Comments and Reviews

Sustaining Development and Resilience in SIDS: Beyond Crisis Management

Sustaining Development and Resilience in SIDS: Beyond Crisis Management

by Leisa Perch and Rathin Roy, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth

Human development in small island development states (SIDS) has been steady and measured as high. The Caribbean, on average, ranks higher than the Pacific on the Human Development Index (HDI): Barbados is ranked at 37, and St. Kitts and Nevis at 50, compared to Samoa at 94 and Fiji at 108 (UNDP, 2009). In general, the SIDS invest more than other countries in education and health; on average, government spending accounts for more than 60 per cent of all spending in the health sector (Perch and Roy, 2010).

http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager113.pdf

Posted at 10:59AM Jul 22, 2010 by IPC in Inclusive Growth  |  Comments[0]

How Much Do Non-Cash Components and Externalities Affect the Impact of Cash Transfers?

 How Much Do Non-Cash Components and Externalities Affect the Impact of Cash Transfers?

by Rafael Perez Ribas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Fábio Veras Soares and Clarissa Teixeira, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth; Elydia Silva, Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES); and Guilherme Hirata, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro

Much of the debate about conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes revolves around the issues of targeting and conditionalities. Despite the many impact evaluations of CCT programmes, mostly in Latin America, there is little evidence on either the effect of the cash alone or the value added by the conditionality.

 The cash component has an income effect that allows families to consume more goods and services, including healthcare and schooling. Depending on the families’ preferences, this rise in income may also lead to a change in the consumption share of goods and services. Because of non-cash components, however, there might be a substitution effect that changes the way in which households spend their income, aside from the expected changes due to the increased income. Thus the question is how these other components change household behaviour in terms of the consumption pattern.

Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager111.pdf

Posted at 11:37AM Jul 14, 2010 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs  |  Comments[0]

Can Public Works and Employment Programmes Be More than Safety Nets?

Can Public Works and Employment Programmes Be More than Safety Nets?

By  Radhika Lal

 Public works and public employment programmes (PEPs) have long been considered a staple of social assistance. For the most part, though, they have been designed as “safety nets”
in the context of counter-cyclical programme interventions and responses to shocks. In some cases they have also focused on reducing poverty or addressing structural unemployment challenges over the longer term, but they have seldom been implemented on a scale that would make a dent in structural poverty. Recent advances in conceptualising and implementing scalable PEPs suggest that these programmes also have a broader development role to play.

http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager112.pdf

Posted at 11:36AM Jul 14, 2010 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs  |  Comments[0]

Supporting Food Production and Food Access through Local Public Procurement Schemes: Lessons from Brazil

 Supporting Food Production and Food Access through Local Public Procurement Schemes: Lessons from Brazil

by Darana Souza and Danuta Chmielewska,  International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth

Approaches that combine giving vulnerable segments of the population access to food with support to smallholder farmers for food production can offer significant benefits in tackling poverty and hunger. Public procurement can play an important role in these approaches, ensuring supplies for food aid schemes and market opportunities for farmers who otherwise would face great difficulties in establishing advantageous commercial relations. The benefits of such approaches can be very substantial when procurement strategies are implemented in line with local food production and consumption patterns.

Download: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager110.pdf

Posted at 12:00AM Jun 01, 2010 by IPC in Rural and Sustainable Development  |  Comments[0]

Unintended Effects of Microfinance: An Increase in Child Labour in Some Contexts?

http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager108.pdf

   OP 108: Unintended Effects of Microfinance: An Increase in Child Labour in Some Contexts?

by Christian Lehmann, Paris School of Economics and Guilherme Hirata, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro

 An increasing number of policies in developing countries seek to empower women through female entrepreneurship. Many microfinance institutions (MFIs), for example, lend exclusively to women. Loans are usually combined with capacity building workshops on entrepreneurial activities such as the production of handicrafts, clothes or food to be sold in local markets. While there is evidence that these strategies have been successful in empowering women (Panjaitan-Drioadisuryo and Cloud, 1999), less is known about how such an increase in mothers’ non-domestic labour affects the working hours of their children. In the few available studies, the results are ambiguous: see, for example, Hazarika et al. (2007) and Dehejia and Gatti (2002). Drawing on a study of Mexico (Lehman, 2010), this One Pager points out that policies which encourage the small business activities of women may lead to an increase in child labour. It hypothesises that the provision of family and/or social support infrastructure (full-day schools and childcare facilities), and/or policies that encourage investment in the children’s future, may help mitigate these unintended impacts.

 http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager108.pdf

Posted at 11:39AM May 11, 2010 by IPC in Macroeconomic Policies  |  Comments[1]

How Should MDG Implementation Be Measured: Faster Progress or Meeting Targets?

http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager109.pdf

OP 109: How Should MDG Implementation Be Measured: Faster Progress or Meeting Targets?

by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Joshua Greenstein, the New School

 A critically important aspect of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is that they provide concrete, time-bound and quantitative objectives against which poverty reduction can be measured. Governments can be held accountable by their people. The international community can hold accountable, and be held accountable by, national governments. If this newfound accountability is to be worthwhile, however, the method of determining progress or lack thereof must be the correct one. We argue that the correct measure is whether faster progress is being made, not whether the targets are to be met. The MDGs are not hard planning targets; they are aspirational norms and they offer benchmarks in an evaluative framework.

 http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager109.pdf

Posted at 11:39AM May 11, 2010 by IPC in Social Inclusion  |  Comments[0]

The Programa Subsidio de Alimentos in Mozambique: Baseline Evaluation

The Programa Subsidio de Alimentos in Mozambique: Baseline Evaluation

By Fabio Veras Soares, Guilherme Issamu Hirata and Rafael Perez Ribas

I. Introduction

The Food Subsidy Programme (Programa Subsidio de Alimentos, PSA) is the main basic social protection programme of the government of Mozambique in terms of coverage. It was established in 1990 to help the destitute elderly (women above 55 and men above 60), people living with a disability, the chronically sick and their dependants by providing a monthly cash transfer. The programme falls under the mandate of the Ministry for Women and Social Action (MMAS), while implementation is the responsibility of the National Institute for Social Action (INAS), the Ministry’s executing agency.

By the end of 2008, the PSA covered 143,455 households with a total of 287,454 beneficiaries. The main direct beneficiaries were the elderly (93 per cent), followed by people living with disabilities (6 per cent) and the chronically ill (1 per cent). The general eligibility criteria are: age, residency for more than six months in the selected area, per capita earnings less than the minimum benefit on the PSA scale, and/or recognised by medical declaration to be chronically ill or living with a disability. Potential beneficiaries are selected by a local intermediary (known as a Permanente) chosen by the community and appointed by INAS, after which the application undergoes an approval process within the INAS delegation.

Although the PSA is a national programme, it does not reach the entire eligible population and its coverage is unequally distributed across districts. This is the result of the absence of an expansion strategy based on poverty incidence and population density. Expansion of the PSA was initially restricted to urban areas in order to mitigate the effects of the post-war structural adjustment programme on the urban population (Low et al., 1999). Currently, expansion to remote rural areas is a programme priority. The programme’s administrative cost is considered high relative to the amount transferred to the beneficiaries (Ellis, 2007). Though the programme is the largest in terms of the number of beneficiaries, its coverage is low relative to the potential universe of beneficiaries. Expansion of the programme tends to diminish the administrative costs in relative terms.

In 2008, the PSA underwent two important reforms. First, the subsidy scale increased. The subsidy amount for the first (direct) beneficiaries rose from 70 to 100 meticais (US$2.5 to US$3.6), and the additional benefit for dependants increased from 10 to 50 meticais (US$0.36 to US$1.80) per dependant up to four. The second reform was the greater focus on the inclusion of eligible dependants as indirect beneficiaries in the payment scheme, and the monitoring and evaluation system.

http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/port/IPCPolicyResearchBrief14.pdf

Posted at 11:39AM May 11, 2010 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs  |  Comments[0]

Benefiting Without Receiving Money? Externalities of Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes on Schooling, Health and the Village Economy

I. Introduction

Although cash transfer programmes have been implemented and evaluated for more almost a decade, very little is known about how they affect households that are located in communities where the programme is implemented but that are not officially registered for the programme
(either because they are ineligible or are unwilling to participate). The vast majority of evaluations focus on households that are officially registered. Cash transfer programmes, however, are likely to affect all households living in a community, even those that are not participating.

By Christian Lehmann

http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/port/IPCPolicyResearchBrief13.pdf

Posted at 11:38AM May 11, 2010 by IPC in Social Protection and CCTs  |  Comments[0]

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[1]

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

 Low-Cost Technologies Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals:
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]