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Amaç: Bu çalışmanın amacı, kırsal mahallelerde yaşayanların, İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi’nin tarım ve kırsal kalkınmaya yönelik destek ve uygulamalarından memnuniyet düzeylerinin belirlenmesidir.Materyal ve Yöntem: Araştırmanın ana materyalini İzmir ilinde Bergama ve Ödemiş ilçelerinde, toplam 84 üreticiyle yapılan yüz yüze anketlerden elde edilen veriler oluşturmaktadır. Verilerin analizinde hizmet kalitesini ölçmekte kullanılan ServQual ölçeğinden yararlanılmıştır. Ölçek bileşenleri faktör analizi yardımıyla alt boyutlara ayrılarak gruplandırılmıştır. Araştırma Bulguları: Bulgular İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi’nin tarıma ve kırsal kalkınmaya yönelik hizmetlerinin kırsal mahallelerde yaşayanlar tarafından olumlu karşılandığını ancak yeterli bulunmadığını göstermektedir. Faktör analizinden elde edilen alt boyutlar içinde en yüksek ortalamayı “fiziksel özellikler” grubu, en düşük ortalamayı ise “empati” alt boyutu almıştır.Sonuç: Yerel yönetimlerin kırsal mahallelerde tarım ve kırsal kalkınma için yapacakları faaliyetlerde ekonomik, sosyal ve ekolojik önceliklere dayalı orta ve uzun vadeli stratejiler çerçevesinde ilgili aktörlerle işbirliği halinde hareket etmesinin yeni bir kır-kent ilişkisine kapı aralayacağı, kentte ve kırda yaşayan insanların refahına olumlu yansıyacağı düşünülmektedir., Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the satisfaction levels of people living in rural neighborhoods about the support and practices of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality for agricultural and rural development.Material and Methods: The main material of the research is the data obtained from the face to face surveys with 84 producers in Bergama and Ödemiş districts of İzmir. ServQual scale was used in the analysis of the data. Scale components were grouped into sub-dimensions by factor analysis. Results: The services of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality for agricultural and rural development are welcomed but found insufficient by the people living in rural neighborhoods. Among the sub-dimensions obtained from the factor analysis, the "physical characteristics" group had the highest average, and the "empathy" sub-dimension had the lowest average.Conclusion: In the activities to be carried out by local governments for agricultural and rural development in rural neighborhoods; acting in cooperation with the relevant actors within the framework of medium and long-term strategies based on economic, social and ecological priorities will open the door to a new rural-urban relationship and will reflect more positively on the welfare of people living in the city and the countryside.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES The rural space in Brazil presents dynamic and heterogeneous relations, with family farmers being the most prominent social actors. The respective actors are often at the mercy of precarious public or private policies to access social rights. In this context, the social actors that nowadays are classified as family farmers spent half a century segregated from a fair a fair and democratic social security system in the country. Based on that, the present work sought to reflect under the empirical-analytical bias, the effects of social security for the agricultural production by the family farmers in the rural area of Agreste Central Sergipano. The methodological procedures involved theoretical reflections and surveys of secondary data through the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the National Institute of Social Security (INSS) and fieldwork. In 2020, there were just over 9.6 social actors with active social security benefits in Brazil, more than half of them female. Currently, family farmers account for approximately 30% of the existing benefits in the Brazilian social security system. The Northeast of the country is the spatial area with the highest percentage of family farmers with INSS benefits. In the state of Sergipe, 211,319 pensions were active in April 2021 and of these, 53.3% were rural. The INSS agency in the rural space of the Agreste Central of Sergipe has the highest percentage of rural benefits in the state, and it is the second in financial amounts. Rural social security is not income from agricultural production, but is the result of years of work on the land. Thus, it is not a welfare or government policy, but a constitutional and institutionalized social right. This social insurance dissipates several socioeconomic improvements individually and collectively in the rural area of Agreste Central Sergipano. The delay in analyzing the requirements, bureaucracy, demands outside the productive reality of some family farmers, judicialization and dismantling of the INSS by neoliberal measures adopted by the current government, are some of the institutional and social obstacles that make it difficult for family farmers to access the Brazilian Rural Social Security System. O espaço rural, no Brasil, apresenta relações dinâmicas e heterogêneas. Os agricultores familiares são os atores sociais de maior destaque. Os respectivos atores, muitas vezes, ficam à mercê das precárias políticas públicas ou privados de acessarem os direitos sociais. Nesse contexto, os atores sociais que hoje são classificados como agricultores familiares, passaram meio século segregados de um Sistema Previdenciário justo e democrático no país. Diante disso, o presente trabalho buscou refletir, sob o viés empírico-analítico, os efeitos da Previdência Social para a reprodução dos agricultores familiares no espaço rural do Agreste Central Sergipano. Os procedimentos metodológicos perpassaram por reflexões teóricas, levantamento de dados secundários por meio do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) e do Instituto Nacional de Seguridade Social (INSS) e, trabalho de campo. No ano de 2020, constavam pouco mais de 9,6 milhões de atores sociais com benefícios previdenciários rurais ativos no Brasil, sendo mais da metade do sexo feminino. Atualmente, os agricultores familiares correspondem a aproximadamente 30% dos benefícios existentes na Previdência Brasileira. O Nordeste do país é o recorte espacial com maior percentual de agricultores familiares com benefícios no INSS. No estado de Sergipe, 211.319 aposentadorias estavam ativas em abril de 2021 e dessas, 53,3% eram rurais. A agência do INSS no espaço rural do Agreste Central Sergipano possui o maior percentual de benefícios rurais do estado e a segunda em montantes financeiros. A Previdência Social Rural não é uma renda oriunda da produção agrícola, mas é fruto de anos de trabalho realizado na terra. Desse modo, não é uma política assistencialista ou de governo, mas um direito social constitucional e institucionalizado. Esse seguro social dissipa diversas melhorias socioeconômicas, individualmente e coletivamente, no espaço rural do Agreste Central Sergipano. A demora na análise dos requerimentos, burocracias, exigências fora da realidade produtiva de alguns agricultores familiares, judicialização e desmonte do INSS por medidas neoliberais adotadas pelo governo atual, são alguns dos entraves institucionais e sociais que dificultam o acesso dos agricultores familiares ao Sistema Previdenciário Rural Brasileiro. São Cristóvão

Mozambique is among the most disaster-prone countries in the world. A bigger than usual, and mostly unexpected, flood occurred in the central-northern region of the country in the first few months of 2015, causing huge damage to infrastructures. In this paper, we use a nationally representative household budget survey that was being carried out in the field during those months to assess the short-term impact of the 2015 flooding on household consumption and poverty levels. Applying a difference-in-difference approach, we find that, for those exposed to the flood, consumption reduced significantly in the short term, in the range of 11–17%, depending on the specification, on the estimation procedure implemented or on the subsample of households selected. Poorer households, and especially households living in rural areas, seem to have been affected significantly more. Poverty levels also increased due to the flood, by about 6 percentage points. These results are relevant for policy planning and natural disaster management, as well as for ex-ante vulnerability assessment in Mozambique and other risk-prone developing countries with similar characteristics.

We make three arguments in this review of the literature on rural welfare governance in Vietnam and China. First, welfare restructuring in these countries has gone through two overlapping processes of contraction and expansion, underlined by changing politics of needs and shifting modes of governance since their shift from state to market socialism. Such politics are the outcome of the Communist party-state’s dual project of legitimation and control, as widespread social conflicts challenge its legitimacy. Secondly, the dislocations and inequalities induced by marketization have been coupled with greater involvement of a broad range of social actors in welfare provision. Thirdly, the rise of social protection is shaped by state control, wealth disparities between regions and social classes, and a care politics deeming certain groups as failing to meet the human capital requirements of the new economy. While providing some buffer against destitution, existing forms of social protection do little to alleviate the social exclusion and inequality resulting from post-reform dispossession.

For the last ten years, Social farming (SF) has become an innovative practice able to connect multifunctional agriculture and novel social services for urban and rural areas in Italy and the EU. By looking at the experience from Italy, it is possible to note that SF has not developed homogeneously along the national territory. It is characterized by a wide range of practices and activities related to the development of a welfare in which several topics such as subsidiarity, the value of relationship, and co-production find multiple meanings and applications. This paper provides a further contribution to the knowledge on this type of activity and opens the way to deeper considerations on the topic. The information reported in this study refers to a project born in 2018 and carried out by Fondazione Campagna Amica, a foundation promoted by Coldiretti, the main organization of agricultural entrepreneurs in Italy. This paper focuses on the analysis of data collected during this project, through in-depth interviews carried out from July 2018 to March 2019 among 229 agricultural enterprises, as well as meetings with representatives of the regional offices of Coldiretti that are involved in SF. This study aims to reach a better understanding of the development of SF in Italy through the perspective of a national network of farmers and to compare SF practices across regions in order to examine their similarities and differences. The most important results show big individual farms with a great variety of agricultural activities and livestock systems, with a clear predominance of horticulture. These SF farms mainly provide direct sales and educational activities and are involved in training and job placement services.

The 2014-15 Ebola epidemic took a devastating human and economic toll on three West African countries, of which Liberia was perhaps the hardest hit. The pathways through which the crisis affected economic activity in these largely agrarian societies remain poorly understood. To study these mechanisms in the context of rural Liberia, this paper links a geographically disaggregated indicator of Ebola disease mortality to nationally representative household survey data on agricultural production and consumption. The paper finds that higher Ebola prevalence (as proxied by local mortality) led to greater disruption of group labor mobilization for planting and harvest, thereby reducing rice area planted as well as rice yields. Household welfare, measured by per capita expenditures spanning two points before and after the crisis, fell by more in Ebola prevalent areas with more intensive rice farming, precisely those areas that were more adversely affected by agricultural labor shortages.

Social farming can ameliorate the everyday life of people engaged in farming activities, including perceived changes in mood or behavior. It can also be therapeutic, as it can address a range of public health and service provision issues. This paper presents the findings of an Italian project that explored the impact of social farming on the well-being of the participants and their ability to perform certain tasks linked to agricultural activities. In addition, this paper tries to evaluate how the organization of the network system around the participants helps them to improve their relational capabilities. Participant observations were made in class rooms and farms where the participants carried out their agricultural activities. Such observations focused on the way in which participants and other subjects (i.e., tutors and training staff) inside the network system interacted. A number of in-depth interviews were carried out with tutors and trainers in order to understand if the participants would play a relevant role in social farming activities and what that role would be.

Resumen El propósito es avanzar en la construcción del bienestar rural estatal como objeto de interés historiográfico. En tal dirección, se realiza un análisis crítico del bienestar rural argentino en perspectiva histórica, circunscrito a la primera mitad del siglo XX. Para ello, primero, se exploran los aportes historiográficos producidos sobre esta temática, sus posibilidades analíticas y algunos vacíos subsistentes. A continuación, se debate sobre los usos de lo rural en la comprensión histórica de las políticas sociales. Finalmente, se resumen algunos avances realizados en la dilucidación de las experiencias históricas del bienestar rural estatal en la Argentina que pueden ser útiles para una discusión en ciernes. Abstract The purpose is to progress on the construction of the state rural welfare as an object of historiographic interest. In this sense, a critical analysis of the Argentine rural welfare is carried out from a historical perspective, circumscribed to the first half of the twentieth century. To do so, firstly, the historiographic contributions produced on this subject are explored, as well as its analytical possibilities and some remaining gaps. Secondly, the uses of the rural in the historical understanding of social policies are discussed. Finally, it is made a summary of some advances in elucidating the historical experiences of state rural welfare in Argentina that may be useful for a budding discussion. Resumo O propósito é avançar na construção do bem-estar rural estadual como objeto de interesse historiográfico. Nessa direção, se realiza uma análise crítica do bem-estar rural argentino na perspectiva histórica, circunscrito na primeira metade do século XX. Para isso, primeiro, se exploram a contribuição historiográfica produzida sobre esta temática, suas possibilidades analíticas y alguns vazios subsistentes. A continuação, se debate sobre os usos do rural na compreensão histórica das políticas sociais. Finalmente, se resume alguns progressos realizados na elucidação das experiências históricas do bem-estar rural na Argentina que podem ser uteis para uma discussão em andamento. Résumé Le but est celui d'avancer dans la construction du bien-être rural d'État comme objet d'intérêt historiographique. Dans ce sens, une analyse critique du bien-être rural dans une perspective historique est réalisée, circonscrit à la première moitié du XXème siècle. Pour ce faire, tout d'abord sont explorés les apports historiographiques produits autours de cette thématique, leurs possibilités analytiques et quelques vides subsistants. Ensuite, un débat est déroulé à propos des usages de ce qui est rural dans la compréhension historique des politiques sociales. Enfin certaines avancées sont résumées dans l'élucidation des expériences historiques du bien-être rural d'État en Argentine qui peuvent être utiles pour une discussion en gestation.

El propósito es avanzar en la construcción del bienestar rural estatal como objeto de interés historiográfico. En tal dirección, se realiza un análisis crítico del bienestar rural argentino en perspectiva histórica, circunscrito a la primera mitad del siglo XX. Para ello, primero, se exploran los aportes historiográficos producidos sobre esta temática, sus posibilidades analíticas y algunos vacíos subsistentes. A continuación, se debate sobre los usos de lo rural en la comprensión histórica de las políticas sociales. Finalmente, se resumen algunos avances realizados en la dilucidación de las experiencias históricas del bienestar rural estatal en la Argentina que pueden ser útiles para una discusión en ciernes. The purpose is to progress on the construction of the state rural welfare as an object of historiographic interest. In this sense, a critical analysis of the Argentine rural welfare is carried out from a historical perspective, circumscribed to the frst half of the twentieth century. To do so, frstly, the historiographic contributions produced on this subject are explored, as well as its analytical possibilities and some remaining gaps. Secondly, the uses of the rural in the historical understanding of social policies are discussed. Finally, it is made a summary of some advances in elucidating the historical experiences of state rural welfare in Argentina that may be useful for a budding discussion. O propósito é avançar na construção do bem-estar rural estadual como objeto de interesse historiográfco. Nessa direção, se realiza uma análise crítica do bem-estar rural argentino na perspectiva histórica, circunscrito na primeira metade do século XX. Para isso, primeiro, se exploram a contribuição historiográfca produzida sobre esta temática, suas possibilidades analíticas y alguns vazios subsistentes. A continuação, se debate so- bre os usos do rural na compreensão histórica das políticas sociais. Finalmente, se resu- me alguns progressos realizados na elucidação das experiências históricas do bem-estar rural na Argentina que podem ser uteis para uma discussão em andamento. Le but est celui d’avancer dans la construction du bien-être rural d’État comme objet d’intérêt historiographique. Dans ce sens, une analyse critique du bien-être rural dans une perspective historique est réalisée, circonscrit à la première moitié du XXème siècle. Pour ce faire, tout d’abord sont explorés les apports historiographiques produits au- tours de cette thématique, leurs possibilités analytiques et quelques vides subsistants. Ensuite, un débat est déroulé à propos des usages de ce qui est rural dans la com- préhension historique des politiques sociales. Enfn certaines avancées sont résumées dans l’élucidation des expériences historiques du bien-être rural d’État en Argentine qui peuvent être utiles pour une discussion en gestation. Fil: Ortiz Bergia, María José. Centro de Estudios Históricos "Profesor Carlos S. A. Segreti"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Salomón, Alejandra Laura. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencias Sociales. Centro de Estudios de la Argentina Rural; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

Moldova has experienced rapid economic growth in the past decade, which has been accompanied by reductions in poverty and good performance in shared prosperity. Nonetheless, Moldova remains one of the poorest countries in Europe and faces challenges in sustaining the progress. The challenges for progress include spatial and cross-group inequalities, particularly because of unequal access to assets, services and economic opportunities. Moreover, strengthening the persistently weak labor markets to boost employment, especially in the nonfarm sectors, is critical for sustaining progress toward the twin goals of reducing poverty and expanding shared prosperity and for addressing the problems associated with an aging population in a fiscally responsible manner. Accordingly, ensuring the viability of the pension system and improving social assistance are necessary areas of reform, particularly in a context of fiscal pressures, the aging population, and the great vulnerability of the poor to shocks. The Moldova poverty assessment 2016 includes three prongs of analysis: this report, which explores trends and the drivers of poverty and shared prosperity, and the accompanying analyses, ‘a jobs diagnostic for Moldova’ and ‘structural transformation of Moldovan small-holder agriculture and its poverty and shared prosperity impacts.’ The jobs diagnostic explores the main labor demand and supply challenges in Moldova in more detail, while the analysis of structural transformation focuses on the agricultural sector and whether it can become a driver of progress.

The Malawi Urbanization Review aims to provide fresh perspectives on urbanization in Malawi, by analyzing the current and potential contribution of urbanization to long-term national development and the current institutional and financial capacity of local governments to manage the process. Analyses presented in this report are particularly timely as Malawi is planning for the coming half decade through the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III (2016-2020). Malawi is urbanizing at a moderate rate and has a good chance of proactively managing the urbanization process. Opportunities may arise from a positive structural change that Malawi’s economy is undergoing, whereby the driver of growth and job creation moves from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors. Faster urbanization, with strong linkages with rural areas, can contribute further to deepening such structural change. To unlock the potential of urbanization as a catalyst for long-term economic development, it is necessary to strengthen the capacity of urban local governments to generate revenues and meet the key infrastructure and service needs in urban areas, which remain challenging even at the current rate of urbanization.

Donors increasingly fund interventions to counteract inequality in developing countries, where they fear it can foment instability and undermine nation-building efforts. To succeed, aid relies on the principle of upward accountability to donors. But federalism shifts the accountability of subnational officials downward to regional and local voters. What happens when aid agencies fund anti-inequality programs in federal countries? Does federalism undermine aid? Does aid undermine federalism? Or can the political and fiscal relations that define a federal system resolve the contradiction internally? This study explores this paradox via the Promotion of Basic Services program in Ethiopia, the largest donor-financed investment program in the world. Using an original panel database comprising the universe of Ethiopian woredas (districts), the study finds that horizontal (geographic) inequality decreased substantially. Donor-financed block grants to woredas increased the availability of primary education and health care services in the bottom 20 percent of woredas. Weaker evidence from household surveys suggests that vertical inequality across wealth groups (within woredas) also declined, implying that individuals from the poorest households benefit disproportionately from increasing access to and utilization of such services. The evidence suggests that by combining strong upward accountability over public investment with extensive citizen engagement on local issues, Ethiopia’s federal system resolves the instrumental dissonance posed by aid-funded programs to combat inequality in a federation.

The paper investigates the structure and dynamics of consumption inequality and inequality of opportunity in Tanzania. The analysis covers the period 2001 to 2012. It reveals moderate and declining levels of consumption inequality at the national level, but increasing inequalities between geographic regions. Spatial inequalities are mainly driven by the disparities of households’ characteristics and endowments across geographic locations. An important part of these endowments results from intergenerational transmission of parental background. Father’s education appears as the most important background variable affecting consumption and income in Tanzania. Without appropriate policy actions, there are few chances for the next generations to spring out of the poverty and inequality lived by their parents, engendering risks of poverty and inequality traps in the country.

This paper assesses the impact of modern varieties adoption on farmers' welfare and crop biodiversity conserved in-situ. Using nationally representative data collected in 2009/2010 in Uganda, an endogenous switching regression model estimates the net economic and environmental effects of switching from local landraces to modern species. Results show that, after controlling for market and agro-ecological factors, the local varieties perform better than modern ones in marginalized and climatic vulnerable areas. Crop biodiversity shows to play a fundamental role in farmers' risk minimizing strategies when the available modern varieties are not adaptable to the local context and not supported by the required level of agro-intensification. Rural development policies should consider the heterogeneity in the adoption returns and support diversity conservation as a national strategic asset for a suitable bioprospecting and a best-fitting agricultural system implementation.

In the early 1970s, microfinance came to public attention as a promising tool to reduce poverty. However, some people began to claim that microcredit is unsuitable for sustainable development. Nevertheless, the lack of scientific support for both viewpoints has created a need for empirical studies to disentangle whether microfinance interventions should be implemented, and if so, how. The objective of this thesis is to provide evidence on the role of microfinance in Latin America, with a particular emphasis on Mexico. The main innovation of this study is the focus on four topics that have thus far received relatively little attention. Firstly, the relationship between efficiency and the ownership structure of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Latin America is investigated. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Cooperative/Credit Unions are found to be less technically efficient and have an inferior technology relative to Banks and Non-Banks Financial Intermediaries (NBFIs). Secondly, this study assesses five different microfinance programs on household welfare in Mexico. The findings reveal that savings-oriented microfinance programs outperform programs that primarily offer microcredit, in reducing poverty. Thirdly, the impact of microfinance on vulnerability to poverty is analyzed. The results of this analysis show that membership in a savings and credit society in Mexico improves the well-being of households and reduces their vulnerability. Finally, the impact of the loan officer’s characteristics on determining repayment rates in microfinance is examined. The main outcome suggests that the gender of the loan officer and his/her professional experience are important determinants of repayment rates. Further conclusions are that loan officers who work longer in Pro Mujer have higher default probabilities and that peer monitoring of group members is not a significant determinant of loan default.

In the early 1970s, microfinance came to public attention as a promising tool to reduce poverty. However, some people began to claim that microcredit is unsuitable for sustainable development. Nevertheless, the lack of scientific support for both viewpoints has created a need for empirical studies to disentangle whether microfinance interventions should be implemented, and if so, how. The objective of this thesis is to provide evidence on the role of microfinance in Latin America, with a particular emphasis on Mexico. The main innovation of this study is the focus on four topics that have thus far received relatively little attention. Firstly, the relationship between efficiency and the ownership structure of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Latin America is investigated. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Cooperative/Credit Unions are found to be less technically efficient and have an inferior technology relative to Banks and Non-Banks Financial Intermediaries (NBFIs). Secondly, this study assesses five different microfinance programs on household welfare in Mexico. The findings reveal that savings-oriented microfinance programs outperform programs that primarily offer microcredit, in reducing poverty. Thirdly, the impact of microfinance on vulnerability to poverty is analyzed. The results of this analysis show that membership in a savings and credit society in Mexico improves the well-being of households and reduces their vulnerability. Finally, the impact of the loan officer’s characteristics on determining repayment rates in microfinance is examined. The main outcome suggests that the gender of the loan officer and his/her professional experience are important determinants of repayment rates. Further conclusions are that loan officers who work longer in Pro Mujer have higher default probabilities and that peer monitoring of group members is not a significant determinant of loan default.

Persistent poverty remains a huge challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, official statistics indicate that the incidence of rural poverty was 49% in 2005/2006. This study uses different approaches and data sources to explore temporal and spatial dimensions of rural welfare in Kenya. The objective is to identify and understand the linkages between welfare, livelihood assets, livelihood strategies, local-level institutions, and exposure to shocks. First, we compared participatory and income approaches to studying poverty and poverty dynamics. We found a significant positive correlation between the results obtained using the two approaches, with both approaches showing evidence of geographical clusters of poverty. Nevertheless, discrepancies in poverty rates and dynamics were found as well. Second, we used asset-based approaches to explore the nature of rural poverty dynamics over multiple periods. We found that majority of households that were poor in two consecutive survey years were structurally poor. Of the households escaping poverty, a large proportion was characterized by stochastic transitions. Few households successfully escaped poverty through asset accumulation, while a large proportion of households declining into poverty experienced structural movements. A combination of livelihood strategies, shocks, and other factors interact to influence household structural transition. Third, we characterized shocks facing rural households. Health expenses, ill-health, funeral expenses, livestock losses, land sub-division, and death of major income earner were the most frequently reported shocks. We also found limited evidence that welfare level affects exposure to specific shocks, but a significant geographical effect. Finally, we revisited the geography versus institutions debate at the micro-level suing local data to explain within-country income differences. We found that certain geographical variables appear more important drivers of per capita income levels than local institutions. Our community-level measures of institutions did not explain within-Kenya income differences. Altogether, the findings underscore the importance of geographical targeting of poverty reduction interventions. Moreover, the coexistence of high rural poverty rates and limited asset accumulation, and strong macroeconomic growth highlight the fact that causes of poverty are complex. Macroeconomic growth policies need to be complimented with policies that enhance escapes from poverty (“cargo net” policies) and those that prevent descents into poverty (“cargo net” policies).

Persistent poverty remains a huge challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, official statistics indicate that the incidence of rural poverty was 49% in 2005/2006. This study uses different approaches and data sources to explore temporal and spatial dimensions of rural welfare in Kenya. The objective is to identify and understand the linkages between welfare, livelihood assets, livelihood strategies, local-level institutions, and exposure to shocks. First, we compared participatory and income approaches to studying poverty and poverty dynamics. We found a significant positive correlation between the results obtained using the two approaches, with both approaches showing evidence of geographical clusters of poverty. Nevertheless, discrepancies in poverty rates and dynamics were found as well. Second, we used asset-based approaches to explore the nature of rural poverty dynamics over multiple periods. We found that majority of households that were poor in two consecutive survey years were structurally poor. Of the households escaping poverty, a large proportion was characterized by stochastic transitions. Few households successfully escaped poverty through asset accumulation, while a large proportion of households declining into poverty experienced structural movements. A combination of livelihood strategies, shocks, and other factors interact to influence household structural transition. Third, we characterized shocks facing rural households. Health expenses, ill-health, funeral expenses, livestock losses, land sub-division, and death of major income earner were the most frequently reported shocks. We also found limited evidence that welfare level affects exposure to specific shocks, but a significant geographical effect. Finally, we revisited the geography versus institutions debate at the micro-level suing local data to explain within-country income differences. We found that certain geographical variables appear more important drivers of per capita income levels than local institutions. Our community-level measures of institutions did not explain within-Kenya income differences. Altogether, the findings underscore the importance of geographical targeting of poverty reduction interventions. Moreover, the coexistence of high rural poverty rates and limited asset accumulation, and strong macroeconomic growth highlight the fact that causes of poverty are complex. Macroeconomic growth policies need to be complimented with policies that enhance escapes from poverty (“cargo net” policies) and those that prevent descents into poverty (“cargo net” policies).

World prices for staple foods increased between 2006 and 2008, and accelerated sharply in 2008. Initial analysis indicated that the adverse effects of higher food prices in Uganda were likely to be small because of the diversity of its staple foods, high level of food self-sufficiency, and weak links with world markets. This paper extends the previous analyses, disaggregating by regions and individual food items, using more recent price data, and estimating the impact on consumption poverty. The analysis finds that poor households in Uganda tend to be net buyers of food staples, and therefore suffer welfare losses when food prices increase. This is most pronounced in urban areas, but holds true for most rural households as well. The diversity of staple foods has not been an effective buffer because of price increases across a range of staple foods. The paper estimates that both the incidence and depth of poverty have increased -- at least in the short run -- as a result of higher food prices in 2008, increasing by 2.6 and 2.2 percentage points, respectively. The increase in poverty is highest in the Northern region, which is already the poorest in Uganda. The need for mitigating social protection measures appears to be greater than previously recognized. Not only are the negative impacts larger, but they are also much more widespread geographically. This suggests the need for continued close monitoring of the situation, including monitoring the adequacy of existing safety nets and feeding programs.