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  • Failure vs. Displacement: Why an Innovative Anti-Poverty Program Showed No Net Impact in South India.

    Jonathan Bauchet, Jonathan Morduch, and Shamika Ravi.

    ABSTRACT

    Authors analyze a randomized trial of an innovative anti-poverty program in South India, part of a series of pilot programs that provide “ultra-poor” households with inputs to create new, sustainable livelihoods (often tending livestock)

    CITATION

    Bauchet, Jonathan, Jonathan Morduch, and Shamika Ravi. 2015. “Failure vs. Displacement: Why an Innovative Anti-Poverty Program Showed No Net Impact in South India.” Journal of Development Economics 116: 1–16.

    Journal Articles
  • Generating Employment in Poor and Fragile States: Evidence from Labor Market and Entrepreneurship Programs

    Christopher Blattman and Laura Ralston.

    ABSTRACT

    The world's poorand programs to raise their incomesare increasingly concentrated in fragile states. We review the evidence on what interventions work, and whether stimulating employment promotes social stability. Skills training and micronance have shown little impact on poverty or stability, especially relative to program cost. In contrast, injections of capitalcash, capital goods, or livestockseem to stimulate selfemployment and raise long term earning potential, often when partnered with low-cost complementary interventions. Such capital-centric programs, alongside cash-for-work, may be the most eective tools for putting people to work and boosting incomes in poor and fragile states. We argue that policymakers should shift the balance of programsin this direction. If targeted to the highest risk men, we should expect such programs to reduce crime and other materially-motivated violence modestly. Policymakers, however, should not expect dramatic eects of employment on crime and violence, in part because some forms of violence do not respond to incomes or employment. Finally, this review nds that more investigation is needed in several areas. First, are skills training and other interventions cost-eective complements to capital injections? Second, what non-employment strategies reduce crime and violence among the highest risk men, and are they complementary to employment programs? Third, policymakers can reduce the high failure rate of employment programs by using small-scale pilots before launching large programs; investing in labor market panel data; and investing in multi-country studies to test and ne tune the most promising interventions

    CITATION

    Blattman, C., and L. Ralston. 2015. “Generating Employment in Poor and Fragile States:
    Evidence from Labor Market and Entrepreneurship Programs.” Unpublished paper.
    http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2622220.

  • Building Stable Livelihoods for the Ultra-Poor

    J-PAL and IPA Policy Bulletin

    ABSTRACT

    This article describes a multifaceted livelihood program that provided ultra-poor households in seven low- and middle-income countries with a productive asset, training, regular coaching, access to savings, and consumption support led to large and lasting impacts on their standard of living.

    CITATION

    J-PAL and IPA Policy Bulletin. 2015. “Building Stable Livelihoods for the Ultra-Poor.” Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab and Innovations for Poverty Action, Cambridge, MA.

  • Impact Assessment of Conditional Cash Transfers and Agricultural Credit on the Accumulation of Productive Assets by Rural Households in Peru.

    Cesar Del Pozo Loayza

    ABSTRACT

    This study focus on the impact of linking conditional cash transfers to agricultural credit on productive assets accumulation of rural households in Peru

    CITATION

    Loayza, Cesar Del Pozo. 2015. “Impact Assessment of Conditional Cash Transfers and Agricultural Credit on the Accumulation of Productive Assets by Rural Households in Peru.” Policy in Focus: Social Protection, Entrepreneurship and Labour Market Activation 12 (2).

    Multi-media Content
  • Entering the City Emerging Evidence and Practices with Safety Nets in Urban Areas

    U. Gentilini

    ABSTRACT

    Most safety net programs in low and middle-income countries have hitherto been conceived for rural areas. Yet as the global urban population increases and poverty urbanizes, it becomes of utmost importance to understand how to make safety nets work in urban settings. This paper discusses the process of urbanization, the peculiar features of urban poverty, and emerging experiences with urban safety net programs in dozens of countries. It does so by reviewing multidisciplinary literature, examining household survey data, and presenting a compilation of case studies from a 'first generation' of programs. The paper finds that urban areas pose fundamentally different sets of opportunities and challenges for social protection, and that safety net programs are at the very beginning of a process of urban adaptation. The mixed-performance and preliminary nature of the experiences suggest putting a premium on learning and evidence-generation. This might include revisiting some key design choices and better connecting safety nets to spatial, economic and social services agendas compelling to urban areas. The mixed-performance and preliminary nature of the experiences suggest putting a premium on learning and evidence-generation. This might include revisiting some key design choices and better connecting safety nets to spatial, economic and social services agendas compelling to urban areas. The mixed-performance and preliminary nature of the experiences suggest putting a premium on learning and evidence-generation. This might include revisiting some key design choices and better connecting safety nets to spatial, economic and social services agendas compelling to urban areas.

    CITATION

    Gentilini, Ugo. 2015." Entering the City: Emerging Evidence and Practices with Safety Nets in Urban Areas" . Social protection and labor discussion paper, no. 1504;. World Bank, Washington, DC. © World Bank.

    Working Papers
    ORGANIZATION
    World Bank
  • Transforming the Economic Lives of the Ultrapoor

    Clare Balboni, Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, and Upaasna Kaul

    ABSTRACT

    The importance of improving outcomes for the ultrapoor is emphasised in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whose first target is to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030. An intervention showing promise in helping the ultra-poor move onto a sustainable trajectory out of poverty, is a comprehensive livelihood programme providing a ‘big-push’ with complementary investments in productive assets and skills training. First pioneered by the NGO BRAC in Bangladesh, the programme has been replicated in 20 other countries. This brief describes key findings from a rigorous seven-year evaluation of the first of these livelihood programmes, BRAC’s ‘Targeting the Ultra-Poor’ programme in rural Bangladesh. Targeted households increase earnings by 37% and improve their consumption, savings, and asset accumulation. Results from Bangladesh are consistent with evidence from randomised evaluations of pilots in six other countries, that suggest BRAC’s approach improves outcomes for the ultra-poor across diverse contexts. Longer-term evaluations (four and seven years later) suggest long-run impacts may be even larger than two-year effects.

    CITATION

    Balboni, Clare, Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, and Upaasna Kaul. 2015. “Transforming the Economic Lives of the Ultrapoor”. IGC Growth Brief Series 004. London: International Growth Centre

    Briefs
    ORGANIZATION
    International Growth Center
  • Wage Labor, Agriculture-Based Economies, and Pathways out of Poverty: Taking Stock of the Evidence

    Bernd Mueller and Man-Kwun Chan

    ABSTRACT

    As USAID and other donors explore approaches and issues that can improve the poverty-reducing impact ofits market systems development work, labor markets—and in particular labor that is relevant to the poorest in rural, agriculture-based economies—emerge as a priority. Thus this LEO initiative on “Highlighting Labor in Agricultural Market Systems” aims to raise awareness and to develop practical resources to support better integration of labor into the practice of market systems development. As its first output, this report provides a stock-take on the current literature on employment and pathways out of poverty, with a special focus on rural wage labor. It also proposes some initial implications for programs in order to yield greater employment and poverty reduction impacts.

    CITATION

    Mueller, Bernd., and Man-Kwun Chan. 2015. “Wage Labor, Agriculture-Based Economies, and Pathways out of Poverty: Taking Stock of the Evidence.” Leveraging Economic Opportunities Report No. 15. ILO.

    Reports
    ORGANIZATION
    ILO
  • Generating Skilled Self-Employment in Developing Countries: Experimental Evidence from Uganda

    Christopher Blattman, Nathan Fiala, and Sebastian Martinez

    ABSTRACT

    We study a government program in Uganda designed to help the poor and unemployed become self-employed artisans, increase incomes, and thus promote social stability. Young adults in Uganda’s conflict-affected north were invited to form groups and submit grant proposals for vocational training and business start-up. Funding was randomly assigned among screened and eligible groups. Treatment groups received unsupervised grants of $382 per member. Grant recipients invest some in skills training but most in tools and materials. After four years, half practice a skilled trade. Relative to the control group, the program increases business assets by 57%, work hours by 17%, and earnings by 38%. Many also formalize their enterprises and hire labor. We see no effect, however, on social cohesion, antisocial behavior, or protest. Effects are similar by gender but are qualitatively different for women because they begin poorer (meaning the impact is larger relative to their starting point) and because women’s work and earnings stagnate without the program but take off with it. The patterns we observe are consistent with credit constraints.

    CITATION

    Blattman, Christopher, Nathan Fiala, and Sebastian Martinez. 2014. “Generating Skilled Self Employment in Developing Countries: Experimental Evidence from Uganda.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 129: 697–752. doi:10.1093/qje/qjt057.

    Journal Articles
  • How do safety nets contribute to social inclusion in Bangladesh? Evidence from the Chars Livelihoods Project and the Vulnerable Group Development programme

    Omar Faruque Siddiki, Rebecca Holmes, Ferdous Jahan, Fahim Subhan Chowdhury, and Jessica Hagen-Zanker

    ABSTRACT

    This study uses a social exclusion lens to analyse the effects of the Chars Livelihoods Programme in the chars, the Vulnerable Group Development in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. It tests assumptions about the role social protection can play in contributing to social inclusion, poverty reduction. The study used mixed methods, employed a quasi-experimental impact evaluation. The findings show that both the programmes have some positive effects on the immediate outcomes of social exclusion, poverty, particularly in terms of strengthening livelihood opportunities, improving food security,, strengthening social participation. However, limitations to the impact of these programmes on tackling the structural causes of exclusion, poverty are evident.

    CITATION

    Siddiki, Omar Faruque, Rebecca Holmes, Ferdous Jahan, Fahim Subhan Chowdhury, and Jessica Hagen-Zanker. 2014. How Do Social Safety Nets Contribute to Social Inclusion in Bangladesh? Evidence from the Chars Livelihoods Programme and the Vulnerable Group Development Programme. London: Overseas Development Institute.

    Reports
    ORGANIZATION
    BRAC, Overseas Development Institute
  • Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Deon Filmer and Louise Fox

    ABSTRACT

    Sub-Saharan Africa has just experienced one of the best decades of growth since the 1960s. Between 2000 and 2012, gross domestic product (GDP) grew more than 4.5 percent a year on average, compared to around 2 percent in the prior 20 years (World Bank various years). In 2012, the region's GDP growth was estimated at 4.7 percent- 5.8 percent if South Africa is excluded (World Bank 2013). About one-quarter of countries in the region grew at 7 percent or better, and several African countries are among the fastest growing in the world. Medium-term growth prospects remain strong and should be supported by a rebounding global economy. The challenge of youth employment in Africa may appear daunting, yet Africa's vibrant youth represent an enormous opportunity, particularly now, when populations in much of the world are aging rapidly. Youth not only need jobs, but also create them. Africa's growing labor force can be an asset in the global marketplace. Realizing this brighter vision for Africa's future, however, will require a clearer understanding of how to benefit from this asset. Meeting the youth employment challenge in all its dimensions, demographic, economic, and social, and understanding the forces that created the challenge, can open potential pathways toward a better life for young people and better prospects for the countries where they live. The report examines obstacles faced by households and firms in meeting the youth employment challenge. It focuses primarily on productivity, in agriculture, in nonfarm household enterprises (HEs), and in the modern wage sector, because productivity is the key to higher earnings as well as to more stable, less vulnerable, livelihoods. To respond to the policy makers' dilemma, the report identifies specific areas where government intervention can reduce those obstacles to productivity for households and firms, leading to brighter employment prospects for youth, their parents, and their own children.

    CITATION

    Filmer, Deon, and Louise Fox. 2014. Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Africa Development Series. Washington, DC: World Bank.

    Reports
    ORGANIZATION
    World Bank, Agence Française de Développement