Kate Bird

Livelihoods and Chronic Poverty in Semi-Arid Zimbabwe

Abstract Remoteness and geographic (natural, physical, human and social) capital are contrasted with social and political exclusion in explaining persistent rural poverty. We found that persistent poverty was strongly associated with the structural poverty of Zimbabwe’s semi-arid communal areas. Relative urban proximity assisted income diversification and improvement in a very poor, socially and politically excluded area. Less excluded but remote areas remained poor but not as poor as the excluded population. Livelihoods changed and diversified more in the nonremote area, speeding poverty reduction as measured by an index of perceived change. We conclude with what policy options and sequence might support the inclusion of chronically poor people.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty: An Overview

The distinguishing feature of chronic poverty is its long duration. It might be argued that the most extreme form of chronic poverty is that which persists over an entire course of life or even across generations. In this chapter, the international literature on the intergenerational transmission (IGT) of poverty is reviewed in order to identify the key factors associated with the IGT of poverty and to identify any gaps in our understanding.

Vulnerability, Poverty and Coping in Zimbabwe

This paper uses five life histories from three locations in Zimbabwe—one peri-urban, one urban and one rural—to provide a window on current processes of impoverishment and adverse coping. Each case and location highlight key aspects of Zimbabwe’s recent economic and political turmoil. Together the cases suggest that, similar to Hoddinott’s work on the persistence of the 1993-94 rainfall shock in rural Zimbabwe, above and beyond increased mortality rates and morbidity levels, current adverse forms of coping are creating widespread irreversible wellbeing losses. The persistent effects of the current crisis surely adds weight to arguments that the international community should be more, rather than less, proactive in delivering aid to the Zimbabwean people, despite the politicization of aid and logistical difficulties.

Fracture Points in Social Policies for Chronic Poverty Reduction

This paper examines the fracture points, or areas of weakness and failure, in social policy formation - from agenda setting through to policy formation and its legitimisation. It suggests why it is that despite clearly identified severe and widespread problems, which have been shown to drive and maintain poverty and which are also clearly associated with marginalisation and vulnerability, policy makers may still fail to generate adequate responses. Social policies have been selected as the focus of this study because they are generally weakly addressed by the development and poverty policies of both donors and developing country governments. Five illustrative case studies in the paper identify the political economy and administrative barriers to policy innovation and implementation in Uganda and India, and from this analysis we draw conclusions of broader application. The selected issues are disability; mental illness; alcohol dependency; inheritance systems that privilege inheritance through the male line, and dispossess women as a result; and the near destitution of older people without support. These have not been selected because they necessarily affect a larger number of people than other issues or because they necessarily have the strongest causal link with chronic poverty, marginality or vulnerability, but rather because they represent a wide range of different groups of people and the policy responses to them are illustrative of the different fracture points in the policy formation and implementation process. Nevertheless, these issues are of considerable importance to many poor people in developing countries, and may prevent more orthodox approaches to poverty reduction - growth, health, education - from having their intended effects.

Inheritance: A Gendered and Intergenerational Dimension of Poverty

This collection of articles contains new and important findings concerning the scale and significance of asset transfers through inheritance among different populations, as well as the ways in which inheritance affects economic and social status and mobility. Evidence exists of women commonly losing access to assets when properties are redistributed following a spouses death. This and the household effects of gaining or losing access to heritable property highlight the gendered and intergenerational dimensions of inheritance. As an introduction to the collection, this article provides an overview of how inheritance has been understood in poverty‐related policy and research up to now. We then synthesise what the new findings presented in this collection tell us about inheritance as a crucial factor in womens poverty and the intergenerational transmission of poverty, highlighting what other researchers and policy‐makers can take from this research to address the gendered and intergenerational dimensions of inheritance in different contexts.

Chronic Poverty and Understanding Intra-Household Differentiation

Until recently the household was taken to be an undifferentiated entity for the purposes of data collection and social and economic analysis. Even where researchers want to look at intra-household differentiation it can be difficult due to inadequate individual level data on dietary intake, anthropometric measures, decision-making, time allocation, etc. An examination of the intra-household dynamics is capable of highlighting how resources are generated, controlled and distributed in a household. What detail is lost if we use the household as our main unit of analysis in the Chronic Poverty Research Centre? How important is this for policy makers, planners and practitioners, when we use the household as a unit?

Chronic Poverty in Semi Arid Zimbabwe

This paper examines the causes of chronic poverty in the remote rural areas (RRAs) of Zimbabwes semi-arid communal lands. We found that persistent poverty was strongly associated with the structural poverty of Zimbabwes semi-arid communal areas. Relative urban proximity (non-remoteness) assisted income diversification and improvement in a very poor, socially and politically excluded area. Less excluded but remote areas remained poor but not as poor as those in the excluded area. Livelihoods changed and diversified more in the non-remote area, speeding poverty reduction as measured by an index of perceived change. The paper explores what can be done to improve links between policy-makers and programme designers and poor farm households at risk from drought and examines whether diversification into non-farming occupations offers an exit route from poverty. The paper suggests that Zimbabwes poor are substantially located in the semi-arid regions. These areas have been neglected by both the state and the private sector. Our findings indicate a massive decline in well-being and consumption between 1993 and 1998 and a failure to rebuild assets after the devastating 1991 drought. We found that semi-arid economies are largely unmonetised as huge swathes of semi-arid Zimbabwe have retreated into subsistence. Markets are not generally sufficiently organised or attractive to engage poor people: barter dominates as a form of exchange and poor households make few cash-based transactions through the market. Key findings are that: The very poorest households have very limited non-farm or off-farm livelihood activities, indicating that for them, improvements in their incomes from agriculture are crucial if their well-being is to improve - either that or new low skill employment opportunities Contrary to expectations for an economy dominated by subsistence production, households with large numbers of people in them as well as those with large numbers of economically active adults are more likely to be poor. Despite attempts to provide a safety net during the 1991-92 drought government grain loans and food-for-work programmes were too limited to be effective. Many poorer households have land lying fallow due to insufficient draught oxen and labour shortages - primarily due to migration and HIV/Aids. The livelihood portfolios which generated the best recovery from drought were waged, nonfarm and mixed farm and non-farm with proximity to urban areas. For most households the value of retained output was more significant than cash income from crop/livestock sales, by factors of between 3 and 10. Lastly we suggest a number of areas for pro-poor policy intervention, including social protection and a focus on improved delivery of social services, (appropriate) agricultural extension and pro-poor financial sector reform.