ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2005
In association with Development Policy and Practice
and the International Development Centre at the Open University
Milton Keynes, UK
7th-9th September 2005
Connecting people
and places: challenges and opportunities for development
POVERTY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PARALLEL SESSIONS
ABSTRACTS
There are three sessions:
C: September 8th, 9.00-10.30
D: September 8th, 13.30-15.00
E: September 8th, 15.30-16.45
Sessions C and D will focus on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Session E is on Politics and Poverty.
The following is the provisional running order.
PARALLEL SESSION C: THE MDGS: TEN YEARS TO GO!
AID DISTRIBUTION AND THE MDGS
Bob Baulch, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex
The United Nations and other aid agencies are calling for aid to be more
than doubled so that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be achieved
by 2015. Unfortunately, as this paper shows, many important donors currently
distribute their aid in ways that are not consistent with the MDGs. It
constructs aid concentration curves for four of the quantifiable indicators
of the MDGs (monetary poverty, child malnutrition, non-enrolment in primary
school, and under-five mortality) for the major bilateral and multilateral
donors. A common ranking of donors' aid programmes by these indicators
is observed. However, there are major contrasts between the progressivity
and regressivity of different donor's aid programmes whatever indicator
is used. The UK and World Bank have aid programmes which distribute around
two thirds of their concessionary aid to the low income countries. In
contrast, the USA and the European Commission spend the majority of their
aid budgets in middle income countries. France, Germany, the Netherlands,
Japan and the United Nations occupy an intermediate position, distributing
between a half and two-thirds of their aid to low income countries but
also making substantial disbursements to a few relatively small and well-off
countries.
WILL THE MDGS BE ACHIEVED BY 2015?
Meera Tiwari, University of East London
The Millennium Development Goals are increasingly being accepted as the
yardstick for development efforts along with achievements by governments,
aid agencies and NGOs. While the MDGs provide a rich and multidimensional
vision of development at the international level, their attainment is
beginning to be contested. With only ten years to go to their deadline
of 2015 will the MDGs be achieved? Will the MDGs be met in some regions
and not in others and at what cost? If so, then where and where not? Why
do regions' and countries' performance differ? This paper attempts to
explore the issues relating to the attainment of the MDGs. The paper first
presents a global overview then narrows the discussion to regions followed
by selected country profiles. The purpose is to study the region specific
positive and not so positive trends for the attainment of the MDGs. Special
attention is given to India and China due to their population size and
contribution to global poverty reduction. Disaggregating the MDGs for
India and China is important in not only identifying areas of large disparities
but also areas of good practice. The discussion will be grounded in the
growing debate which on the one hand casts doubt on their attainability
and on the other portrays an optimistic global scenario.
IN SEARCH OF A 'BIG IDEA': DO THE MDGS AND PRSPS CONSTITUTE
A NEW DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM?
Andrew Sumner, London South Bank University
Development paradigms and 'meta-narratives' have been a major area of
ferment in the last fifty years but have we now run out of 'big ideas'?
Those development theories that dominated the Cold War period - Modernisation
theory, Structuralism and Dependency theory - were rejected as unsatisfactory
in the late 1980s for unrealistic ontological assumptions, only to be
replaced by the 'Washington Consensus' (WC), itself based on contestable
assumptions. So where are we now? The health (or otherwise) of the WC
is contested. Has a post-WC or new and improved orthodoxy or 'meta-narrative'
replaced it? Or have we as the development community run out of 'big ideas'
with universal claims? This article discusses the history of development
paradigms.
PARALLEL SESSION D: THE MDGS: TEN YEARS TO GO!
LIMITS OF THE PRSP PROCESS TO MEET THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT
GOAL IN POVERTY REDUCTION
Vanessa Neumann, Institute of Development Studies, Geneva
This paper calls into question the effectiveness and relevance of the
PRSP process, as the mainstream approach in international development
co-operation. Does the PRSP process help the international donor community
and developing countries get closer to meeting the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), particularly the no. 1 MDG on reducing the incidence of
absolute poverty by 50% by 2015? It is argued that the PRSP process has
profound conceptual and operational limits, thereby contributing to unsatisfactory
progress in meeting the MDGs. The case of Bolivia, Vietnam and Burkina
Faso are examined in order to highlight the mitigated results and impact
of the PRSP process. The paper finishes by exploring key explanatory factors
for this rather gloomy outlook, ranging from the lack of financial resources
and strong political will, persistence of the debt problem, poor country
ownership, weak participatory process, and the overall difficulties to
put into practice a new development paradigm. The key to success is to
raise the level of consistency between development assistance, trade,
debt and democratisation policies in order to bridge the gap between industrialised
and developing countries.
This paper empirically compares three poverty measurements, namely monetary
poverty, human capability and subjective well-being using multiple correspondence
analysis techniques. This will be done using secondary data from South
Africa (SA) of the year 1993. The paper explores the possible insights
that can be gained by the comparison of the measurements using multiple
correspondence analysis (MCA) with a special focus on differentiated social
groups. The main research questions addressed are: To what extent do monetary,
human capability and subjective well-being measures differ regarding differentiated
social groups in SA (for example black, xhosa speaking, rural residents
compared to white, English speaking, urban residents)? What are the advantages
of the multiple correspondence analysis techniques and what insights can
be gained using this technique? Most surveys use categorical variables.
Therefore analysis techniques which are appropriate for categorical variables
are important for our understanding of survey data, especially when it
comes to identifying the poor. In the application of correspondence analysis
several subgroups representing distinct social locations are formed based
on the combinations of several variables in the dataset, namely race,
language spoken, gender and area of living. The paper argues that for
the case of SA an analysis of - what I will call - ethnic groups has an
advantage over just using 'race' (i.e. Whites, Coloureds, Indians and
Africans). Furthermore, the latent dimensions of the MCA regarding the
poverty measures (i.e. capabilities, income and subjective well-being)
are discussed and are interpreted.
THE ETHICAL POVERTY LINE: A MORAL QUANTIFICATION OF ABSOLUTE
POVERTY
Peter Edward, IDPM, University of Manchester
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have set the target of halving
'extreme' poverty by 2015, 'extreme' poverty being defined as living on
less than one dollar-a-day. Responding to the MDG challenge, in early
2005 Gordon Brown called for a 'Marshall Plan' for the world's poor arguing
that we have a moral duty to ensure that economic growth benefits those
in 'extreme' poverty. This invocation of morality must be seen as only
partial. If there exists a moral duty to remove poverty then we also need
to consider what would constitute a morally defensible poverty-line. This
paper starts by reviewing the derivation of the World Bank's dollar-a-day
poverty-line to highlight its lack of a robust moral basis. The paper
then innovates by linking an analysis of world income distribution with
life outcome data, all from current World Bank datasets, to derive an
alternative and morally defensible international poverty-line. The paper
draws on established health literature to quantify an individual income
threshold, based on life-expectancy outcomes, which could form a moral
basis for an international Ethical Poverty Line (EPL). The EPL is found
to be comparable to the $2-a-day poverty-line increasingly quoted by the
World Bank. The EPL therefore does not seem unreasonable but its implications
are significant. From an analysis of the distribution of economic growth
in the 1990s, it is shown that the dollar-a-day poverty-line disguises
not only the current scale of absolute poverty but also the substantial
socio-economic challenge that a 'moral duty' to eliminate absolute poverty
poses to the developed world. E = Poverty and politics
PARALLEL SESSION E: POLITICS AND POVERTY
This paper investigates trend in poverty and its root causes in Nepal
using grouped data. Moreover, estimations of human development index for
Nepal using author's own method, qualitative analysis of the nature of
poverty, exploration of the avenues for addressing poverty from industrial
development and women empowerment perspectives are also the integral parts
of the paper.The income poverty in Nepal found inversely related to the
growth in labour productivity mainly in the agricultural sector. Likewise,
poverty in Nepal is more widespread, severe and uneven as compared to
the rest of the south Asian countries. Within the country, mountain and
rural people are poorer than lowland and urban people. In terms of cast/ethnicity,
occupational cast people are poorest. In terms of the human poverty, too,
the above conclusion holds true. Women have lower human development indices
as compared to men, lowest among the occupational caste women. Capital
labour ratio in the industrial sector explains significantly the level
of poverty in Nepal. Industries with low capital labour ratio have more
female workers. While reducing poverty by lowering capital labour ratio,
higher wage rate is more effective than the scale of employment. So far
the industrial wage rate is almost indifferent to that of agricultural
labours', therefore, unable to withdraw surplus labour from agriculture.
The low industrial wage is due to low labour productivity. The technological
improvement coupled with better labour policy can bring upward spiral
of the wage level, reallocate Nepalese labour, improve their productivity
and reduce poverty.To the illiterate, docile, and unskilled women in backward
and remote areas, who constitute a bulk of the economically active population
in Nepal, the empowerment policies/strategies must be congruent with the
national labour policy. Community development approach of women empowerment
is a very effective tool to meet this end.
ACTION-ORIENTED RESEARCH - REFLECTING ON REFLECT IN NEPAL
EXPERIENCES FROM THE FIELD
Sara Parker, Liverpool John Moores University
As a result of research within the Annapurna Conservation Area Project
(ACAP) in Nepal (Parker 1997, Parker & Sands 1997) it was found that
whilst ACAP was a highly successful Integrated Conservation and Development
Project a number of limitations were identified in relation to the non
formal education component of the project. It was suggested that a more
participatory form of non-formal education may be better placed to meet
the needs of local people in the study area (Parker and Sands 1997). As
a direct result of this research REFLECT was introduced into the Sikles
sector of the ACAP in November 1998. To meet the vital need for ongoing
training and support (identified by Phnuyal 1998) two people have been
employed to support the project. This paper draws on a process of action-oriented
research that underpins the author's PhD thesis completed this year.
This paper explains how REFLECT came to be introduced into the study
area. REFLECT centres, locally known as Chalphal Kendras meaning discussion
group in Nepali, emphasise the importance of dialogue in the REFLECT process
and stress the importance of providing people with the space to generate
and share local level knowledge and stresses the centrality of autonomy.
Through exploring the outcome of the project in detail it suggests that
although some positive changes have occurred at the local level, such
as centres continuing to run, actions being undertaken at a variety of
levels and the formation of a Community Based Organisation caution is
needed in making grand claims of 'empowerment' or social inequalities
being removed. The ability of the programme to continue despite the current
political situation in Nepal is also considered (Bohara, Dhital and Parker
2004). Finally conclusions are drawn based on the sustainability of the
project especially in light of the current political situation.
Powerpoint Presentation
In this paper methodological pluralism is illustrated in an Indian context.
A detailed review of literature on labour force participation examines
men’s and women’s activities with special reference to unpaid
rural labour. In 1989/90, 1994/5, and 1999/2000 the Indian National Sample
Survey counted people’s involvement in unpaid work, above and beyond
their household work and farming work. These data are interrogated to
explore the U curve of women’s labour force participation in different
parts of the country. Employment, self-employment, extra-domestic and
domestic work are all carefully considered.
Two main findings stand out.
Firstly, women in certain cultural groups do more unpaid work than women
in other cultural groups. Class and labour market factors have to be allowed
for before we can ascertain the extent to which this claim is true. Apparent
differences between Muslim women vs. other religious groupings are explored
(Muslims being less likely to have paid employment). Underlying my interpretation
is a cautious, pluralist approach. Institutional factors are part of the
social grounding of the labour market we are examining. To attribute causality
to religion, recourse to qualitative research is necessary. More research
is called for on cultural political economy since gender differences by
religious group have not been featured in most economic analyses.
Secondly, exploratory statistics illustrate a U curve of female employment.
Unpaid labour has been measured qualitatively. It is associated with particular
patterns of remunerated work. A housewifisation pattern is found but mainly
for urban India. A discussion of rural Indian women’s unremunerated
work concludes the paper.
The particular role of poverty as a causal factor is taken into account
throughout the paper. The motivations and resources of workers from poor
households appear, according to the results shown here, to differ considerably
from those of non-poor households. The results cast doubt on whether this
is purely a ‘resources’ question. One reason for the U curve
is that the appropriate theoretical explanations at one end of the “U”
are different from the appropriate theoretical explanation at the other
end of the “U”. A discussion of the concrete need for pluralism
of theory concludes the paper.
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18 January, 2006
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