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The purpose of the present study is to examine the inter-relationship between the multi-dimensional poverty and water poverty using household level data for Indian states.

A modified water poverty index (MWPI) for both rural and urban households was created using the five components approach and various quantifiable proxies. Principal component analysis (PCA) has been used for the construction of MWPI. Multidimensionality of poverty (MPI) is measured using the Alkire and Foster methodology. Further, the study has utilized correlation and Tobit regression analysis to show the relationship between MWPI and MPI.

The empirical findings suggest that there is a positive and significant relationship between multidimensional poverty and water poverty, with the extent of relationship being greater in rural areas. The results show that in rural areas all the components of water poverty has significant impact on multidimensional poverty, whereas in urban areas except use component all others have significant impact on multidimensional poverty. Further, components of multidimensional poverty were also found to be significantly impacting water poverty.

The study suggests that policymakers cannot treat both forms of poverty in isolation. If India aims to reduce poverty, then it needs to pay significant attention to improving water conditions.

This is a pioneering attempt to construct water poverty index at the household level while accounting for micro-level differences for Indian economy. It highlights that water poverty leads to multi-dimensional poverty and vice-versa.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2021-0731.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a picture of the water situation of the states of India and to identify key areas in which intervention is necessary for sustainable development and poverty elevation.

To understand the trend and situation of water across the states, Water Poverty Index (WPI) has been constructed. WPI has been computed for the years 2012 and 2018 to get a picture of temporal change happening in the region. Further, descriptive statistics were used to show the required changes.

Jharkhand and Rajasthan continue to be the worst performer in both time periods. Water poverty was the least in the states of Goa and Chandigarh for both time periods. Although owing to improvement in access and capacity component, the water status of India as a whole improved from 2012 to 2018 but few states have witnessed a decline in their water situation mainly due to deterioration in the environment and resource components.

This paper adds to the relatively scarce literature on the water situation conducted for the states of India. The findings of the paper provide insights into the lacking areas responsible for the deterioration in water poverty status. The results can be utilized for framing proper policies to combat the water woes of the country.

The paper analyses the prevalence of extreme and multidimensional poverty in line with the sustainable development agenda. In addition, the paper examines the drivers of extreme poverty while accounting for the potential spillover effect of poverty in the region.

The study adopts the pooled OLS with Discroll-Kraay robust standard errors to control for cross-sectional dependence. In addition, given the strong potential for endogeneity of poverty index, the authors also employ the generalized method of moments (GMM), which accounts for simultaneity and endogeneity problems, and the spatial error and lag models to control for all forms of spatial and temporal dependence since the factors that affect poverty disperse across borders.

The study finds that in addition to the traditional drivers of poverty (unemployment, low per capita GDP growth and public debt), poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa is a symptom of a deeper structural problem (lack of access to water and sanitation, high level of corruption and low level of financial development, and frequent economic busts). Likewise, the results from the spatial econometric specification show, consistently across all the specifications, that there is a substantial spillover effect of poverty across the region.

The main novelty of the paper is that the authors investigate the “economic shrinkage hypothesis,” and examined the potential negative spillover effect of poverty in the region.

This paper aims to investigate farmers’ vulnerability to climate change and variability in the northern region of Ghana.

The study assessed the vulnerability of male-headed and female-headed farming households to climate change and variability by using the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) and tested for significant difference in their vulnerability levels by applying independent two-sample-student’s t-test based on gender by using a sample of 210 smallholder farming households.

The results revealed a significant difference in the vulnerability levels of female-headed and male-headed farming households. Female–headed households were more vulnerable to livelihood strategies, socio-demographic profile, social networks, water and food major components of the LVI, whereas male-headed households were more vulnerable to health. The vulnerability indices revealed that female–headed households were more sensitive to the impact of climate change and variability. However, female-headed households have the least adaptive capacities. In all, female-headed farming households are more vulnerable to climate change and variability than male-headed farming households.

The study recommends that female-headed households should be given priority in both on-going and new intervention projects in climate change and agriculture by empowering them through financial resource support to venture into other income-generating activities. This would enable them to diversify their sources of livelihoods to boost their resilience to climate change and variability.

This is the first study that examined the gender dimension of vulnerability of smallholder farmers in Ghana by using the livelihood vulnerability framework. Female subordination in northern region of Ghana has been profound to warrant a study on gender dimension in relation to climate change and variability, especially as it is a semi-arid region with unpredictable climatic conditions. This research revealed the comparative vulnerability of male- and female-headed households to climate change and variability.

This paper aims to examine whether the disclosure obligations in areas of water stress required under the revised Global Reporting Initiative standard (GRI) 303 Water and Effluents, 2018 will improve the quality of corporate water reporting. As a key new requirement is to disclose the impact of water withdrawals from (and discharges to) areas experiencing water stress, the authors examine the ambiguity of the term “water stress” and the extent to which following the GRI’s guidance to use the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas and/or the Water Risk Filter will enable quality corporate water reporting.

The study is informed by the notion of public interest reporting, on the basis that the provision of contextual water information is in the public interest. To explore the ambiguity of the term “water stress”, the authors conduct a semi-systematic review of hydrology literature on water stress and water stress indices. To explore the efficacy of using the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas and/or the Water Risk Filter, the authors review the operation and underlying data sources of both databases.

The term “water stress” has a range of definitions and the indicators of water stress encompass a wide variety of differing factors. The Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas and the Water Risk Filter use a combination of different risk indicators and are based on source data of varying quality and granularity. Further, different weightings of water risk information are available to the user, which yield different evaluations of water stress. A variety of approaches are permitted under GRI 303.

Effective implementation of GRI 303 may be impeded by the ambiguity of the term “water stress”, varying quality and availability of the water stress information and the fact that different water stress calculation options are offered by the water databases. The authors suggest that the GRI closely monitor compliance, implementation approaches and scientific developments in relation to the water stress requirements with a view to providing further guidance and improving future iterations of the standard.

Whilst there have been many calls for improved contextual water reporting, few previous studies have explored the challenges to implementing reporting requirements related to the determination of “water stress”.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain risk indicators of water security of drought periods in which the indices of reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability are integrated.

It is not reasonable that weight coefficients of different risk indices are often determined subjectively in conventional procedures, so the entropy weight method is introduced and chosen to solve the problem. Entropy weight method can get the weight coefficients of different risk indices objectively and is valid from the case study.

The feasibility and validity of entropy weight methods to determine weight coefficients of different risk indices objectively are recognized.

Accessibility and availability of data are the main limitations.

The paper provides a more objective risk indicator of water security of drought periods for water resources managers.

This paper determines the weight coefficients of different risk indices for risk assessment of water security of drought periods based on hazard entropy. The paper is aimed at water resources managers and relative researchers, especially those who deal with risk assessment of water security of drought periods.

This paper aims to identify variables that determine the differing levels of environmental quality on Java and other islands in Indonesia.

Using a quantitative approach, secondary data were sourced from the Central Statistics Agency and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The data were obtained through the collection of documentation from 33 provinces in Indonesia. The analytical approach used was discriminant analysis. The research variables are Trade Openness, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), industry, HDI and population growth.

The variables that distinguish between the levels of environmental quality in Indonesian provinces on the island of Java and on other islands are Industry, HDI, FDI and population growth. The openness variable is not a differentiating variable for environmental quality. The most powerful variable as a differentiator of environmental quality on Java Island and on other islands is the Industry variable.

This study has not classified the quality of the environment based on the Ministry of Environment and Forestry's categories, namely, the very good, good, quite good, poor, very poor and dangerous. For this reason, further research is needed using multiple discriminant analysis (MDA).

Industry is the variable that most strongly distinguishes between levels of environmental quality on Java and other island, while the industrial sector is the largest contributor to gross regional domestic product (GDRP). Government policy to develop green technology is mandatory so that there is no trade-off between industry and environmental quality.

This study is able to identify the differentiating variables of environmental quality in two different groups, on Java and on the other islands of the Indonesian archipelago.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the vulnerability of smallholder farmers to climate change in northwest Ethiopia.

To achieve this aim, data was collected from a survey of 352 households, which were stratified into three groups: Lay Gayint (138 or 39%), Tach Gayint (117 or 33%) and Simada district (97 or 28%). To gain a deeper understanding of the vulnerability of these households, two approaches were used: the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI), consisting of 32 indicators, and the socioeconomic vulnerability index (SeVI), containing 31 indicators. Furthermore, qualitative data was obtained through focus group discussions conducted in six randomly chosen groups from the three districts, which were used to supplement the findings.

Both methods indicate that Simada is the most vulnerable district, followed by Tach Gayint and Lay Gayint. According to the SeVI approach, Simada district showed the highest level of sensitivity and exposure to climate-related hazards, as well as the lowest score for adaptive capacity. However, using the LVI approach, Simada district was found to have the highest sensitivity to climate effects and exposure to climate-related hazards, along with a higher adaptive capacity than both Lay Gayint and Tach Gayint districts.

Although there are numerous studies available on the vulnerability of farmers to climate change, this particular study stands out by using and contrasting two approaches – the LVI and the SeVI – to assess the vulnerability of households in the study area. Previous research has indicated that no single approach is sufficient to evaluate climate change vulnerability, as each approach has its own strengths and limitations. The findings of this study have significant implications for policymakers and development practitioners, as they can use the results to identify the households that are most vulnerable to climate change. This will enable them to design adaptation options that are tailored to the specific needs of each community and that will effectively address the risks of current and future climate change.

This paper aims to determine and compare the vulnerability of selected indigenous communities in the Philippines using several integrated index development approaches. Better understanding on how negative impacts of climate change could be effectively reduced is the identification of appropriate vulnerability assessment approach that is applicable to the local and cultural contexts. Critical in the case of indigenous communities is the analyses of determinants of vulnerability by and with themselves.

Using the survey data of combined 169 households, vulnerability scores of two adjacent Alangan Mangyan indigenous communities were quantified utilizing a set of 31 indicators that were systematically combined via the balanced-weighted (composite index) and unbalanced-weighted (principal component analysis) approaches.

The computed vulnerability scores of the Alangan Mangyan communities using several approaches yielded varying results. In both study sites, the degree of vulnerability is differentiated even among households of indigenous communities of comparable socio-economic characteristics. The developed indices confirm that typhoons, level of education, literacy rate and monthly income were found to have direct effect on the Alangan Mangyan communities’ vulnerability.

The study has successfully tested various methodological frameworks in implementing vulnerability assessment applicable in the context of indigenous communities in the Philippines. Results highlighted the need to simultaneously implement several vulnerability assessment approaches to allow comparison of results instead of solely basing climate change vulnerability-reduction programs to be implemented to a single assessment approach.

This study analyses how the implementation of PPPs to operate rural water infrastructures and deliver water to local population has led to a new accountability archetype.

The archetype theory is used to analyse the process of implementing PPPs as a new archetype and setting up systems and structures of accountability between contracting parties. The empirical part of the study is based on extensive document analysis in an East African country. Documents analysed are from governmental sources, UNICEF and the World Bank and cover a period from 1998 to early 2019.

The process of implementing PPPs was revolutionary at the national level and evolutionary at micro levels. The sequence of the change process moved from central to peripheral. The linearity followed a reorientation track strategy. Setting up systems and structure of accountability was evolutionary, peripheral to central following the reorientation strategy. National authorities reacted proactively to comments and suggestions from international donors and local population. However, not all districts have fully implemented PPPs in their rural water sector. The structure of accountability at the local level, however, still suffers from logistical and professional capacity constraints.

Empirical findings cannot be generalised to other situations, but the theoretical framework used in this study can be applied elsewhere.

Giving priority to hearing from end users themselves before designing and implementing policies that intend to respond to specific local needs is recommended.

This study explains the ways in which micro-organisational change can lead to revolutionary archetypes such as PPPs, whereas the implementation of systems and the structure of accountability at inter-organisational level remain evolutionary.