Challenge Paper 2: How resilient are escapes out of poverty?

This paper uses panel data analysis to assess whether people that have escaped poverty have remained above the poverty line or have fallen back below it. It suggests a range of policies that can ensure that poverty escapes are more resilient.

Authors: Lucy Scott, Katharina Hanifnia, Andrew Shepherd, Milu Muyanga and Elsa Valli.

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India Chronic Poverty Report: Towards Solutions and New Compacts in a Dynamic Context

The report has looked at the large numbers of programmes and schemes in various forms that over the years aimed at poverty alleviation in India, some targeting specific groups, to try and identify why they have not succeeded to the desired extent. Design flaws, weak implementation, inadequate provision of funds, and the inability of the poor to access scheme benefits, are amongst many factors identified and analyzed.

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The State of the Poorest in Bangladesh: tales of ascent, descent, marginality and persistence

Bangladesh has come out of the "shadow of famine", the problem of starvation still persists. Accurate figures are not available for urban areas, but in effect between 25 to 30 million of the country's citizens are chronically poor. Here we review the present status and situation of the poorest, analyse the main factors that keep them in poverty and identify the types of policy that can help them escape deprivation and gain their full rights as citizens of an increasingly prosperous and high-stepping country.

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Tackling chronic poverty: The policy implications of research on chronic poverty and poverty dynamics

The first decade of the 21st century has illustrated the power of economic growth (especially in China) and human development to bring large numbers out of poverty. But a large number of people
remain abjectly poor, among them almost half a billion people who are poor over long periods of time, their entire lives, and who may pass poverty to their children. The essential argument advanced in this report is that if these people are to escape poverty beyond 2015, they require additional policies and political commitment, underpinned by greater understanding and analysis, compared to what is currently practiced at global and national levels. 

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The Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09: Escaping poverty traps

The report is about the estimated 320 to 443 million people who live trapped in chronic poverty - people who will remain poor for much or all of their lives and whose children are likely to inherit their poverty. The chronically poor experience multiple deprivations, including hunger, undernutrition, illiteracy, lack of access to safe drinking water and basic health services, social discrimination, physical insecurity and political exclusion. Many will die prematurely of easily preventable deaths.

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Tackling obstacles to social protection for chronically poor people

Social  protection  policies  and  programmes  can  make a major contribution to reducing poverty among  chronically and severely poor people and securing  their rights. Negative perceptions of social protection transfers continue to influence national and international anti-poverty agendas. Most of the concerns raised are based on misconceptions. This briefing outlines evidence that demolishes some of the myths concerning social protection. 

Author: Rachel Marcus

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Social protection transfers for chronically poor people

Social protection policies aim to address both  severe  and  long-term  poverty,  and to  reduce vulnerability,  and  are  thus  one of the most significant areas of policy for chronically and severely poor people. good social protection addresses both factors that push people into poverty and those which keep them there. It can help both poor people and countries move out of ‘low equilibrium poverty traps’, where they are producing low-value added products with limited returns.

Author: Rachel Marcus

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