Poverty

Citation:

Garikipati, Supriya, and Stephan Pfaffenzeller. 2012. “The Gendered Burden of Liberalisation: The Impact of India’s Economic Reforms on Its Female Agricultural Labour.” Journal of International Development 24 (7): 841–64. 

Authors: Supriya Garikipati, Stephan Pfaffenzeller

Abstract:

India has experienced unprecedented growth in the last two decades—a development largely attributed to economic reforms initiated in the early 1990s. India's approach to liberalisation has been commended for its gradual implementation and its sympathy for poor rural workers. Studies examining the relevance of this claim generally use national survey data, which are seriously limited. So far little effort has been focused on understanding what reforms actually mean for the rural poor using primary data. In this paper, we use data from a household survey carried out in the villages of Andhra Pradesh. We ask what impact India's reforms have had on its female agricultural labour—who are arguably among its poorest. Specifically, we investigate the impact of three developments considered fundamental to India's economic transformation: a sectoral shift in favour of industry, credit market reforms and poverty alleviation strategies. We argue that despite having a beneficial impact overall, economic reforms have resulted in further marginalising rural women into badly paid and socially debasing waged work (Abstract from Wiley Online Library). 

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Economies, Poverty, Privatization Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2012

Citation:

Elson, Diane. 1995. “Gender Awareness in Modeling Structural Adjustment.” World Development 23 (11): 1851–68.

Author: Diane Elson

Abstract:

The macroeconomic models underpinning the design of structural adjustment programs are gender-blind. This paper discusses strategies for introducing gender analysis into these models and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the models from a gender perspective. It concludes that besides being blind to gender, the models are also blind to the waste of resources and impoverishment that stems from deficient aggregate demand, undemocratic decision making and directly unproductive expenditures that buttress male power. This waste is, however, likely to be diminished by moves to more egalitarian systems of gender relations, entailing changes in the structure of entitlements and the social matrix in which macroeconomic processes are embedded. (Abstract from original)

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, International Financial Institutions

Year: 1995

Citation:

Chant, Sylvia. 2016. “Women, Girls, and World Poverty: Empowerment, Equality or Essentialism?” International Development Planning Review 38 (1): 1–24.

Author: Sylvia Chant

Abstract:

This paper asks if mounting reliance on women and girls to solve world poverty is an effective means to achieve greater female empowerment and gender equality, or whether, instead, it threatens to lock-down essentializing stereotypes which are unlikely to dismantle gender disparities within and beyond the home. The notion of a ‘feminization of poverty’ has been widely popularized over the past twenty years, and has had some benefits in respect of drawing attention to gendered disadvantage. However, whether the kinds of policy initiatives which have emerged to address this are good for women and girls is more contentious. The discussion highlights some key problems and paradoxes in three popular interventions nominally oriented to helping women lift themselves and their households out of poverty: conditional cash transfer programs, microfinance schemes, and ‘investing in girls’, as promulgated inter alia by the Nike Foundation’s ‘Girl Effect.’ (Abstract from original)

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, International Financial Institutions, Multi-National Corporations

Year: 2016

Citation:

Authors: Sarah Bradshaw, Ana Quirós Víquez

Abstract:

Conditional Cash Transfer programmes aim to alleviate short-term poverty through cash transfers to poor households, and to reduce longer-term poverty through making these transfers conditional on household investment in the health and education of children. These programmes have become increasingly popular with institutions such as the World Bank. However, the need for conditionalities has been questioned on a number of levels, including its necessity: it has been suggested that the cash transfer in itself may be sufficient to secure most of the programme's wider aims. The example of Nicaragua supports this contention, demonstrating that only a small incentive is needed to bring the desired changes in the uptake of education, since this is something prized by the poor themselves. In health, the Nicaraguan case suggests that demand-side initiatives might not be as important as supply-side changes that improve the affordability and accessibility of services. The Nicaragua case also highlights the long-term limitations of applying such programmes in countries with high levels of poverty and low economic growth. A gendered analysis of the programme highlights the fact that women ‘beneficiaries’ bear the economic and social cost of the programme without apparent benefit to themselves or even necessarily to the household in the short or longer term. (Abstract from original)

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Education, Health, International Financial Institutions Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: Nicaragua

Year: 2008

Citation:

Bradshaw, Sarah. 2008. “From Structural Adjustment to Social Adjustment: A Gendered Analysis of Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes in Mexico and Nicaragua.” Global Social Policy 8 (2): 188–207. 

Author: Sarah Bradshaw

Abstract:

The article explores the implications for gender roles and relations in Nicaragua of implementing a Conditional Cash Transfer programme aimed at improving the situation of the extreme poor. Nicaragua's programme, the Social Protection Network/Red de Protección Social (RPS), is modelled on the Progresa/Oportunidades programme of Mexico and shares many features in common. Evaluations of Progresa have suggested positive outcomes for women. However, examination of the findings highlight some cause for concern particularly around what inclusion on the programme means for the women involved. The article explores the consequences of translating this programme aimed at addressing the structural causes of poverty into a more overtly neoliberal and neo-conservative policy context such as that in Nicaragua. It highlights how a key feature of the RPS is the `social adjustment' of women's behaviour for economic growth gains and discusses the possible consequences for the women included and excluded from the programme. (Abstract from original)

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Gender, Gender Roles, International Financial Institutions Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: Mexico, Nicaragua

Year: 2008

Citation:

Ogwumike, Fidelis O., and Uche M. Ozughalu. 2014. "Interactions among Poverty, Access to Modern Energy Sources, and Gender in Nigeria." The Journal of Developing Areas 48 (4): 225-41.

Authors: Fidelis O. Ogwumike, Uche M. Ozughalu

Abstract:

This study examines the interactions among poverty, access to modern energy sources and gender in Nigeria. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression technique are used. The 2010 Nigeria Living Standard Survey data set obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics is used. The findings of the study show, among other things, that contrary to what happens in many countries of the world, both incidences of poverty and lack of access to modern energy sources are more pronounced among male-headed households than among female-headed households. The logistic regression estimates show, among other things, that poverty reduces the odds in favor of having access to modern energy sources and while female headship of household reduces the odds in favor of being in poverty, it increases the odds in favor of having access to modern energy sources. The forgoing should serve as invaluable guide to the Nigerian government and policy makers.

Keywords: poverty, modern energy sources, Gender, logit model, Nigeria

Topics: Economies, Economic Inequality, Poverty, Gender, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2014

Citation:

Fofana, Ismaël. 2015. "Gender Analysis of the Policy Responses to High Oil Prices: A Case Study of South Africa." Feminist Economics 21 (3): 216-40. doi: 10.1080/13545701.2015.1023330 

Author: Ismaël Fofana

Abstract:

The 2007–8 surge in oil prices has created concern about its impacts on poor and vulnerable populations in developing countries. Government management of the energy crisis was shown to be important in reducing adverse impacts. This study uses an applied general equilibrium framework to examine alternative policy and external shocks with the recent surge in oil prices in South Africa through a gender lens. Simulation results show that although the 2007–8 energy crisis contributed to slowing down South African gross domestic product (GDP) growth and reducing employment and earnings, the distributional impact between men and women has been neutral. This neutrality is driven by an increase in capital inflows, which has mitigated the exchange rate depreciation owing to the oil price hike. Without an increase in capital inflows, the crisis would have significantly depreciated the exchange rate and contributed to decreasing women's market opportunities and increasing women's workload as compared to men.

Keywords: energy policy, Gender, household economics, Time use

Topics: Economies, Economic Inequality, Poverty, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Governance, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2015

Citation:

Babalola, Folaranmi Dapo. 2010. "Harnessing Energy Crisis and Gender Empowerment: Impacts of Household Energy Consumption Pattern on Women's Welfare and Education." Paper presented at the International Conference organized by United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI), Dakar, May 3-7.

Author: Folaranmi Dapo Babalola

Annotation:

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Education, Gender, Women, Health, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2010

Citation:

Glazebrook, Trish. 2011. “Women and Climate Change: A Case-Study from Northeast Ghana.” Hypatia 26 (4): 762–82.

Author: Trish Glazebrook

Abstract:

This paper argues that there is ethical and practical necessity for including women's needs, perspectives, and expertise in international climate change negotiations. I show that climate change contributes to women's hardships because of the conjunction of the feminization of poverty and environmental degradation caused by climate change. I then provide data I collected in Ghana to demonstrate effects of extreme weather events on women subsistence farmers and argue that women have knowledge to contribute to adaptation efforts. The final section surveys the international climate debate, assesses explanations for its gender blindness, and summarizes the progress on gender that was made at Copenhagen and Cancun in order to document and provoke movement toward climate justice for women.

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, International Organizations, Justice, Political Participation Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2011

Citation:

Author: Christiana O. Johnson

Annotation:

"Paradoxically, grassroots opposition is often at its most intense in villages where the DFID community forestry project has been working most vigorously. The Forestry Commission and the DFID Community Forestry Management Project acknowledge youth's periodic 'wars' against project and Park staff, but seem (gender?) blind to growing resistance by an even more marginalised social category - women from the poorest two-thirds of households - who object to forest alienation and clear felling. Women do most of the farming and non-timber forest products harvesting, but in many forest edge villages they are a politically and jurally subordinated category; they are denied customary rights to own and manage land cleared inside thick forests that their sisters in more remote tropical high forest villages still claim and enforce" (Johnson, 2003, p. 160).

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, International Organizations, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2003