Other Poverty Study

351 items available

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Ethnic Minority Poverty in Vietnam

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-05-15) Baulch, Bob ; Nguyen, Thi Minh Hoa ; Nguyen, Thi Thu Phuong ; Pham, Thai Hung

Although economic reform has brought remarkable progress in poverty reduction in Vietnam, the scale and depth of ethnic minority poverty in Vietnam presents one of the major challenges to achieving the targets for poverty reduction set out in the Socio-Economic Development Plan, as well as the millennium development goals. The authors first review a series of monetary and non-monetary indicators which show the living standards of the ethnic minorities are improving but still lag seriously behind those of the majority Kinh-Hoa. The minorities' lower living standards result from the complex interplay of overlapping disadvantages, which start in utero and continue until adult life. Next an analysis of the drivers of the ethnic gap, in terms of both differences in characteristics and differences in returns to those characteristics, is undertaken. Mean and quantile decompositions show that at least a half of the gap in per capita expenditure can be attributed to the lower returns to characteristics that the ethnic minorities receive. The reasons underlying such differences in returns are discussed, drawing on both quantitative analysis and the large number of qualitative studies on ethnic issues in Vietnam. Finally, some of the short and longer term policy measures which the authors believe could help to counter ethnic disadvantages in the nutrition, education, and employment sectors are discussed. The authors also emphasize the importance of promoting growth that is geographically broad and socially inclusive without which, the current disparities between the Kinh-Hoa and the ethnic minorities will continue to grow.
Mexico - Improving Productivity for the Urban Poor

(World Bank, 2009-04-01) World Bank

This report is part of an ongoing dialogue between the World Bank and Secretaria de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL) on poverty reduction. It builds on the findings and messages of the World Bank poverty programmatic reports, which included a poverty assessment, detailed follow-up analysis of urban and rural poverty, social protection, and poverty and decentralization. This report responds to a request from the SEDESOL for support in refining its programmatic approach to poverty reduction via further analysis and more detailed recommendations and guidance regarding the next generation of poverty reduction/social development programs. This report is the first of three technical pieces agreed with SEDESOL as part of the work program on increasing the productivity of the poor. The two remaining pieces are: a) reviewing international evidence and experience on selected policies and programs; and b) developing the implication for social development/poverty reduction policies and programs in Mexico. This report begins with a short summary of main findings. Chapter one analyzes recent trends in urban poverty, with emphasis in the recovery in poverty levels after the mid-1990s peso crisis. Chapter two discusses the characteristics of the urban poor and their labor market performance. Chapter three reviews the legal and regulatory environment and its affects on labor market performance. Chapters four to six provide assessments of selected interventions to improve the income and job opportunities of the poor, and offers suggestions that could better their results. The last chapter concludes and discusses areas of future work.
Human Development in Uganda : Meeting Challenges and Finding Solutions

(Washington, DC, 2009-02) World Bank

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set ambitious targets for economic and social development, earmarking eight broad targets. Uganda appears to be on track to meet four of these goals by 2015: halving the poverty rate, eliminating gender disparities in primary school, halving the number of people without safe drinking water, and reversing the spread of AIDS. The country s performance is off track, however, in achieving substantial reduction in infant, child and maternal mortality, halving the number of people without access to sanitation facilities, eliminating gender disparities in secondary school, and achieving 100 percent primary school enrolment. This report seeks to identify challenges to improvement of human development outcomes, and to suggest ways of dealing with these challenges in order to improve service delivery, and therefore progress in human development indicators. It examines how well Uganda has moved toward achieving its PEAP targets for human development, focusing on three sectors: education, health care, and water and sanitation. The report argues that the key to improvement in social services - whether it be education, health care, or water and sanitation - is a new more efficient service delivery framework, a framework with improved links among the policymakers who shape broad goals, the providers of the services, and the customers who are the recipients.
Romania : Poverty Monitoring Analytical and Advisory Assistance Program, First Phase Report, Fiscal Year 2007

(Washington, DC, 2007-11) World Bank

The objective of this report is to contribute towards institutional capacity building for regular monitoring and analysis of poverty, as well as other indicators of living conditions and social inclusion. This report analyzes the poverty trends and profile using the national absolute poverty line, which measures changes in the level of welfare and allows for a more straightforward interpretation of comparisons over time. Chapter 1 presents an overview of poverty dynamics using both relative and absolute measures of poverty, and explores the reasons for the observed difference in trends between the two measures. Chapter 2 investigates the relationship between economic growth, inequality and poverty in Romania during the period 1995 and 2006.
Cambodia - Sharing growth : Equity and Development in Cambodia, Equity Report 2007

(Washington, DC, 2007-06-04) World Bank

Cambodia's changing distribution of income-related outcomes is consistent with the process of transition from a planned to an open market economy, and the accompanying growth of incomes. This transformation has promoted better resource reallocation, expanded the spectrum of gainful activities, and widened the distribution of earnings. Aided by robust economic growth and improved capacity for implementing public policies, Cambodia has seen most other welfare outcomes (notably health and education indicators) become more equal over time. While a radical shift of development strategy is not necessary, improvements in public spending and selected interventions can further promote equality of opportunity, and public policies can promote an expansion of private investment opportunities. The findings of the report point to the following sets of government actions: (i) continuing economic reform to promote investments and sustain growth; (ii) protecting land tenure through systemic titling, and addressing landlessness related poverty through various measures (e.g., social land concessions; non-farm employment); (iii) building upon progress to date with further improvements in the quantity, quality and affordability of schooling and healthcare; and underpinning service delivery reforms with stronger and more responsive state institutions through continued reforms of public financial management and merit-based civil service pay.
Armenia : Geographic Distribution of Poverty and Inequality

(Washington, DC, 2007-06) World Bank

This report is part of the Armenia Programmatic Poverty Assessment work. It is jointly produced by the National Statistics Service (NSS) of the Republic of Armenia and the World Bank. Armenia has achieved impressive economic growth and poverty reduction since the late 1990s. The country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown at an astounding annual rate of over 11 percent since 2002. The main objectives of Armenia poverty are: (i) to inform policy making at lower administrative levels by providing poverty and inequality rates at smaller geographic areas than it is currently possible with the available data sources; and (2) to build local capacity to develop and update poverty maps, particularly in the National Statistics Services of the Republic of Armenia (NSSA). The report is helping exploit the strengths of household survey and census population data. The country's GDP the measures of poverty and inequality to understand relative poverty in different geographic regions and communities. The results of poverty mapping do not adequately represent the poverty rates at the community level in rural areas, as most rural communities of Armenia tend to be small. The report focuses on the predictions of welfare at the rayon administration level, it also provide estimates for marzs as well as for the whole country to compare census based predictions with those estimates that are obtained directly from the 2004 Integrated Living Conditions Surveys (ILCS).
Ethiopia : Urban Labor Markets, Challenges and Prospects, Volume 1. Synthesis Report

(Washington, DC, 2007-03) World Bank

This report focuses on a central element of Ethiopia's challenge: the urban labor market. The headlines, which are detailed in the report, are dramatic, and include the following: open unemployment has been persistently high and average duration is long, though recent trends suggest improved performance. There is a significant segmentation-two relatively privileged sector in the public and formal private sectors, a massive informal sector and a large stock of unemployed. Individual transitions across these states have increased over time, but remain relatively limited. Formal sector employment in urban areas is dominated by the state and manufacturing sector employment remains among the lowest in the world. The majority of those who are working in urban areas are engaged in informal sector activity, typically as a last resort but also as a persistent state. Average wages are low, especially for the unskilled and in the informal sector, but productivity is also very low. Women are especially disadvantaged in the labor market-and typically face worse outcomes with higher levels of unemployment, lower wages, and a greater concentration in the informal sector. Many youth seem to enter the labor market through low quality jobs in the informal sector or into unemployment. The structure of this report is as follows. Volume I synthesizes the emerging findings and policy implications while Volume 2 presents a series of thematic chapters which summarize the underlying background work. In this volume the next chapter sets the stage for the analysis by clarifying the metrics of the key labor market indicators. Chapter 3 looks at the structure of urban labor markets and what has hindered their ability to generate jobs despite the acceleration of growth in the last few years. Chapter 4 focuses on the challenge of urban unemployment, while Chapter 5 looks at the effects of migration on urban labor markets. The final chapter in this volume reviews the emerging policy agenda.
Ethiopia - Urban Labor Markets : Challenges and Prospects, Volume 2. Background Paper

(Washington, DC, 2007-03) World Bank

This report focuses on a central element of Ethiopia's challenge: the urban labor market. The headlines, which are detailed in the report, are dramatic, and include the following: open unemployment has been persistently high and average duration is long, though recent trends suggest improved performance. There is a significant segmentation-two relatively privileged sector in the public and formal private sectors, a massive informal sector and a large stock of unemployed. Individual transitions across these states have increased over time, but remain relatively limited. Formal sector employment in urban areas is dominated by the state and manufacturing sector employment remains among the lowest in the world. The majority of those who are working in urban areas are engaged in informal sector activity, typically as a last resort but also as a persistent state. Average wages are low, especially for the unskilled and in the informal sector, but productivity is also very low. Women are especially disadvantaged in the labor market-and typically face worse outcomes with higher levels of unemployment, lower wages, and a greater concentration in the informal sector. Many youth seem to enter the labor market through low quality jobs in the informal sector or into unemployment. The structure of this report is as follows. Volume I synthesizes the emerging findings and policy implications while Volume 2 presents a series of thematic chapters which summarize the underlying background work. In this volume the next chapter sets the stage for the analysis by clarifying the metrics of the key labor market indicators. Chapter 3 looks at the structure of urban labor markets and what has hindered their ability to generate jobs despite the acceleration of growth in the last few years. Chapter 4 focuses on the challenge of urban unemployment, while Chapter 5 looks at the effects of migration on urban labor markets. The final chapter in this volume reviews the emerging policy agenda.
Decentralized Service Delivery for the Poor

(Washington, DC, 2006-08) World Bank

This report on the decentralized service delivery for the poor is structured in two volumes. Volume one is a cross-sectoral report, the core report. The first part includes the program and performance overview which describes the programs (including their poverty goals) and their process of decentralization, the overview of expenditures, the access of the poor to these services, and the evidence on the quality of services. The second part of the core report is on the institutional dimensions of decentralized service delivery which includes the World Development Report (WDR) 2004-type framework of accountability, adapted to the situation in Mexico. Volume two contains the sectoral pieces. For this report-the third phase of a programmatic series of studies on poverty in Mexico-Mexico's social cabinet requested that the Bank analyze service delivery of a specific list of programs that are essential to the government's development strategy in the context of decentralization. The elements of the government's strategy considered here-basic education, health care for the population without social security coverage, local social infrastructure, and local rural development-all aim directly or indirectly to reduce poverty. Both social and economic services shape the opportunities of poor people. Social services contribute to human capital formation and risk management, while economic services shape access to markets. The analysis presented in this report does not pretend to be exhaustive of decentralized service delivery for the poor. Important areas for future research include the following: (i) analysis of the compliance of the law or of the detail regulations in programs; (ii) systematic comparisons of state interventions in the sectors analyzed in this report; (iii) analysis of the implications and requirements to implement per capita funding in health and education, and freedom to choose providers; and (iv) systematic compilation of information at the state and municipal level on the performance of the programs.
Ukraine : Poverty Assessment, Poverty and Inequality in a Growing Economy

(Washington, DC, 2005-12) World Bank

This Poverty report is aimed at improving the understanding of poverty in Ukraine, and providing linkages between growth, the evolution of economic sectors, and poverty. The main findings can be summed up as follows: An absolute poverty line and a revised consumption aggregate -- jointly developed with Ukraine experts -- indicate that around 19 percent of the population lived in poverty by 2003. While in 1999 Ukraine had a poverty incidence higher than Poland, Russia, Lithuania, or Bulgaria, by 2003 it was the lowest compared with these countries. The overall improvement, however, has been paralleled by an increasing poverty gap between rural and urban households, reflecting the fast but unbalanced economic growth: The growth experience has not changed the rather stagnant level of employment. The improvement in labor markets are associated to gains in productivity and efficiency with resulting wage gains. There is also increased differentiation within workers since the fraction of underemployment has also increased, reflecting partly the subsistence agriculture, and precarious labor markets in some small towns. The combined effects of higher productivity but lower employment in commercial farms left real incomes in agriculture lagging behind other sectors. Rural areas had a slower reduction in poverty due to the combined effect of weather shocks, and restructuring in agriculture. The government has played a critical role in reducing poverty by increasing substantially the social insurance transfers. Other government transfers have become better targeted but still have very limited coverage. The reduction of poverty, however, provides a window of opportunity to reform the safety net system in order to effectively target the poor.