Who Are Pakistan's Militants and Their Families?

This article presents results of a survey of 141 Pakistani families of slain militants. This survey collected data about the militants and their households. While derived from a convenience sample, these data are unprecedented and offer a glimpse into the backgrounds of militants and the families who (mostly) supported their decision to join the jihad. Most militants served and died in Kashmir and seem to be “high quality” militants in that they, like their heads of household, are well educated and not predominantly coming from seminaries, as is often claimed. This analysis suggests that while the militants merit attention, so do the families that produce militants.     

The welfare impacts of market channel choice by smallholder farmers in Tanzania

This article analyses the impact of market channel choice on household welfare by maize and pigeon pea smallholder farmers in Tanzania, using a multinomial endogenous treatment approach. The study utilises farm household-level data collected from a randomly selected sample of 700 smallholder farmers. The results show that participation with traders in nearby markets and wholesalers in nearby towns have a positive effect on consumption expenditure per capita relative to brokers at the farmgate, for both maize and pigeon pea-farming households. The study suggests that interventions that aimed at inclusion of smallholder farmers in more profitable markets could improve household welfare and reduce poverty among rural households.     

Global financial crisis and women's micro-lending innovations in Pakistan and Malawi

Microcredit/finance as a tool to eradicate poverty and empower women in developing countries has been a darling of developed countries. The success stories from microcredit borrowers from Bangladesh, India, and Africa, and global endorsement of microcredit programmes have largely ignored local indigenous initiatives managed by groups of women in rural and urban areas. Evidence from fieldwork in Pakistan and Malawi suggests that although systematically recorded history of such indigenous initiatives is lacking, women in these settings would attest that there exists generational knowledge about such small-scale, group-based micro-lending which can be used to enhance livelihoods in rural households.     

Capital Account Liberalization,Financial Structure,and Access to Credit in Latin America

This article revisits the question of whether capital account liberalization improves access to credit by advancing and testing a theory of how the structure of the financial sector shapes the willingness and ability of banks and governments to repress the domestic financial sector. In a highly concentrated financial sector, banks and governments are more willing to reap the benefits of financial openness by suppressing liberalizing reforms to domestic financial policies, and they can also better coordinate with one another to stifle these reforms compared to when the financial sector is diffuse. Using a panel dataset of Latin American and Caribbean countries, I find that capital account liberalization leads to a decrease in loans to private firms and households and an increase in loans to governments and state-owned enterprises when the financial sector is highly concentrated. Only when the financial sector is diffuse does capital account liberalization lead to reforms in entry barriers, directed credit programs, and banking sector supervision, which extends to improved access to credit for private firms and households.     

Confronting earthquake risk in Japan—are private households underinsured?

Despite the fact that Japan is an earthquake-prone country and Japanese people are known to be highly risk averse, less than half of Japanese households are insured against earthquake risk. Based on a survey among experts in the field, the article gives an overview of earthquake insurance schemes and evaluates possible reasons for the relatively low level of insurance and ways for improvement. Experts agree that more insurance is desirable, but they share a less clear opinion about the causes and possible remedies. More research is warranted.     

Who are those people we call farmers? Rural Kenyan aspirations and realities

Rural Kenyan households have different aspirations and income portfolio strategies, including agricultural intensification and income diversification. This article reports on a study that interviewed 624 households to explore rural aspirations and derive lessons for agricultural technology development and transfer. Though few households specialised in farming, many households self-identified as farmers and aspired to increase their agricultural income. Despite the prevalence of agricultural aspirations, few aspired for their children to have a future in farming. Combining aspirations with potential to invest, the article provides suggestions for targeting agricultural interventions. We need to start listening better to those people we call “farmers” to develop and offer innovations that meet their realities.     

Terrorism,Counterterrorism, and the Rule of Law

While fighting insurgency, both state and non-state groups depend on the local population for valuable resources such as food, intelligence, and security. By using a repertoire of subsistence coping mechanisms available to households in the context of the local political economy as an indicator of grievances and mechanisms of interactions between local households and the state and insurgents, district level data from Nepal on Maoist conflict is used to test hypotheses regarding state and insurgent violence. The analysis confirms that the state was more likely to kill people in a district where the number of households that borrowed to cope with subsistence was high. The Maoists were more likely to kill in a district with a higher number of subsistence sufficient households.     

Impacts of displacement on urban livelihoods: a railway project in Metro Manila

This article seeks to understand the ways in which urban livelihoods are affected by development-induced displacement, with a particular focus on residents remaining in the locality. Through an empirical case study of a railway upgrading project in Metro Manila, the article investigates livelihood impacts of large-scale demolition and displacement, which varied depending on whether the physical capital of remaining residents declined due to land clearance and the extent to which they relied on the local livelihood network established with displaced settlers. In comparison, households remained intact when they had little engagement with the local informal economy.     

Micro-enterprise development initiatives and entrepreneurial competencies,innovativeness, and social capital in Malaysia

This article examines the effect of participation in development programmes designed for women micro-entrepreneurs on the development of entrepreneurial competencies, innovativeness, and social capital. The study employed a cross-sectional design and quasi-experimental approach, and collected data from 417 women micro-entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Findings reveal that the participants possess a significantly higher level of social capital, innovativeness, and entrepreneurial competencies. Development organisations should therefore focus on redesigning their policies and programmes to improve the breadth and depth of the development programmes that they offer, which ultimately lead to an improvement in the social-economic condition of low-income households in Malaysia.     

Microfinance and women's empowerment: an ethnographic inquiry

Within the last two decades microfinance has been widely adopted as one of the best development strategies to reduce poverty and empower women in many developing countries. Drawing on ethnographic research undertaken in Ethiopia, this article elucidates the complexities of microfinance processes, and argues that current microfinance practice does not facilitate the participation of women in decision-making over the use and management of loans as well as the income they generate from running small enterprises. The article illustrates that women are engaged in running small-scale economic activities at home that produce low returns, and they have limited access to lucrative markets. It also demonstrates that due to a discriminatory household division of labour, women are overworked in their households and in their enterprises. Through engaging in a mode of representation (ethnography) that allows specific critical voices to be heard, the article contributes toward tempering the current enthusiasm for the widely expanding microfinance industry.     

Making housemaid remittances work for low-income families in Sri Lanka

In rural Sri Lanka, remittances from housemaids working in the Middle East figure prominently in household livelihood strategies. This article examines the impact of housemaid remittances on living standards and suggests measures to maximise the benefits of remittances for recipient households while minimising the personal and financial costs of migration. The effectiveness of migration as a household strategy depends on a decent overseas job with a reliable income, a reduction in the costs of migrating and remitting, and the responsible management of household welfare and finances by recipients, including the maintenance of local income sources while the migrant is away.     

Foreign direct investment and the risk of regime transition in autocracies

Economic globalization and, in particular, foreign direct investment (FDI) have often been considered to be catalysts for economic reform and political liberalization. It is argued that openness to foreign investment spurs democratization by empowering pro-liberalization actors and undermining elite cohesion. This article explores and tests three alternative hypotheses linking FDI and autocratic regime survival. The liberalization hypothesis claims that FDI promotes democratization. The state-capture hypothesis suggests that FDI, by increasing the value of power, may raise the risk of an autocratic transition. Lastly, the stabilization hypothesis, contrary to the first two, claims that FDI can enhance dictatorships’ stability by opening new opportunities for distributing benefits to regime elites. The empirical analysis, covering about 100 countries for the time period 1970–2008, uses data on autocratic breakdowns and transition types to test the above hypotheses. The reported evidence does not support the liberalization or the state-capture hypothesis. FDI is found to reduce the likelihood of democratic transitions.     

Everyday health security practices as disaster resilience in rural Bangladesh

Health security is a relatively new concept in terms of how it is practised in disaster-prone locales. We observed 10 rural households in Bangladesh for four months using informal interviews, field diaries, and observation. The findings suggest that the everyday practises of health security involve the capabilities of “caring for themselves” in resource-constrained contexts. Understanding how households care for themselves prior to and during disasters presents an opportunity to examine how improved health might reduce the effects of disasters, ill health, and poverty. Some interventions are proposed to improve health security for poorer households in general and women in particular.     

The roles of community seed banks in climate change adaption

Although community level seed-saving initiatives have been around for about 30 years, until recently they have received little attention in the scientific literature on climate change adaptation and plant genetic resources. Based on research experiences from various countries, this article argues that community seed banks can enhance the resilience of farmers, in particular of communities and households most affected by climate change. Community seed banks can secure improved access to, and availability of, diverse, locally adapted crops and varieties, and enhance related indigenous knowledge and skills in plant management, including seed selection, treatment, storage, multiplication, and distribution.     

Gender and locational dimensions of shocks on household welfare: empirical evidence from Nigeria

Many households in developing countries are exposed to numerous adverse events. The absence of a complete market for insurance and imperfect risk-sharing among households can lead to a significant effect on household welfare from shocks. This article examines the heterogeneous effects of income shocks on household welfare using two waves of the Nigerian General Household Survey Panel datasets from 2010/11 and 2012/13. The study adopted the household fixed effects approach, and the results show that households in the top quintile experienced an increased consumption expenditure compared to those in the bottom quintile in terms of rainfall distribution. There are also heterogeneous effects of income shocks on the gender and locational characteristics of the households.     

Off-farm work and food security status of farming households in Ghana

This study assessed the effect of participation in off-farm work on the food security status of farming households in the Northern Region of Ghana. Primary data were solicited from 324 farming households in the Tamale metropolis and Tolon district using semi-structured questionnaires. The treatment effects of both income and food security status were estimated using propensity score matching and double-robust methods. The empirical results suggest that participation in off-farm activities increased household daily calorie consumption. These results have implications for the development of off-farm ventures for the benefit of the farming households.     

Funding development in Rwanda: the survivors' perspective

Why has the humanitarian world already forgotten the people of Rwanda? And why do the survivors of the Rwandan genocide continue to be sidelined, particularly those women who were raped and deliberately infected with HIV/AIDS in a campaign of systematic sexual violence? The focus of humanitarian organisations shifted from Rwanda after 1994, and these women – most of whom have to maintain their households alone – are needlessly dying because they have no access to treatment. Humanitarian and development efforts will not achieve lasting benefits without better coordination and the ability to act on lessons learned.     

The differential experience of Mozambican refugee women and men

This study examines differences in Mozambicans mens' and womens' experiences of living in refugee camps in Malawi late in 1990. The aim is to identify the differences in impact by gender in assistance policies and programs. In early 1991 there were an estimated 1 million Mozambican refugees in Malawi. This study is based on quantitative and qualitative data collection. The study sample included Chiumbangame and Mwawa in Mangochi District (refugee camps) and Ntcheu (settlements integrated with Malawi's population). Findings indicate that 17% of the 2006-person sample were female-headed households. Men in general had more years of schooling than women. 34% of the women and 47% of men completed at least 1 year of school and 10% of women and 24% of men completed 2 years. At all ages boys were more likely to be enrolled than girls. 4.1% of the 847 persons over 18 years old were receiving some training, but only 1 person had increased household income due to training. Refugee income was nil for women and about 20 cents/day for men. The mean daily income for individuals from female headed households was about half that of income from male headed households. Women were more likely to be working and spent more time in productive work than men. Women worked in household maintenance. Women in income programs gave housework chores to younger females in the household. The income programs were of low quality and products had low marketability. Girls helped with housework from an early age, while boys helped as teenagers. 44.2% of female headed households and 34.9% of members of male headed households reported health problems. This study identifies the ways in which refugee policy worsens gender inequalities in economic production and work burden.     

Analysis of off-farm work decisions among smallholder farm households in Burkina Faso

This article investigates off-farm work decisions by smallholder farm households. Using data on 1,101 households from Burkina Faso, it demonstrates that in addition to the usual household socio-demographic characteristics, remittances, access to information and beneficiary of specific training affect off-farm work decisions, as well as rainfall factors and idiosyncratic health shocks. Community characteristics such as accessibility and number of inhabitants are also key factors. While suggesting that off-farm work is less likely to be undertaken for accumulation purposes, these results have important policy implications. In particular, policy measures should consider each segment as a separate entity.