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The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the multinational oil companies’ (MOCs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the global memorandum of understanding (GMoU) on women’s involvement in rural labour market in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 768 respondents were sampled across the rural areas of the Niger Delta region.

The results from the use of a combined propensity score matching and logit model indicate that CSR of the MOCs using GMoU model has recorded little but significant success in improving women’s participation in the labour market by freeing women’s time through labour-saving technologies and the provision of public services, raising women’s capital through education, eliminating discriminatory employment practices and capitalizing on public works programmes.

This suggest that the underlining causes of gender inequality in rural labour markets are institutional, including both social norms and the structure of labour market organizations, and can be holistically tackled through CSR programmes, government policies and building the strength of women in labour organizations.

This implies that reducing rural poverty requires not just the barriers to women’s participation in decent employment but also aiming for a policy that helps to change people’s perceptions of what is possible, beneficial and fair; fosters cooperative action; and strengthens women’s bargaining power in the work place, the home and the market place.

This research contributes to the gender debate in agriculture from a CSR perspective in developing countries and rationale for demands for social project by host communities. It concludes that business has an obligation to help in solving problems of public concern.

This paper examines household and community characteristics that influence the entry of rural households into non-farm entrepreneurship and investigates the various factors that influence the market exit of non-farm enterprises (NFEs).

The authors use data from three rounds (2011/12, 2013/14 and 2015/16) of the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). The authors employ panel logit and multilevel logit models to examine the probability of opening one or more enterprises and the enterprise exit rates.

Results indicate that the likelihood of starting a NFE is positively associated with primary education attainment, access to credit, experiencing idiosyncratic shocks and availability of formal financial institutions. Age, higher education attainment and rising farm input prices constrain entry into non-farm entrepreneurship. The enterprise exit rate is negatively associated with small-town residence, wealth, access to tar/gravel roads and cellphone communication.

Policymakers and administrators should strive to address the challenges that communities face in transportation, communication and financial services. Policies aimed at stabilizing prices and increasing access to mobile communication, primary education and road infrastructure could help expand the rural non-farm sector.

Previous studies primarily examined the determinants of participation in NFEs at a given time using cross-sectional data. The current study uses panel data to study the dynamics of NFE ownership by investigating households’ decisions to enter into or exit from the sector.

The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0611

The primacy of commerce in livelihood security cannot be overstated. However, in a rural context defined by involuntary socio-ecological displacement, commerce can assume a sociologically distinct character, with far-reaching implications. Based on first-hand encounters with victims of the devastating 2014 flood in Tokwe-Mukorsi, Zimbabwe, this paper analyses how the processes of “recreating” village markets in the resettlement site of Chingwizi impacted the victims’ experiences of resource provisioning and livelihood security.

Qualitative data were collected through 10 in-depth interviews, 10 key informant interviews and two focus group discussions, five years into the flood victims’ resettlement in Chingwizi. The data analysis focused on the dynamics around the recreation of village markets, and the consequences of this on the household economic standing of the resettled flood victims.

The paper reveals how the formation of village markets in Chingwizi was influenced not primarily by the ethno-commercial and ethno-economic impulses reminiscent of life in their ancestral home but mostly by new, disruptive dynamics and challenges unique to the resettlement site. The paper elucidates the constellation of factors that, together, exacerbated the flood victims’ overall socio-economic dislocation and disadvantage.

The study provides a systematic understanding of the dynamics of ethno-commerce, particularly on the evolution of village market activities and livelihoods, among Zimbabwe’s Chingwizi community over a period of five years into their resettlement. It brings to the fore, the often ignored, but significant nuances that 'village market' formation and livelihoods recreation takes in a resettlement context.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0682

The farm sector is crucial for rural poverty alleviation, alongside the non-farm sector, which contributes to mitigating risks associated with crop failures. This paper investigates the effects of public policies on productive employment within both the farm and non-farm sectors in sub-Saharan Africa.

A meta-analysis is conducted exclusively on the results of the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP)-funded studies under the Policy Analysis on Growth and Employment (PAGE II) initiative. Selected studies focused on the impact of public policies on productive employment in rural farm and non-farm sectors, encompassing a total of nine sub-Saharan Africa countries in: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

The results indicate that public investments in rural areas and public policies that facilitate access to productive resources are likely to enhance productive employment. The overall effect size is positive and significant, ranging from 2% to 10% increases in productive employment. Sources of variation include the sector of activity and the policy instrument. In addition, the policy effects are gender-sensitive and seem more consistent in the non-farm sector.

Although the selected working papers addressed several aspects of productive employment, other aspects warrant further investigation. Policies involving restrictions or regulations have received little attention in the impact analysis. Researches to fill this gap would be important. Another suggestion for further research is the analysis of the relative importance of non-farm employment in rural areas in developing countries. It is always assumed that rural households depend heavily on agriculture for their subsistence.

The contribution of the paper lies in the comparative analysis of numerous public policies implemented in nine distinct countries. By consolidating data from fourteen 14 different experiences into a single study, the paper offers valuable insights on factors that determine policy effectiveness and contribute to understanding what worked for whom and why.

As a “unicorn” devoted to the rural market, Huitongda has gone through a major evolution since its establish-ment in 2010 from a rural home appliance distributor, a supply chain platform, an O2O service platform to an industry Internet platform of the rural e-commerce ecosystem, based on its deep understanding of the pain points in the rural market and operational experiences. After 2017, as the platform scaled with more vendors, Huitongda was no longer satisfied with selling a single product from urban to rural areas, but was committed to promoting the two-way flow of diverse commodities between urban and rural areas. It also set out to promote employment by entering the rural human resource market, expanding the single-industry O2O service platform to a complete multi-industry ecosystem. In 2018, with a service network covering over 17,000 townships across 20 Chinese provinces, Huitongda's sales reached RMB 35 billion yuan, enabling over 500,000 rural dwellers to start their own businesses or to find employment.

However, the depth, breadth and complexity of the rural industry Internet gradually multiplied, as more member stores joined the business ecosystem with more valuable commodities and services. As a rural industry Internet network owner, how could Huitongda better tap into digitalization in order to support its industry Internet business model and the huge network? How can it further widen the network boundaries to drive more business innovations and maximize network value?

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the multinational oil companies’ (MOCs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the global memorandum of understanding (GMoU) on mainstreaming gender sensitivity in cash crop market supply chains in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

This paper adopts an explanatory research design with a mixed method to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses. A total of 1,200 rural women respondents were sampled across the Niger Delta region.

Results from the use of a combined logit model and propensity score matching indicate a significant relationship between the GMoU model and mainstreaming gender sensitivity in cash crop market supply chains in the Niger Delta.

This study implies that MOCs’ CSR interventions that improve women’s access to land and encourage better integration of food markets through improved roads and increased mobile networks would enable women to engage in cash crop production.

This implies that improving access to credit through GMoU cluster farming targeted at female farmers would improve access to finance and extension services for women in cash crop production in the Niger Delta.

This research contributes to the gender debate in the agricultural value chain from a CSR perspective in developing countries and is rational for demands for social projects by host communities. It concludes that businesses have an obligation to help solve problems of public concern.

The purpose of this study is to use the structural model to determine the influence of mobile telecommunication on Egypt’s economic growth from 2000 to 2009. By focusing on mobile unique subscribers and mobile broadband-capable device penetration as indicators of telecommunications adoption, the authors seek to understand their overarching effects on the nation’s economic landscape.

The paper uses quarterly time-series data set over the period 2000–2019 and uses a structural econometric model based on an aggregate production function, a demand function, a supply function and an infrastructure function to detect causality and examine long-run relationships between variables.

The findings of the structural model reveal that both mobile unique subscribers and mobile broadband-capable device penetration significantly contributed to Egypt’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth from 2000 to 2019. Specifically, a 1% increase in mobile unique subscriber penetration and mobile broadband-capable device adoption is estimated to result in an average annual contribution to GDP growth of 0.172% and 0.016%, respectively.

The scarcity of panel data is the main research limitation for comparative study with other Middle East and North African Region (MENA) countries. Research extensions would include testing the significance of complementarities such as improving governance measures and building human capacity for both households and firms, which are necessary to boost the impact of telecommunication on economic growth in the MENA region.

Based on these findings, the study puts forth policy recommendations aimed at maximizing investment in network utilization, including mobile and internet services, as well as fixed broadband subscriptions. It highlights the crucial role of these investments in promoting social and economic development, not only in Egypt but also across the MENA region as a whole.

The findings of this research emphasize the importance of strategic investments in network utilization, encompassing mobile, internet services and fixed broadband subscriptions. Such investments are pivotal for fostering social and financial inclusion. The study underscores the potential of these investments to drive social and economic progress, not just within Egypt but throughout the entire MENA region.

Overall, existing literature generally supports the notion that the telecommunications sector has a positive economic impact. However, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to understanding the specific effects of the Egyptian telecommunications sector on the country’s economy, particularly in relation to the Egypt Vision 2030. The study aims to fill this gap by focusing specifically on Egypt and providing additional insights into the direct and indirect effects of the Egyptian telecommunications sector on the economy. By conducting a thorough analysis of the sector’s role, the authors aim to contribute to the existing literature by providing context-specific findings and recommendations.

This is an opinion piece on the practice of early child marriage in Iran, with a brief review of the causes and consequences of this practice. This piece critically looks at the blanket policies, such as minimum age at marriage, that criminalise early child marriage and discusses why such policies may do more harm than good when they are not compatible with the social norms of the societies in which they are implemented.

The study unravels the effects of climate-induced variations in staple crop yields on various migratory inflows in India while adjusting for seasonal weather and sociodemographic factors.

The instrumental variable approach is used to assess the potential effects of climate and nonclimate parameters on various migration types, exploiting panel data at the district level from the 2001 and 2011 Census years, with agriculture acting as the mediator.

As weather-driven variations in rice and wheat yield increase by 10%, the share of migration within and between districts to population decreases by 0.017 and 0.002, respectively. However, rice and wheat yields increase by 494.60 and 524.40%, respectively, with a marginal increase in the share of migration within states to population. Also, the elasticities of disadvantaged groups, literate locals and agricultural workers vary for different relocations.

The current study affirms climate migration through the agricultural channel at a finer spatial scale, asserting the sensitivity aspect of disparate movements to periodic weather and heterogeneous clusters. This is critical for effectively implementing targeted public policies in the face of increasing climate risks.

The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2022-0710