Publication: Azerbaijan Republic : Poverty Assessment, Volume 2. The Main Report
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2003-06-04
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2013-07-31
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Poverty remains a major challenge in Azerbaijan, where income poverty is spread throughout the country. This Poverty Assessment reviews available household data, which suggest particular demographic characteristics of the poor - no significant differences in the poverty rate by gender of the household head were recorded. However, the report conveys the internally displaced people, are a core group of particularly vulnerable people, heavily dependent on state transfers, and donor assistance. Moreover, there are serious concerns about the non-income indicators of poverty, including the quality of health care, and education, as well as access to basic services. The report however highlights that the macroeconomic outlook for Azerbaijan is positive, and, it should be possible to achieve significant impact on poverty over the next ten years, provided appropriate policies are followed. The oil and gas windfall should be a major benefit, contributing to lasting poverty reduction, and raising incomes. The strategy for poverty reduction stipulates the need for increased employment rates, and productivity in the non-oil economy, accompanied by measures to strengthen, and improve the provision of basic services, and infrastructure. Likewise, a well-targeted social assistance provision for vulnerable groups should be considered, if a sustaining economic growth is to be attained, to be accompanied by targeted programs, focused on education and health programs. In addition, positive economic growth should be based on a vibrant private sector, resulting from a more liberal business environment, improved financial intermediation and credit availability to the enterprise sector, supported by a clear legal framework, and implementation of the privatization program, to enhance investments in human and physical capital. Regarding the rural sector, while the strategy should aim at improving the incomes of the rural population, it should however emphasize the development of non-agricultural activities, i.e., food processing, and services in rural areas.
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“World Bank. 2003. Azerbaijan Republic : Poverty Assessment, Volume 2. The Main Report. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14719 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Azerbaijan Republic : Poverty Assessment, Volume 1. Summary and Conclusions(Washington, DC, 2003-06-04)Poverty remains a major challenge in Azerbaijan, where income poverty is spread throughout the country. This Poverty Assessment reviews available household data, which suggest particular demographic characteristics of the poor - no significant differences in the poverty rate by gender of the household head were recorded. However, the report conveys the internally displaced people, are a core group of particularly vulnerable people, heavily dependent on state transfers, and donor assistance. Moreover, there are serious concerns about the non-income indicators of poverty, including the quality of health care, and education, as well as access to basic services. The report however highlights that the macroeconomic outlook for Azerbaijan is positive, and, it should be possible to achieve significant impact on poverty over the next ten years, provided appropriate policies are followed. The oil and gas windfall should be a major benefit, contributing to lasting poverty reduction, and raising incomes. The strategy for poverty reduction stipulates the need for increased employment rates, and productivity in the non-oil economy, accompanied by measures to strengthen, and improve the provision of basic services, and infrastructure. Likewise, a well-targeted social assistance provision for vulnerable groups should be considered, if a sustaining economic growth is to be attained, to be accompanied by targeted programs, focused on education and health programs. In addition, positive economic growth should be based on a vibrant private sector, resulting from a more liberal business environment, improved financial intermediation and credit availability to the enterprise sector, supported by a clear legal framework, and implementation of the privatization program, to enhance investments in human and physical capital. Regarding the rural sector, while the strategy should aim at improving the incomes of the rural population, it should however emphasize the development of non-agricultural activities, i.e., food processing, and services in rural areas.Publication Brazil - Attacking Brazil's Poverty : A Poverty Report with a Focus on Urban Poverty Reduction Policies (Vol. 2 of 2) - Main Report(Washington, DC, 2001-03-31)The first central message of this report is that Brazil has over the last years achieved great progress in its social policies and indicators. The second central message is that poverty remains unacceptably high for a country with Brazil's average income levels. The worst remaining income poverty is mostly concentrated in the Northeast region, and in the smaller urban and rural areas. The third central message is that, with decisive action, Brazil can achieve ambitious targets for further improvements in social indicators, including the objective of reducing the rate of extreme income poverty by 50 percent by the year 2015. Poverty is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Recognizing the rich literature on poverty in Brazil, this report attempts a few specific contributions. First, it presents a new 1996 poverty profile with a breakdown by city size, incorporation of the imputed value of owned housing, and regional price deflators. Second, it provides analysis of the incidence of selected public social spending based on the 1996/7 "Pesquisa sobre Padroes da Vida (PPV)." 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Most strikingly, poverty is highest among ethnic minorities, which comprise 60 percent of the poor. Roma are overrepresented among this group. this trend highlights the need for Bulgaria's poverty reduction strategy to focus on measures to address inclusion of ethnic minorities within society. Despite the improvements since 1997, there are indications of underlying fault lines which threaten the trend of rising living standards. In particular, if the high level of unemployment is maintained, or continued to increase, poverty will go up. While unemployed households have managed to stay out of poverty by relying on the safety net and private coping strategies, the close link between poverty and unemployment indicates that these trends are not sustainable. Similarly, the importance of the skills gap suggests that declining access to education will contribute to poverty over the long-term. 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Seizing the opportunity afforded by the oil boom, Azerbaijan initiated large public sector investment programs and supportive policies to increase wages and social protection transfers to the population, and institutional reforms aimed at modernizing the economy. These efforts translated into double-digit growth and an impressive reduction in poverty. The report underscores that the government's targeted social assistance program has been successful in channeling public transfers to the most needy. On the other hand, high dependence on oil revenues, compounded by the current global economic crisis, presents challenges to maintaining growth and could jeopardize the gains made in poverty reduction. Moreover, while Azerbaijan has made significant progress in building capacity to redistribute the benefits of growth, significant challenges remain in developing the human capital of the population to participate actively in future growth and to close the productivity gap with its comparators in the post crisis world.Publication Bosnia and Herzegovina : Poverty Assessment, Volume 1. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2003-11-21)The report consists of two volumes. The first volume contains the main Poverty Assessment report, integrating various data sources and inputs from local counterparts. The second volume provides an in-depth analysis of the Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS), jointly implemented by the Bank, and the Republika Srpska Statistical Institute (RSIS), the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Statistical Institute (FIS), and the Bosnia and Herzegovina State Agency for Statistics (BHAS). This report presents the most comprehensive analysis of poverty in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) to date, whose calculations suggest that poverty - defined as lack of adequate consumption - is quite substantial, affecting every fifth citizen. Poverty is substantial compared to some neighboring countries. Nevertheless, and despite the country's post-conflict situation and its low officially measured level of GDP, there is no extreme poverty. Inequality in material well-being also appears to be quite moderate by international standards and, the non-income dimensions of poverty are also generally not extreme in BiH. The analysis finds that a sizable proportion of the population faces the risk of falling into poverty, and it identifies risk factors that may thrust a non-poor household into poverty: a) precarious earning sources, because the predominant living arrangement features a single-earner household; b) widespread health risks, including uninsured financial risks, and lingering post-conflict risks; c) violation of human rights, discrimination and corruption; d) limited geographical mobility; e) limited access to formal safety nets; and, f) worn-out stock of household assets and limited access to credit. Physical security remains an issue, economic security is also a problem, and, powerlessness and voicelessness impede the capacity of poor people to break out of a vicious circle of impoverishment. To reduce poverty, selectivity, stability and growth are outlined, particularly focusing on prudent monetary policy, and responsible fiscal management.
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