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In this study, the impact of access to electricity on poverty reduction for Botswana is examined using the annual data from 1990 to 2021. The study was motivated by the need to establish if access to electricity could be a panacea on poverty reduction in Botswana. Given that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals deadline is fast approaching, and Botswana being one of the signatories, is expected to end poverty in all its forms – Goal 1. Establishing the role that electrification plays in poverty alleviation, helps in refocusing Botswana’s poverty alleviation strategies on factors that have high impact on poverty. The main objective of this study, therefore, is to investigate the relationship between poverty alleviation and access to electricity in Botswana.

The study uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to investigate the nature of the relations. Two poverty proxies were used in this study namely, household consumption expenditure and life expectancy.

The study found access to electricity to reduce poverty in the long run and in the short run, regardless of the poverty measure used. Thus, access to electricity plays an important role in poverty alleviation and Botswana is recommended to continue with the rural and urban electrification initiatives.

The study explores the impact of access to electricity on poverty reduction in Botswana, a departure from the current studies that examined the same relationship using energy consumption in general. This is on the back of increasing dependence of economic activities on electricity as a major source of energy.

The purpose of this paper is to study triadic market relations between an international aid agency (IAA), local ventures and the poor communities where they are embedded in order to shift the poverty alleviation discussion to account for the perceptions held by each category of actor, especially those of poor communities. Poverty alleviation is a key commitment of the United Nations, and market-driven approaches are increasingly advocated as a means to reduce poverty, particularly among IAAs. One such strategy is to connect ventures in poor communities with international markets. However, research shows that such approaches have mixed success.

The authors conducted a comparative case study of three ventures embedded in urban and rural poor communities receiving support from an IAA. The authors then analyzed the data to determine the mechanisms that led to discrepancies in the perceptions of poverty alleviation held by each actor involved.

This study suggests three such mechanisms: ‘decoupling markets from poverty’, wherein aiding ventures may paradoxically lead to decoupling them from poor communities; ‘overburden stress’, in which ventures cannot fulfil a poverty alleviation role through their market activities because the expectation to do so overburdens the venture; and ‘value divergence’, in which the actors involved evaluate the impact of these approaches differently.

The authors propose that a key aspect of enabling effective poverty alleviation through market-driven approaches in terms of substantial, long-term contributions is to monitor and support the relations between the actors involved – including the poor communities themselves – and explore how each perceives the efficacy of the approach.

El objetivo de nuestro estudio es integrar las percepciones de tres actores: los organismos internacionales, los emprendimientos en comunidades pobres y las propias comunidades pobres, con el fin de cambiar la discusión sobre la reducción de la pobreza hacia las percepciones de los diferentes actores involucrados en las relaciones de mercado, en particular las de las comunidades pobres. La reducción de la pobreza es un compromiso clave de las Naciones Unidas, y en la actualidad se promueven enfoques de mercado como un medio para reducir la pobreza, especialmente entre los organismos internacionales. Una estrategia consiste en conectar emprendimientos en comunidades pobres con mercados internacionales. Sin embargo, investigaciones previas muestran que estos enfoques de mercado tienen un éxito variado en ciertas ocasiones y en otras no.

Realizamos un estudio de casos comparativo de tres emprendimientos en comunidades pobres urbanas y rurales que reciben apoyo de un organismo internacional. Luego, analizamos nuestros datos para determinar qué mecanismos condujeron a discrepancias en las percepciones de cada actor involucrado con respecto a la reducción de la pobreza.

Nuestro estudio identifica tres mecanismos que explican las discrepancias en las percepciones de los actores involucrados con respecto a los enfoques de mercado para la reducción de la pobreza: ‘desvinculación de los mercados de la pobreza’, en donde el apoyo a los emprendimientos puede llevar paradójicamente a separarlos de las comunidades pobres; ‘estrés de sobrecarga’ que captura situaciones en las que los emprendimientos no pueden cumplir su función de reducción de la pobreza a través de sus actividades en el mercado debido a que la expectativa de hacerlo, aunque implícita, sobrecarga al emprendimiento; y ‘divergencia de valores’ que muestra que los actores involucrados a menudo evalúan de manera diferente el impacto de los enfoques de mercado en la pobreza.

Proponemos que un aspecto clave de la reducción efectiva de la pobreza a través de enfoques de mercado que hagan contribuciones sustanciales y a largo plazo es monitorear las relaciones y la eficacia percibida entre todos los actores involucrados en estos enfoques, incluyendo a las propias comunidades pobres.

El objetivo de nosso estudo é integrar as percepções de três atores: os organismos internacionais, os empreendimentos em comunidades pobres e as próprias comunidades pobres, com o objetivo de mudar a discussão sobre a redução da pobreza para as percepções dos diferentes atores envolvidos nas relações de mercado, particularmente as das comunidades pobres. A redução da pobreza é um compromisso chave das nações unidas, e atualmente abordagens de mercado são promovidas como um meio para reduzir a pobreza, especialmente entre os organismos internacionais. Uma estratégia consiste em conectar empreendimentos em comunidades pobres com mercados internacionais. No entanto, pesquisas anteriores mostram que essas abordagens de mercado têm sucesso variado em algumas ocasiões e em outras não.

Realizamos um estudo de casos comparativo de três empreendimentos em comunidades pobres urbanas e rurais que recebem apoio de um organismo internacional. Em seguida, analisamos nossos dados para determinar quais mecanismos levaram a discrepâncias nas percepções de cada ator envolvido em relação à redução da pobreza.

Nosso estudo identifica três mecanismos que explicam as discrepâncias nas percepções dos atores envolvidos em relação às abordagens de mercado para a redução da pobreza: ‘desvinculação dos mercados da pobreza’, onde o apoio aos empreendimentos pode paradoxalmente separá-los das comunidades pobres; ‘estresse de sobrecarga’ que captura situações em que os empreendimentos não podem cumprir sua função de redução da pobreza por meio de suas atividades no mercado devido à expectativa de fazê-lo, mesmo que implicitamente, sobrecarregando o empreendimento; e ‘divergência de valores’ que mostra que os atores envolvidos frequentemente avaliam de maneira diferente o impacto das abordagens de mercado na pobreza.

Propomos que um aspecto-chave da redução efetiva da pobreza por meio de abordagens de mercado que façam contribuições substanciais e a longo prazo é monitorar as relações e a eficácia percebida entre todos os atores envolvidos nessas abordagens, incluindo as próprias comunidades pobres.

This chapter reviews the book titled Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence and Poverty in India by Akhil Gupta and also critically examines the central premise of the book relating the nature of the Indian state to the poverty of its citizens. Gupta’s primary contention is that poverty in India is largely a result of massive bureaucratic failures of the state that severely limit opportunities for the poor and increase their vulnerability to structural violence.

I examine this contention in the context of seven decades of poverty amelioration policies in India with particular attention to the causes and consequences of the policy failures, and the role of the state in exacerbating the conditions of the poor. I conclude by examining the theoretical implications of the book for studies on state violence and normalization of structural violence.

The central finding of the chapter supports Gupta’s assertion that the bureaucratized practices of the state limit the poor’s ability to access and receive goods. Drawing on Gupta’s proposed theory, the chapter argues that the economic development plans of the Indian state that are designed to mitigate poverty are instead frequently invoked to normalize it in the public imagination thereby legitimizing structural violence.

This chapter examines the ethnographic data collected by the author of the book reviewed here.

In addition to offering a theoretically informed and oriented review of research on the Indian state’s role in normalization of poverty, this chapter also identifies some of the limitations of Gupta’s work, and identifies possible research directions for future research on poverty and structural violence in India.

There has been a rapid expansion in the literature on the measurement of multidimensional poverty in recent years. This paper focuses on the longitudinal aspects of multidimensional poverty and its link to dynamic income poverty measurement. Using panel household survey data in Vietnam from 2007, 2008, and 2010, the paper analyses the prevalence and dynamics of both multidimensional and monetary poverty from the same dataset. The results show that the monetary poor (or non-poor) are not always multidimensionally poor (or non-poor) – indeed the overlap between the two measures is much less than 50 percent. Additionally, monetary poverty shows faster progress as well as a higher level of fluctuation than multidimensional poverty. We suggest that rapid economic growth as experienced by Vietnam has had a larger and more immediate impact on monetary than on multidimensional poverty.

The extent to which means-tested transfers, social insurance, and tax credits fill the gap between a family's private resources and the poverty threshold is a periodic barometer of the social safety net. Using data on families from the Current Population Survey I examine how the level and composition of before- and after-tax and after-transfer poverty gaps changed in response to changes in the policy and economic landscapes over the past two decades. The estimates presented here indicate not only dramatic changes in the level and sources of income maintenance programs filling the poverty gap, but also dramatic changes in which demographic groups successfully fill the gap. From the peak-to-peak business-cycle years of 1979 to 1999, the fraction of the gap left unfilled among non-elderly families in poverty has expanded by 25 percent, while the unfilled gap has increased by 50 percent among single female-headed families, families headed by non-whites, and families residing in the Northeast. In a given year the poor in the South fill considerably less of the poverty gap with cash welfare, but make up for much of the shortfall with higher payments of food stamps, SSI, and SSDI. Over time the poor in all regions of the country have substituted SSI, SSDI, and the EITC for cash welfare. Indeed, by 1999 the unfilled gap for families with related children present would be one-fifth larger without the EITC. With the exception of married-couple families, this apparent rate of replacement of disability payments and tax credits for cash welfare is less than one for one, leaving most poor families, especially non-white families and single female-headed families, financially more vulnerable today than in previous decades.

What are children’s responses to storybook characters portrayed as socioeconomically disadvantaged? Do these responses vary by gender, race, socioeconomic status, and setting? Sixty-two 8-year-old-children individually listened and responded to a story about a soup kitchen using two different communication systems: drawings and words. Categories generated from the data were analyzed using chi-square analyses, yielding statistically significant findings for each of the variables of interest. Results offer a unique, detailed picture of the conceptual schemas of 8-year-old children about poverty.

Children in Malaysia, just as children in many other countries, are vulnerable to poverty. They are exposed to different forms of deprivation and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated their predicament. Concerns have been raised about the impact of the pandemic on children’s well-being, as this health crisis had intensified the educational and economic disparities among children in Malaysia, and for some children the impact will be lifelong. It is important to recognise the multidimensionality of poverty in regard to deprivation among poor children; however, such concerns are less pronounced in public policy discussions. Demands for greater policy attention intensified following the increasing number of unemployed parents and bereaved children who lost their parents due to the pandemic. The scope of poverty alleviation policies failed to consider the varying poverty gaps between recipients and the various forms of deprivation experienced by children in poor and larger sized households. As a result, the allocation of funds for the improvement of children’s well-being has been insignificant. The aim of this chapter is to provide a thorough overview of child poverty in developed and developing countries and how child poverty has changed in Malaysia. The analysis in this chapter seeks to provide deep insights on the development of policies that address poverty among children in Malaysia. An analysis on budget appropriations reveals that efforts to address other dimensions of child development were steadily improved, but policy commitments for such purposes need to be intensified in the post-pandemic era when hundreds of thousands of families and children have been plunged into poverty. It is timely for policymakers to acknowledge the need for separate policy considerations for children since they experience poverty differently from adults. The fulfilment of their needs should be prioritised, and the recognition of this fact would produce desirable plans of action for children living in poverty.

This research underlines the usefulness of Civil Rights Geographic Information Systems (CR-GIS) for understanding the social struggles and assessing the critical needs of the disempowered population of Alabama’s “Black Belt.” The social struggles have been persistent for decades in the Southern states, particularly in Alabama. Researchers have recognized the political and historical root causes and implications for these social struggles. The geographic region of Alabama’s Black Belt is significant because it became the epicenter of the Civil Rights struggle and still represents the vestiges of the social policy known as “Jim Crow.”

Although GIS has a great potential to explore social and political struggles, currently, it is not profoundly associated with Civil Rights studies. This research employs CR-GIS to illustrate the impact of the disfranchisement caused by biased geopolitics in three selected cases/issues: (1) gerrymandering and voting rights, (2) transportation, and (3) poverty in the State of Alabama. While there has been some progress in overcoming the social struggles in the Black Belt, there is a need for qualitative and quantitative analyses to understand persistent social, economic, and Civil Rights struggles in the region. GIS could be a valuable tool to understand and explore the social struggles in the disempowered communities of the “Black Belt” in Alabama. By incorporating the existing information and conducting ground truth studies, this research will lay the basic foundation for extended research by creating a policy template for empowering the disempowered for better social, economic, and political integration in the “Black Belt region.”

Historically, as a result of complex intersections of marginalisation, women and girls in India are known to have had less access to economic and social capital than men and boys. Progress on poverty alleviation and the advancement of women’s and girls’ development continues to be slow and has even been described as ‘regressive’ (UN Women, 2015). This chapter provides a microanalysis of experiences and perceptions of gender and poverty in Mumbai, India. It puts forward new insights into everyday forms of agency, resistance and subversion while confronting western centric ideas around development and colonialist notions of victimhood.

Based upon research conducted in 2012–2013, the qualitative study adopting a multi-methods approach draws on participatory action research, participant observation and ethnography. This chapter draws on a small number of interviews from the original sample of 40 participants.

This chapter is based on findings from a small research sample.

The study finds evidence that confirms experiences of gendered poverty permeate across class divides, suggesting that access to economic capital does not necessarily result in equitable gender relations. The findings also uncover the diverse ways in which women and adolescent girls strategise and negotiate to acquire agency, through acts of resistance and/or subversion.

There are two key aspects of this research that can be considered original: the use of a multi-methods approach and by bringing together of a combination of different voices. The theoretical and sociological contribution of this research lies in showcasing the value of expanding the definition of poverty and gender beyond a purely economic analysis.