Comments and Reviews
Direct or Mediated Relationships? Civic Involvement and Social Accountability in the Bolsa Família Programme
Conditional Cash
Transfer (CCT) programmes are key to reducing the effects of the
economic crisis among the poor in Latin America. Their implementation, however,
entails two risks: an increase in political clientelism (exchange of votes for
favours) and the widening of the power gap between the poor population and local
authorities. In order to gain access to the programme and receive financial aid,
families rely on the authorities in charge of registering beneficiaries and
checking compliance with conditionalities. As a result, government actors enjoy
a better power position at the local level and/or are able to ask for political
support in return.
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager105.pdf
Posted at 12:11PM Feb 12, 2010 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs | Comments[0]
What Is the Impact of the Bolsa Família Programme on Education?
Many researchers have shown that
Brazil’s Bolsa Família programme had a large impact on reducing poverty and
income inequality. But evidence for the programme’s impact on educational
outcomes is in short supply. Does Bolsa Família increase school enrolment? Does
it reduce dropout rates? Does it improve grade promotions?
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager106.pdf
Posted at 12:10PM Feb 12, 2010 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs | Comments[0]
Green Jobs for the Poor: Why a Public Employment Approach is Needed Now
In the context of the economic and environmental challenges that the
world is facing today, there have been calls for a Global Green New Deal (see,
for example, UNEP/ILO/IOE/ITUC, 2008). Such calls have highlighted the
employment-creation benefits of “green” investments, mainly those aimed at
accelerating the shift to low-carbon economies. Policy innovations by developing
countries, such as South Africa and India in particular, also point to the value
of keeping sight of employment-generating environmental activities that are
relevant for reclaiming or enhancing access to public environmental goods and
services, as well as for improving the productive livelihoods of the poor. This
One Pager outlines a variety of economic rationales for promoting these types of
“green jobs” and adopting a “public employment” approach in this regard.
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager107.pdf
Posted at 12:10PM Feb 12, 2010 by IPC in Macroeconomic Policies | Comments[1]
Low-Cost Technologies Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals:
Policy Research Brief No. 12
The Case of Rainwater
Harvesting
By Christian Lehmann, Raquel Tsukada and Acácio
Lourete
Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) remains a
daunting challenge for many countries in the face of small state budgets and
limited donor support. This Policy Research Brief highlights the contribution of
a low-cost water supply strategy to a number of MDGs. It also discusses
innovative financing schemes to scale up the implementation of such
strategies.
http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/port/IPCPolicyResearchBrief12.pdf
Posted at 12:09PM Feb 12, 2010 by IPC in Inclusive Growth | Comments[0]
Sustainable Agriculture: A Way Out of Food Poverty
The most
fundamental human right is the right to food (UN General Assembly, 2002).
Proper nutritious food is the precondition for normal human development.
Well-nourished children are more likely to succeed in learning and are less
susceptible to diseases. But low-income, food-importing economies are facing
increasing difficulties in accessing staple food items. Chronic food insecurity
persists, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The recent economic crisis drove
more than 100 million people into hunger in 2008 alone.1
Is sustainable agriculture a solution?
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager104.pdf
Posted at 12:08PM Feb 12, 2010 by IPC in Poverty and Inequality | Comments[0]
Trends in South-South Cooperation
South-South Cooperation (SSC) is being impacted by the emergence of economic behemoths—India, Brazil, China and South Africa. In 2006 alone, about US$3 billion in development assistance came from Southern contributors (Johnson, Versailles and Martin, 2008). What comes next? What are the trends and pressing demands in SSC?
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager103.pdf
Posted at 12:08PM Feb 12, 2010 by IPC in Global Economic Trends | Comments[1]
The Doha Round and Kenya: Good and Not So Good Lessons
The global financial crisis and spiking unemployment figures have raised the threat of escalating barriers to trade. An early conclusion to the Doha Round might help avert some of the increase in protectionism, but no one knows by how much. And while Doha will help the world economy, it will also create winners and losers across countries and across sectors within countries (Polaski, 2006). How much developing countries can win
or lose depends, to a large extent, on how the issue of agricultural subsidies in developed countries is resolved. But it also depends on the definition of sensitive commodities and the effects of further liberalising trade in manufacturing goods. Developing countries will have to look very carefully at the gains and losses from proposed Doha Round agreements, the so-called “modalities”. For many developing countries, the nature of any agreed package will be more important than reaching any agreement by a specific deadline.
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager102.pdf
Posted at 02:54PM Jan 14, 2010 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs | Comments[0]
Water Supply in Rural Ghana: Do Women Benefit?
Women’s income
poverty in developing countries is usually associated with time
poverty. The time that women spend on domestic chores represents significant
forgone income. Infrastructure provision potentially reduces women’s time
burden. The saving includes time spent on collecting, loading and purifying
water. That saving would enable women to engage in remunerated activities,
dedicate more time to pursuing education, or have a little leisure. In this One
Pager, we investigate the impact of water provision on women’s time allocation
in rural Ghana.
http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager101.pdf
Posted at 02:00AM Dec 10, 2009 by IPC in Macroeconomic Policies | Comments[0]
Do CCTs Lessen the Impact of the Current Economic Crisis? Yes, but...
The recent financial and economic crisis has sparked a debate on whether conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes make families less vulnerable to that crisis. This link between the crisis and CCTs was made because countries like Brazil, which have large CCT programmes, were enduring the impacts better than most others.
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager96.pdf
Posted at 09:01AM Sep 16, 2009 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs | Comments[1]
Do Poorer Countries Have Less Capacity for Redistribution?
The government of a rich country will be disinclined to give
its aid to a country that has internal capacity to tackle poverty through redistribution from people at a similar standard of living
to taxpayers in that rich country. Yet we do not have tools for measuring the capacity for redistribution that reflect this property. Indeed, past measures imply heavy tax burdens on people who would be considered poor in rich countries.
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager97.pdf
Posted at 08:59AM Sep 16, 2009 by IPC in Poverty and Inequality | Comments[5]
Do CCT Programmes Have a Pro-Poor Spillover Effect?
Conditional Cash Transfer programmes (CCTs), such as Progresa in Mexico or Bolsa Família in Brazil, have been compared to a “magic golden bullet in development”. A plethora of rigorous evaluations of such programmes points to a significant increase in food consumption among cash-recipient households. A topic that has not received much attention yet is the impact of cash transfer programmes on the food consumption of households that do not receive the transfer (programme-ineligible households) but that are in the same village as cash recipients.
Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager98.pdf
Posted at 08:45AM Sep 16, 2009 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs | Comments[1]
What Is the Impact of Cash Transfers on Labour Supply?
This One Pager investigates the impact of the Brazilian Conditional Cash Transfer Programm, the Programa Bolsa Família (PBF), on beneficiaries’ decision to supply their labour. The theoretical departure is this: households have a time allocation strategy between housework activities and paid work. Income shocks, such as cash transfers, alter such time-allocation preferences. In other words, they change the relative value of time.
We assume that paid work hours do not generate any additional well-being to households, except for increases in income. As cash transfers increase income, paid time loses value relative to unpaid time. Therefore, the expected behaviour is a reduction in the supply of paid work hours and an increase in housework or leisure hours.
Posted at 08:33AM Jun 22, 2009 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs | Comments[4]
Is the Washington Consensus Dead?
The recent G20 meeting in London elevated the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to a new level. Its lending capacity was tripled to US$750 billion. In the aftermath of World War II, the IMF was established to deal with declining commodity prices and deteriorating international trade. During the oil price shocks of the 1970s the IMF became lender of last resort, mainly to countries with balance of payments problems. The debt crisis of the early 1980s in Latin America gave the Fund further impetus. By the mid 1980s the IMF and the World Bank had become policy architects in low-income countries. The 1998 Asian financial crisis brought the IMF to the forefront of crisis management. In 2009, we are again at another milestone—the Fund is back with even greater influence. Read the publication at: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager82.pdf
Posted at 12:52PM Apr 20, 2009 by IPC in Financial Policies | Comments[2]
The Role of Gender Inequalities in Explaining Income Growth, Poverty and Inequality: Evidences from Latin American Countries
This Working Pager shows that, among several gender related policies, promoting female labour participation has the biggest impact on reducing poverty and inequality. Full publication available at: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper52.pdf
Posted at 03:39PM Apr 03, 2009 by IPC in Gender Equality | Comments[2]
The Macro-Micro Nexus in Scaling-Up Aid: The Case of HIV and AIDS Control in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia
This policy Research Policy Brief #11 continues the research in IPC on the Macroeconomic Implications of HIV/AIDS Financing. Here the authors argue that proactive macroeconomic policies, combined with proper microeconomic management, can lead to successful absorption and spending of external resources. You are invited to send your comments and reviews.
Posted at 09:32PM Jan 23, 2009 by André Lyra in HIV/AIDS Financing | Comments[0]