中国转型时期贫困发生的特点

自改革开放以来 ,中国进入社会的转型时期。在这一时期 ,贫困的发生出现了一些新的特点 ,本文从八个方面对这些特点进行了描述 ,并作了简要的分析。其目的在于提高反贫困的自觉性和针对性 ,尽量平稳地完成我国社会的转型。     

Reaching the unreached? Good governance and welfare reform politics in Delhi,India

Good governance scholarship has been preoccupied with the donor-driven conditionalities imposed on aid-receiving developing countries. Limited attention has been given to power struggles and resistance from government actors (bureaucrats and politicians) to embrace internally driven good governance programmes. To address this gap, this article ethnographically examines a good governance initiative of the Delhi government (India) to reform its welfare system in partnership with NGOs. The study indicates that the conflict between government and non-governmental actors over the authority to govern the poor eventually maintained the status quo of the welfare system while the poor remain marginalised.     

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.     

Sustainable rural livelihoods approach for climate change adaptation in Western Odisha,Eastern India

The economy of Odisha is primarily agrarian. Over 80% of the population of Odisha live in rural areas, where levels of poverty are higher than in the state's towns and cities. They depend for their livelihoods on farming and collecting forest products. During the dry season, many migrate elsewhere in Odisha and nearby states in search of temporary work as labourers. Odisha has the highest proportion of inhabitants from scheduled tribes and scheduled castes of all the states in India (39.9% compared to 24% nationally). These groups are marginalised and experience high rates of poverty, low levels of education and poor health. They are highly vulnerable to climate change, due to poverty and dependence on climate-sensitive livelihoods in a vulnerable region. The Western Odisha Rural Livelihoods Project sought to reduce poverty by improving communities' water resources, agriculture, and incomes. Communities were involved throughout and are now better able to respond to climate variability (both droughts and heavy rains). The Government of Odisha took full ownership of the project and state and national governments subsequently adopted approaches used by WORLP.     

Lessons of endogenous leadership in Nigeria: innovating to reduce waste and raise incomes in the cassava processing and goat-keeping systems

Agricultural innovations are increasingly emerging from African research scientists. This paper looks at an innovation developed by animal scientists at the University of Agriculture Abeokuta in Nigeria. They identified a method for drying cassava peels, which creates an income source for rural women, reduces environmental waste, and raises the income of goat herders by transforming the cassava waste into animal feed. Initially funded by a World Bank grant, this paper addresses the challenges of securing donor funding for local innovations and presents an argument for a new model of development that supports locally driven solutions to current development issues.     

Best practice for rural food security projects in Southern Africa?

It has been widely believed that commercialisation is the solution to food insecurity in rural Africa. Project designs have attempted to set up agricultural cooperatives and encourage entrepreneurial farmers. Yet the problems revealed in the 1950s are still widespread. In a counter-perspective, some have argued for the relevance of subsistence and low-input agriculture. This article examines three NGO projects in South and South-eastern Africa which prioritise food security through household subsistence, using low-input technologies, along with an encouragement to produce a surplus for cash. We look at what these projects share and why their strategies work.     

Exploring the interface between community development and cooperative development within South Africa – a challenge of theory,practice and policy

During the past few years within South Africa there has been a proliferation of state-led community development initiatives tasked to form community-based cooperatives. It is into such a context that research was conducted during 2011–13 into how South African community development workers understand and conduct their professional practice in relation to cooperative formation.

Findings from the research consider issues such as: a dilemma of statecraft – working within instrumental contexts; the emotional work required of the practitioner; and, finally, confusing the developmental process. The discussions contribute to both theory-building and practice wisdom, while also contributing to South African cooperative policy.     

Is the East European “underclass” feminized?

Results of national surveys carried out in East-European countries convincingly showed that after the fall of communism the gender gap in earnings remained substantial. Following the same analytical framework here I explore a range of issues concerning the gender gap in membership in what I define as the “underclass” in 6 post-communist societies. The basic question is to determine whether or not such a gap exits. I find considerable cross-national variation in the odds of female/male membership in the underclass: women in Poland, Russia and Hungary appear to be most heavily over-represented in this category, while in Bulgaria and Slovakia, the effect of gender does not exist. In addition, the explanation for this gap cannot be found in the intergenerational transmission of poverty, in differences in marital status, and other social–demographic attributes commonly employed in quantitative studies. It is only the lower educational status of women, living in rural areas, and older age, which significantly interact with relatively higher representation of women in the underclass. After controlling for several characteristics of a person’s socio–economic position I found that in four countries, namely in Poland, Russia, Romania and Hungary, a statistically significant net effect of gender remains which provides solid evidence for the feminization of the underclass in these societies.     

“十四五”时期我国社会救助制度改革的目标与任务

“十四五”时期我国完成现阶段脱贫攻坚任务后将开启以解决相对贫困问题为目标的新的贫困治理阶段,社会救助制度在此期间应该发挥更加积极的作用。本文在总结“十三五”时期我国社会救助发展成绩和短板的基础上,提出了“十四五”时期社会救助改革与发展的基本目标和主要任务。本文认为,“十四五”时期社会救助应该转向以治理相对贫困为目标,继续提高社会救助的公平性,着眼于更高的社会效益和运行效率。为此,“十四五”时期应该提升社会救助的贫困识别标准,扩大社会救助的行动体系,优化社会救助制度体系,加强服务救助体系建设,并加强和优化社会救助的管理体系。     

复合治理:地方脱贫进路的一个理论解释——基于153个脱贫摘帽县的扎根研究

准确诠释精准脱贫战略实践以来的地方治理经验是一项亟待推进的研究议题。论文以153个脱贫摘帽县作为分析样本,基于扎根方法提炼“复合治理”分析性概念诠释地方脱贫经验。“复合”属性表明地方减贫过程受到多重机制共同作用而形塑出复杂叠加的治理样态,具体表现为:(1)中央政府建构“刚性时间约束”要件,为地方政府“复合治理”提供外在驱动力;(2)贫困县党委、政府调用“党政统合”形式凸显任务首位、塑造体制联动效应,它是“复合治理”的组织轴心;(3)“复合治理”实践运作依托于横向维度“利益整合”与纵向维度“政治关联”,前者表征政府与市场主体建构治理共识以形成长效治理机制,后者表征地方政府将外生性政治权威嵌入村庄场域提升治理合力。“复合治理”为精准脱贫实践提供了一个理论视角,后续研究应强化对2020年后相对贫困治理实践的实证解读。