In this report, ESCAP explores the future of urbanization in Asia and the Pacific, focusing on the dynamic shifts in the region’s urban landscape. It highlights the region’s demographic transformations, including population ageing, and the persistent challenges of urban poverty and inequality. The analysis covers urban areas of all sizes, …
This report presents the results of a collaboration between FAO and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), at the University of Oxford. The first part of the report proposes a framework for measuring multidimensional poverty in rural areas and describes the motivation for the Rural Multidimensional Poverty Index …
This paper is a contribution to the empirical literature that seeks to understand the factors contributing to poverty reduction in developing countries. Studies have sought to explain changes in poverty between two points in time by decomposing aggregate change in poverty into component factors, viz. growth of consumption expenditures or …
Agrifood systems cannot be transformed unless there is gender equality. That was the simple message underlying the launch of a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the African Union that puts the spotlight on women's role in agrifood systems. The report, Leaving …
Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) is a centrally sponsored programme that aims at eliminating rural poverty through promotion of multiple livelihoods for each rural poor household. The Mission seeks to reach out to 8-10 crore rural poor households (using SECC data and process of Participatory Identification …
Given the imminent challenges climate change poses for poverty reduction and sustainable development, the need for coherent and integrated climate risk management approaches that address the underlying causes of vulnerability – and that simultaneously increase the ability of the rural poor to adapt to and cope with natural hazards - …
The 2019 edition of the World Water Development Report (WWDR 2019) entitled ‘Leaving No One Behind’ seeks to inform policy and decision-makers, inside and outside the water community, how improvements in water resources management and access to water supply and sanitation services are essential to overcoming poverty and addressing various …
On cotton farms in Telangana, India, performance draws attention to farmers’ work not merely as an economic activity but as directed toward different kinds of audiences and in conversation with different roles,stages, and scripts. Importantly, this performance is contextualized by a neoliberal seed market where a seasonal deluge of accelerated …
Who are the world’s poor? This paper presents a new global profile of multidimensional poverty using three specifications of multidimensional poverty. The paper draws comparisons with the global monetary poverty profile and with the new World Bank measure of combined monetary and non-monetary poverty; discusses how global poverty differs by …
Over 270 million people in India moved out of poverty in the decade since 2005-06 and the poverty rate in the country nearly halved over the 10-year period, a promising sign that poverty is being tackled globally, according to latest estimates. The 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released by …
This study offers empirical evidence on the rural-urban gap in the context of growing inequality in Asia. First, China and India explain the trends in regional inequality given their large populations, signifying their importance as major contributors. Overall, China’s income inequality is characterized by rural-urban disparity, but the inequality within …
Poverty in Vietnam continues to fall, particularly amongst ethnic minorities, who saw their rate of poverty decline significantly by 13 percentage points, the largest decline in the past decade, says a new World Bank report. According to Climbing the Ladder: Poverty Reduction and Shared Prosperity in Vietnam, by the World …
Official poverty figures for Kenya put poverty incidence at 36% in 2015/16 – a reduction in poverty of 11 percentage points since 2005/06 – however major factors remain to be overcome to further improve the translation of growth to poverty reduction. The focus of this report is on household poverty …
The last budget of the Modi government comes against the backdrop of severe agrarian and rural distress. It is also the last opportunity to undo the damage caused to the rural economy by this government in the last four years. While the government has finally acknowledged the gravity of the …
This paper examines the transformation and diversification of the rural economy in Asia, focusing on the role and importance of the rural non-farm economy and employment in economic transformation and related diversification of employment and income opportunities for rural communities. Looking at the linkages across sectors (agriculture and others) and …
While microfinance companies have been studied and there is a growing consensus that they exclude the poorest, the impact of government microfinance programmes is relatively less understood. The National Rural Livelihoods Mission, which aims to reduce rural poverty by organising women into self-help groups, building capacity and providing access to …
India, a country with high concentrations of poor and malnourished people, long promoted a cereal-centric diet composed of subsidized staple commodities such as rice and wheat to feed its population of more than a billion. Today, however, dietary patterns are changing. Policy makers, researchers, and health activists are looking for …
Examine temporal and spatial trends in public and private expenditure on agriculture in India, and its welfare effects in terms of agricultural growth and mitigation of rural poverty. Covering the period 1981 to 2014, the study explores the relationship between public and private investments and farm input subsidies at the …
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underscore the need to address broad inequalities in their quest to ‘leave no-one behind.’ Income Inequality Trends in sub-Saharan Africa: Divergence, Determinants, and Consequences is a groundbreaking United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study that provides policy guidance …
A report released by UNICEF has revealed that even though Ghana has been able to eradicated extreme hunger and poverty, the situation of general poverty is still high in rural areas. The report, which covers 2006 to 2013 also revealed that despite the eradication of extreme poverty in Ghana, rural …
