Core techniques and cross-cutting issues

2015

IntroductionWidespread poverty has been Pakistan's chronic and persistence problem since independence. Whether taking micro perspective of poverty using the narrow definition of lack of adequate food and income or the macro perspective of lack of access to opportunities, the number of people in poverty in Pakistan falls between the range of a quarter to a half of the total population.The Human Development Report 2014 ranks Pakistan at 146th position out of total 187 countries. Multidimensional Poverty Indices (MPI) records that 45.6 percent population in Pakistan lives below the poverty line. While an additional 14.9% of the total population of the country livesnear poverty line. MPI further highlights that the breadth of deprivation, indicatingan average of deprivation scores experienced by people, stands at 52 percent.During 1980 and 2013 Pakistan's Human Development Index value increased from 0.356 to 0.537, which indicates an increase of 50.7 percent or an average annual...

2020

UiO International Development Studies Final Essay. Social inequality has always existed. And though it has been argued that this is a chicken-egg dilemma, poverty has been both a consequence and a cause of multiple and diverse inequalities in the whole world. Many negative consequences come from poverty for countries, regarding social justice and, above all, fulfillment of human rights. Consequently, many strategies have been designed and implemented, by and from national and international powers in order to try to diminish and finally, end, this phenomenon. This essay will define poverty in the context of development, it will describe briefly the trends of both national and international policies for reducing this phenomenon and it will be argued that most of this strategies are targeting the consequences after poverty, rather than, its causes. Therefore it will be proposed to address the causes underneath poverty not only to understand it, but also to have better opportunities to reduce it.

2004

Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) is an assessment tool which has been promoted late in 1980s in response to limitations of the economic approach of previous poverty assessments (Robb, 2002). Criticisms on Structural Adjustment Programmes consequences on the poor began to raise and this led to the social dimension adjustment programs supported by international agencies in 1987 (Robb, 2002). Later, the World Development Report (WDR) in 1990 followed by the Assistance Strategy to Reduce Poverty in 1991 laid the foundation of PPA. While the WDR recommended ways in which poverty could be alleviated, the policy paper proposed the undertaking of PPA in countries to analyse the nature and the causes of poverty and so enable countries to develop strategy for poverty reduction (Robb, 2002). A tremendous exercise involving 23 countries research exercise and a review of existing PPAs was initiated to support WDR (Norton, 2001). Robb also notes that there was also a pressing need of including poor into poverty analysis and action outside the World Bank. Bulletin of Vulnerability published by the International Development Studies in 1989 and Putting Last first by Chambers in 1983 also contributed to the shift in thinking of poverty by emphasising on the multi-dimensional characteristics of poverty (Robb, 2002). PPA has been different from previous poverty assessments as it introduces a participatory element into the process by including the poor’s perception of poverty (Kamruzzaman, 2009). Several PPAs had been undertaken around the world including in Africa. This essay critically analyses PPA benefits and limitations and reviews the extent to which it has influenced policy decision-making process. The first section provides a background information on PPA, the second one examines the impact of PPA and third section reviews limitations of the approach. It recognises the benefit of PPA as it has opened space for ordinary people and CSOs to engage with government, donors, and development partners towards understanding dynamics of poverty. However, it argues that the positive impact of PPA in some countries has mostly depended on the political environment in such countries. The review further asserts that sub-Saharan countries have missed the opportunities to institutionalise such approach for an effective policy action in countries.

This paper offers a critique on the politics of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and their framework, processes, and content. The paper challenges the fundamental assumptions of the poverty reduction approach and the underlying politics of the international financial institutions with a view to seek the answer to question as to why the development programmes initiated under the auspices of the World Bank and IMF failed to address the issue of poverty in the developing countries, especially in Pakistan. The ontological and epistemological basis of poverty as defined in poverty reduction strategies are of a special interest. The paper focuses on measures such as trade liberalization, free market and privatization of public sector institutions, suggested as remedies to treat the menace of widespread poverty, and reviews the min the backdrop of Western cultural ideals such as political liberalism, the instrumental conception of social action and value neutrality of scientific knowledge. Key Words: Politics, Poverty, privatization, Political Liberalism, Positivism, Value-neutrality

studies, again under the auspices of the UNDP/HDRO, of the importance of privatisation and markets, of liberalisation, of NGOs. These studies spanning the 1990's have shaped the new approach to governance as the crucial tool for poverty reduction. [Details of the Occasional Papers are in the Bibliography.] The top down logic of early development efforts has to be recast to take account of additional dimensions: Accountability and transparency in government's transaction with its citizens Need for devolving and decentralising power to allow for a participative approach to policy making Inclusion of non governmental structures representing the community's private and collective lives Enhanced Understanding of the Role of Markets in facilitating job creation and income generation, in reducing rent seeking activities and similar distortions to resource allocation Harnessing the energies of the poor who are self organising to fight their own poverty as part of their daily lives.