates of other characteristics, and they have relevant policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ethnography of one family's life with diabetes in a poor settlement in Delhi's suburbs, this paper examines the relationship between emotional structures of care and kinship in the face of chronic illness. While anthropologists have argued for a relational understanding of care and discussed how, in India, modernity and social transformations have resulted in crises of familial care, less attention has been paid to the emotional terrains of care and its difficulties as they unfold in concrete relationships over time. This paper demonstrates how emotional intensities define the possibilities, limits, and ambivalence of kin care for the chronically ill. Described as care without heart, this mode of attention implies a continuation of care labour that maintains kinship ties and holds the possibility of kin futures, but is disinvested emotionally and feels unsatisfactory. The analytic of care without heart expresses a particular mode of care by which persons navigate dominant moral regimes around gendered family responsibilities and imperatives of love in relationships, but without fully subscribing to them. Care without heart at once signifies an inadequate form of care, invokes North Indian normative moral regimes around family care responsibilities and emotions, and acknowledges the shortcomings of these regimes and norms of relatedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the 'engendering' of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), and the role of organisations such as Oxfam in supporting this process, at the country level and internationally. It is based on an evaluation assessing the extent to which Oxfam Great Britain's (GB's) work on PRSPs has been mainstreaming perspectives on gender and diversity. The evaluation was part of a larger gender mainstreaming evaluation, demonstrating Oxfam's strong commitment to promoting gender equality in its development work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Bank and IMF have proposed the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) framework for all poor countries as a condition of receiving unconditional debt relief under the HIPC Initiative. The PRSPs will also be the key vehicle for the World Bank and IMF and other donors for various assistance packages, including loans. Like its predecessors, the PRSP framework promotes the ideas of 'participation' and 'ownership'. This article argues that ownership of such a grand framework cannot possibly rest with the poor countries or their people if the whole idea is the product of World Bank and IMF think-tanks. It discusses participation in the development of Bangladesh's PRSP and argues that neither participation nor ownership was the target in preparing a national poverty-reduction strategy: they were merely necessary components of a document required for the continuation of debt and lending relationships with the World Bank and IMF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the various accounts put forward to explain the disappointing outcomes thus far of 'civil society participation' in the design and implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (prsps) in aid-receiving countries throughout the world. While donors' technical and depoliticised explanations prove particularly unhelpful, other more radical perspectives, though insightful, often lack sufficient subtlety in their analyses. The article goes on to consider and critique commentators' various visions and prescriptions for prsp participation. Finding within participation aid's classic paradox—where it can work it is not needed and where it might be needed it cannot work—the article predicts a bleak future for prsp participation and argues that the project's failure may exacerbate the crisis of legitimacy faced by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, a crisis that led these organisations to launch the prsp initiative in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are a central instrument in international development cooperation and of key importance in guiding donors' policies towards southern recipients. However, many aspects of the PRSP have been criticised by a variety of development stakeholders. A checklist of 85 questions has been developed to analyse the inclusion of aspects of sustainable development in PRSPs and to point to sustainability challenges and opportunities. It thus facilitates targeted advice and quality improvements. The checklist was applied to a selection of 12 PRSPs of developing countries. The results reveal an insufficient integration of the ecosystem services concept, of biodiversity and of climate issues. Property rights, gender issues, water and energy are as a rule well elaborated. PRSPs show significant variation in the integration of environmental sustainability issues. Sustainability assessments can contribute to significant improvements between first and second generation PRSPs provided the assessments are supported by a strong institutional framework and a dedicated political commitment towards sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the COVID–19 outbreak, food insecurity was already a serious public health problem in Canada, impacting 12.7 percent of households. In recent years, activists, practitioners and researchers from a range of health–related disciplines, have debated the legitimacy of food banks and other charitable food programs, contending that policy and programs at the federal level must be prioritized to address the underlying root causes of poverty. This paper challenges the discourse that charitable food programs prevent or distract from Canada's social equity goals. Alternatively, this paper argues that programs and initiatives at the local level can emerge to bring short–term stability and self–sufficiency to local communities while also advocating for longer–term structural change. Drawing upon structuration theory and critical ecologies of anti–Black racism, we examine the work of BlackFoodToronto, a food sovereignty initiative, to illustrate the negotiation of power and agency, and how groups and networks react to and reshape confining and enabling structures through collaborative practice. In addressing Canada's food security crisis, this paper offers an alternative perspective of community–based, nonprofit and charitable programs, which in practice, can help inform future food security policy and related health equity and community development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The November 1997 White Paper (WP) Eliminating world poverty: a challenge for the 21st century is only the third ever substantive WP on Britain's aid policy. It offers a focus on poverty, emphasises partnerships for sustainable development and ranges over far wider issues than just aid. It makes some significant departures from previous White Papers by Labour governments, partly reflecting a changed Labour Party but also following an evolution that is taking place in international development cooperation more generally. The 1997 White Paper also displays some continuities with the past, however. Policy effectiveness will depend inter alia on circumstances external to the UK and on the Department for International Development's political effectiveness in central government. The low profile of international development in political studies in the UK could also improve if proposals to increase public awareness of global interdependence take effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper foregrounds the use of "Living Labs" as instruments for the delivery of just low carbon transformations. Living Labs are commonly understood as stakeholder-centred, iterative and open-innovation ecosystems that involve multiple forms of co-creation and engagement among different actors in a given territory. Over a period of three years, thanks to a unique pan-European action research study, three such Labs were set up in different locations in Europe -- a large North-western European city (Manchester, England), a mid-sized mountainous town in South-eastern Europe (Metsovo, Greece) and a series of rural settlements in Central Europe (Nyírbátor, Hungary). Working closely with local residents and relevant organisational stakeholders, the research teams that led the Labs undertook multiple low-carbon interventions in the homes of low-income residents, while continuously monitoring the broader impacts of intermediation practices on energy equity and sustainability across three consecutive cycles of activity. We present and discuss the results of these activities, so as to uncover the impacts of Living Labs on energy poverty both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his theory on delinking, Amin shows how Africa is linked to global Capital. For Amin, it is in this link that Africa's underdevelopment resides. An important element in this linking process is the role that the comprador bourgeoisie plays in its relationship with global Capital, which facilitates the continued underdevelopment of Africa. Amin raises the question of the role that the African comprador bourgeoisie played as agents of imperialism in keeping Africa linked to Europe. From this standpoint, Amin presents the possibility of approaching Africa's underdevelopment from another dimension – the possibility of exploring Africa's underdevelopment as an internally driven process initiated by home-grown African capitalists who accumulate for their own account. Extending the logic of the comprador bourgeoisie, this paper argues that Capital in Africa is responsible for internal under development. African Capital too, together with international Capital consciously participates in under developing Africa. We argue that internal underdevelopment is based on a capitalist logic that contains all the standard phenomena associated with Capital, namely, inequality, unemployment, and poverty. Furthermore, exploring the rise of our case studies, viz; the Dangotes, Motsepes, and the Dos Santos', we show how instrumental each of them are in the internal underdevelopment of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a tendency for debates around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to focus on particular Goals or Targets. What tends to get lost, however, is the bigger picture. In this paper we ask: to what extent and under what conditions do the SDGs offer a pathway to equality? Specifically, we focus on the potentials of the SDGs as a pathway to urban equality in the decade of delivery. We focus on the ways that three key interrelated development agendas, eradicating extreme poverty, promoting prosperity, and building resilience, are mobilised through the SDGs. Together these agendas reveal tensions and opportunities in the relationship between the SDGs and urban equality. In discussion, we reflect on the potentials of an urban equality lens to read the SDGs, and the conditions under which they might contribute to the realisation of fairer and more equal cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to determine the effect of social work provided by social activation services to poor single mothers in the Czech Republic. Using the method of quasi-experimental research design, the study analyses the activities of the social activation service during the years 2017–2019. As defined by Delors, the pillars of social work with impoverished mothers in our study were conditioned by a cognitive-behavioral and a task-oriented approach. It was found that through long-term social work with poor single mothers, skills related to the pillars Learning to Be, Learning to Know, and Learning to Live Together could be developed. The finding of no statistically significant development of respondents' work skills associated with the Learning to Do pillar proved to be a noteworthy outcome. The research highlights the work of the social activation service in the Czech Republic, while it also outlines the significant challenges involved in working with poor single mothers. The paper proposes the development and institution of a new service dedicated to developing employment skills, by which the reduction of the negative impacts of the poverty on single mothers might be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) seeks to improve young people's knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to sexual and reproductive health, sexual and social relationships, and dignity and rights. In Ethiopia, young people with disabilities and young women involved in sex work are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and poor sexual health, yet face stigma and accessibility challenges that continue to exclude them from information, support and services. Because they are often out of school, these groups are also often excluded from programmes that are largely delivered in school settings. This paper explores the challenges faced by these groups of young people in accessing inclusive and age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health knowledge and services in the Ethiopian context and the implications for delivering CSE. The research included literature review, mapping analysis and interviews with young people from those two groups and with service providers and programme implementers. Our findings indicate that young people with disabilities and young women involved in sex work face myriad barriers to accessing information and services that support positive and healthy sexuality, relationships and rights. However, changes over the past decade to national and regional governance structures and a political environment in which CSE has become increasingly contested have generated siloed approaches to the provision of sexual and reproductive health information and services, and poor linkages to complementary services including violence prevention and social protection. It is vital that efforts to implement comprehensive sexuality education are informed by these challenges in the wider policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People living on a low income are less likely to access palliative care in the UK; however, beyond the statistics, little is known about the impact of poverty on attitudes towards death and experiences of dying and bereavement. Covid-19 has disproportionally affected poorer communities and foregrounded issues of social and health inequalities including experiences of loss and grief. Whilst this might suggest an opportune moment for embracing inclusive health-promoting approaches to palliative care, this paper argues that the centrality of concepts such as choice within such approaches, and assumptions about what constitutes a 'good death', disregard the ways in which structural, social and economic aspects of poverty interface with attitudes towards and experiences of dying, and may exacerbate inequalities in death and dying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the impact of neighborhood effects on individuals' socioeconomic integration in two peripheral shanty-towns and in three favelas located in Brazil. In the peripheral São João do Cabrito, the individuals' embeddedness in a homogeneously poor region fosters their social isolation; yet, in Fazenda Grande II/Jaguaripe I, the population's socioeconomic heterogeneity attenuates neighborhood effects. The individuals' functional integration vis-à-vis their wealthy surroundings declines toward the periphery of their neighborhood, their chances of integration being conditioned by the shared use of public space, and the surrounding gated communities' degree of spatial isolation. We discuss three mechanisms that explain neighborhood effects: changes in the support structures, the impact of crime, and territorial stigmatization. We conclude that individuals' chances of integration mainly depend on the spatial distribution of employment and urban services, rather than on their proximity to affluent neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main theme of this paper is to investigate the socio-economic impacts of climate change and adaptation; by comparing the losses with and without land reallocation for major staple foods as a key strategy of climate change adaptation in the farming system. In doing so, a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for Nepal has been developed, incorporating the allocation of land for several agricultural crops, including the major staple foods, with specification of a nested set of constant elasticity of transformation (CET) functional forms. The set of land transformation elasticities facilitates switching from one crop to another; based on their agronomic characteristics and degree of climate change impacts. Using Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) data and Living Standard Survey (LSS) data, a social accounting matrix (SAM) for Nepal is developed and used to simulate three scenarios of climate change and land reallocation. The simulation results in the long run depict farmers as more likely to use land for crops that are comparatively less impacted by climate change, such as paddy. The results further show that land reallocation reduces the income inequality and poverty among rural and urban households by significantly controlling the income losses of marginal farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the unintended consequences of emergency school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores the impact of these closures on children and young people's United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and wider physical health rights. It addresses how States Parties should address and balance these rights during a crisis. It then contextualises the school closures, using global data mainly collated by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), exploring the direct health risk to children and young people from COVID-19 and the risk they posed to the wider community, finding both low. It then draws on findings from the Children and Young People's Commissioner, Scotland's COVID-19 Independent Children and Young People's Rights Assessment (ICRA) and wider literature identifying numerous unintended rights breaches, focusing on the rights breaches experienced by three particularly vulnerable groups of children and young people, namely those (i) at risk of physical or sexual violence; (ii) with additional support needs; and (iii) experiencing poverty and deprivation. Recommendations are made as to how to avoid breaching children and young peoples' physical health rights in future emergency school closures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of international humanitarianism is usually told from the perspective of donors and aid providers. Throughout the twentieth century, large humanitarian organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, national Red Cross societies and a range of United Nations agencies have been the main channels of international aid and, as a result, a major focus of historical attention. In contrast, we know little about the feelings and thoughts of the 'recipients' of aid, who are often portrayed, partly for lack of sources, as innocent, passive and grateful. This paper challenges this narrative, using post-First World War Germany as a case study. It shows how difficult it was for many Germans to accept and ask for 'charity' from the international community, especially from former enemies. As a defeated and humiliated nation, accepting foreign charity could be deeply embarrassing for Germany: a reminder of defeat, poverty and déclassement. As a result, German officials spent a great deal of time and effort restricting German fundraising abroad, seeking to allow only such international aid as they deemed compatible with German honour and Great Power status. In the emotional environment of the post-war years, being the object of international charity raised much larger questions for Germany about international dependence and national dignity. Like many recipients in the twentieth century, Germany was far from a passive recipient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational therapists support individuals experiencing homelessness in traditional roles, and occupational therapy positions focussed specifically on homelessness appear to be growing. To develop and refine a framework to guide occupational therapy practice and research in homelessness. We developed a framework and refined it through a stakeholder consultation process conducted with 17 international occupational therapy experts using an online survey. In this survey, we presented an initial framework and requested qualitative feedback. We analyzed this qualitative data using content analysis. Stakeholder feedback was categorized into eight recommendations: (1) Revision to the 'four processes'; (2) Emphasizing social justice and systems-level advocacy; (3) Reflecting intersectionality; (4) Emphasizing meaningful activity; (5) Emphasizing peer support; (6) Incorporating a focus on independent living skills; (7) Increasing a focus on an activity for addressing substance misuse; and (8) Acknowledging cognitive and physical health. Each of these recommendations was incorporated into a refined version of this framework. These recommendations and a refined version of the framework are presented in this paper. We have developed and refined a framework aimed at guiding practice and research in occupational therapy in homelessness that will be evaluated in future research. Though a range of frameworks exists for guiding the practice of occupational therapists more generally, this framework represents the first that is focussed specifically on guiding occupational therapy practice and research with individuals who experience homelessness. Research and practice implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates proposals made in the White Paper on Local Government to address rural poverty in South Africa. Proposed institutional systems; Identification of the needs of the poor; Responsibility of traditional leadership; Promotion of the meaningful participation of women in public life.