Seasonal Hunger and Public Policies


Book Description

The book provides an exhaustive inquiry of Bangladesh s seasonal hunger with special focus on the northwest region where it is more pronounced than in other areas. It also presents an evaluation of several policy interventions launched recently in mitigating seasonality.




Agricultural Policies for Poverty Reduction


Book Description

This volume sets out a strategy for raising rural incomes which emphasises the creation of diversified rural economies with opportunities within and outside agriculture.










Urban and Rural Poverty


Book Description

Urban and Rural Poverty: Prevalence, Reduction Strategies and Challenges opens with a review of urban poverty in Bangladesh, analysing socioeconomic aspects of the marginal poor under three headings: migration and the urban poor, household characteristics, and neighborhood characteristics. Next, the authors investigate the extent of poverty in rural and urban Nigeria between 2004 and 2010. They examines the contributions of growth and redistribution factors to changes in poverty within the two sectors. The analysis was based on the National Living Standard Survey data of 2004 and 2009/2010 sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics and analysed using Shapley decomposition approach. This collection also examines how the socioeconomic characteristics of households influence rural poverty. The data for the study was extracted from the revised Nigerian General Household Survey data from 2010-2011, and a logistic regression technique was used to analyse said data. The authors argue that the improvement of rural access in developing countries is essential for the success of sustainable development goals, since poor access is one of the major causes of rural poverty and hampers rural development.The concluding chapter describes the experiences from a research project on modern logistic chains in the Mount Kenya region, demonstrating how small scale farmers organized, how important infrastructures such as rural roads, grading sheds and cooling devices were, as well as intermediate means of transport in combination with modern cooling logistics and communication technologies.







Social Capital as a Policy Resource


Book Description

In 1997 the National Institute of Mental Health assembled a working group of international experts to address the mental health consequences of torture and related violence and trauma; report on the status of scientific knowledge; and include research recommendations with implications for treatment, services, and policy development. This book, dedicated to those who experience the horrors of torture and those who work to end it, is based on that report.




Rural Poverty in Developing Countries


Book Description

Reviews causes of poverty in rural areas and presents a policy framework for reducing rural poverty, including through land reform, public works programs, access to credit, physical and social infrastructure, subsidies, and transfer of technology. Identifies key elements for drafting a policy to reduce rural poverty.




Dynamics of Poverty in Rural Bangladesh


Book Description

The study of poverty dynamics is important for effective poverty alleviation policies because the changes in income poverty are also accompanied by changes in socioeconomic factors such as literacy, gender parity in school, health care, infant mortality, and asset holdings. In order to examine the dynamics of poverty, information from 1,212 households in 32 rural villages in Bangladesh was collected in December 2004 and December 2009. This book reports the analytical results from quantitative and qualitative surveys from the same households at two points of time, which yielded the panel data for understanding the changes in situations of poverty. Efforts have been made to include the most recent research from diverse disciplines including economics, statistics, anthropology, education, health care, and vulnerability study. Specifically, findings from logistic regression analysis, polychoric principal component analysis, kernel density function, income mobility with the help of the Markov chain model, and child nutrition status from anthropometric measures have been presented. Asset holdings and liabilities of the chronically poor as well as those of three other economic groups (the descending non-poor, the ascending poor, and the non-poor) are analyzed statistically. The degrees of vulnerability to poverty are examined by years of schooling, landholding size, gender of household head, social capital, and occupation. The multiple logistic regression model was used to identify important risk factors for a household’s vulnerability. In 2009, some of the basic characteristics of the chronically poor were: higher percentage and number of female-headed households, higher dependency ratio, lower levels of education, fewer years of schooling, and limited employment. There was a low degree of mobility of households from one poverty status to another in the period 2004-2009, implying that the process of economic development and high economic growth in the macroeconomy during this time failed to improve the poverty situation in rural Bangladesh.




Voices to Choices


Book Description

Women have experienced significant changes in various spheres of their lives during the last decades as Bangladesh made economic progress. Yet women’s economic engagement and empowerment are subdued, as they cannot make sufficient choices for themselves. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic developments in gender equality in Bangladesh. Through examining women’s participation in the labour force, ownership and control of household assets, use and control of financial assets, and opportunities for entrepreneurship, the authors have made concrete recommendations to overcome challenges that lie ahead for women’s economic empowerment. This book is an important contribution to the knowledge on interventions required by the policy makers and broader stakeholders towards narrowing gender gaps. --Fahmida Khatun, PhD, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh The women’s story is central to Bangladesh’s economic and social transformation. There is an urgent need to deepen researched understanding of the multidimensional pathways of women’s economic empowerment and extent of real progress made. Voices to Choices is an important contribution to this story. Surely, the journey of women’s economic empowerment remains a long and challenging one. Realizing the full benefits of new opportunities is often hampered by both new and entrenched insecurities. The task is as much one of empowering women’s agency as of dismantling barriers. The responsibility is as much women’s as society’s. --Hossain Zillur Rahman, PhD, Executive Chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) This book provides critical insights and is timely, as it outlines how girls and women in Bangladesh have gained more opportunities in labor force participation, control over household and financial assets, as well as greater prospects for entrepreneurship. The findings will greatly contribute to future policy and planning for government and key stakeholders working to advance women’s economic empowerment in the country. --Sabina Faiz Rashid, PhD, Dean and Professor, BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health BRAC University