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poverty

Producing nature and poverty in Africa

Medarbetare: Broch-Due, Vigdis | Schroeder, Richard A.
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2000
Ämnesord: natural resources, poverty, Environmental management, Colonial and postcolonial interventions, Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
Development donors have supported thousands of environmental initiatives in Africa over the past quarter century. The contributors to this provocative new collection of essays assess these projects and conclude that environmental programmes constitute one of the major forms of foreign and state intervention in contemporary African affairs. Drawing on case study material from eight countries, the authors demonstrate clearly that environmental programmes themselves often have direct and far-reaching consequences for the distribution of wealth and poverty on the continent. Individual essays in the collection theorise specific forms of environmental intervention; the degree of historical discontinuity that exists between contemporary and past environmental policies and practices; the effect environmental programmes have had on localised systems of knowledge and value regimes; the strategies of accumulation that have been spun out of heavy donor and state investment in environmental programmes; and the numerous social, cultural and political-economic dislocations these initiatives have produced in African environments all across the continent.

Understanding poverty in Africa? : A navigation through disputed concepts, data and terrains

Upphovsperson: Hårsmar, Mats
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Globalization, Trade and Regional Integration | Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2010
Ämnesord: Economic conditions, poverty, Agricultural development, Poverty alleviation, Development research, Development theory, case studies, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Africa South of Sahara, Business and economics, Ekonomi
In any international comparison, sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the most pervasive poverty. The study of African societies requires the study of numerous dynamics, processes and situations with links to poverty issues. Recent methodological innovations hold that research into poverty should be multidimensional, dynamic and cross-disciplinary. But how can such research be undertaken? This volume comprises two separate articles. The first provides an overview of major conceptual positions on poverty. With the focus on theoretical and methodological issues, it argues that the epistemological and normative elements have not been sufficiently emphasised in the attempts to bring different disciplinary approaches together. Such elements constitute fundamental dividing lines in the poverty debate. However, the article goes on to argue that the capability approach has promising potential for bridging these divides.The second article is an empirical study of recent poverty developments in Tanzania and Burkina Faso. Common to both countries – one in East and the other in West Africa – is that a largely subsistence agricultural sector dominates their economies. The article combines quantitative and qualitative methods to show that regional differences in the structures of agricultural production may in large part explain variations in poverty.

Poverty, income distribution and labour markets in Ethiopia

Medarbetare: Bigsten, Arne | Kebede, Bereket | Shimeles, Abebe
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2005
Ämnesord: Ethiopia, poverty, Economic conditions, income distribution, household income, labour market, Business and economics, Ekonomi
Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita income of just over US$100. Understanding the causes of the country's widespread poverty is of the utmost importance. Until recently, however, very little household data was available. This study deals with the many aspects of poverty and income distribution in Ethiopia. It analyses the determinants of poverty and how its conditions have changed in both rural and urban areas over time. Rural and urban poverty profiles and the dynamics of poverty are examined, measurements taken of consumption poverty are compared with individual perceptions of poverty, and an analysis is made of the distribution of intra-household expenditure and the dynamics of income distribution. In addition, the functioning of the urban labour market returns to education, and the effects of education on household welfare are investigated. Finally, there is extensive discussion of the wide range of policies that need to be coordinated for poverty reduction in Ethiopia.

Aid and poverty reduction in Zambia : mission unaccomplished

Upphovspersoner: Saasa, Oliver S. | Carlsson, Jerker
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2002
Ämnesord: Zambia, Southern Africa, poverty, Economic conditions, Development aid, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
Zambia, a once prosperous African country, now has 73 percent of its people below the poverty line and by the early 1990s, the country had reached a level where the UN General Assembly included it on the list of the least developed countries. With crippling indebtedness amidst poor economic performance, Zambia is at present one of the world's most heavily indebted low-income countries. And poverty continues to take its toll with the province housing the capital city registering the highest increase in poverty over the 1996 to 1998 period. This means that, although rural areas have the highest poverty levels, Zambia's urban centres are fast catching up. With help from donors, poverty reduction is at the centre stage on the Zambia development agenda after almost two decades of externally prescribed experiments with adjustment and stabilisation as a panacea for welfare improvement. But despite significant aid volumes and structural reforms, the country is getting deeper and deeper into poverty. What is the missing link between aid and positive change? Is the problem mainly that the volume of aid is not sufficient and, as is often heard, more of it would make a difference? Is the sluggish social and economic progress in Zambia appropriately diagnosed and correct remedies and strategies prescribed? This book attempts to address these and related questions.

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