Martin Prowse

The Chronic Poverty Report 2008/09: Escaping Poverty Traps

Over the last five years, in an era of unprecedented global wealth creation, the number of people living in chronic poverty has increased. Between 320 and 443 million people are now trapped in poverty that lasts for many years, often for their entire lifetime. Their children frequently inherit chronic poverty, if they survive infancy. Many chronically poor people die prematurely from easily preventable health problems. For the chronically poor, poverty is not simply about having a very low income: it is about multidimensional deprivation – hunger, undernutrition, illiteracy, unsafe drinking water, lack of access to basic health services, social discrimination, physical insecurity and political exclusion. Whichever way one frames the problem of chronic poverty – as human suffering, as vulnerability, as a basic needs failure, as the abrogation of human rights, as degraded citizenship – one thing is clear.Widespread chronic poverty occurs in a world that has the knowledge and resources to eradicate it. This report argues that tackling chronic poverty is the global priority for our generation. There are robust ethical grounds for arguing that chronically poor people merit the greatest international, national and personal attention and effort. Tackling chronic poverty is vital if our world is to achieve an acceptable level of justice and fairness. There are also strong pragmatic reasons for doing so. Addressing chronic poverty sooner rather than later will achieve much greater results at a dramatically lower cost. More broadly, reducing chronic poverty provides global public benefits, in terms of political and economic stability and public health. The chronically poor are not a distinct group. Most of them are ‘working poor’, with a minority unable to engage in labour markets. They include people who are discriminated against; socially marginalised people; members of ethnic, religious, indigenous, nomadic and caste groups; migrants and bonded labourers; refugees and internal displacees; disabled people; those with ill health; and the young and old. In many contexts, poor women and girls are the most likely to experience lifelong poverty. Despite this heterogeneity, we can identify five main traps that underpin chronic poverty.

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.

Integrating reflexivity into livelihoods research

Much development research is not explicit about its methodology or philosophical foundations. Based on the extended case method of Burawoy and the philosophy of critical realism, this article discusses a methodological approach for reflexive livelihoods research that overcomes the unproductive social science dualism of positivism and social constructivism. The approach is linked to a livelihoods framework, and a sequence of research methods that can be iterated in light of research questions.

Improving the quality of development assistance:What role for qualitative methods in randomized experiments?

While randomized experiments can be valuable tools in evaluating aid effectiveness, research designs limit the role of qualitative methods to ‘field visits’ or description of contexts. This article suggests expanding the role of qualitative methods and highlights their advantages and limitations relative to survey methods. It reviews a range of qualitative methods and suggests that life histories are compatible with the internal and external validity criteria of randomized experiments. It illustrates this with a case study of their proposed use in an evaluation of the promotion of Jatropha curcas, a second-generation biofuel, in Malawi.

Locating and extending livelihoods research

Much poverty and development research is not explicit about its methodology or philosophical foundations. Based on the extended case method of Burawoy and the epistemological standpoint of critical realism, this paper discusses a methodological approach for reflexive inductive livelihoods research that overcomes the unproductive social science dualism of positivism and social constructivism. The approach is linked to a conceptual framework and a menu of research methods that can be sequenced and iterated in light of research questions.

Climate‐Change Adaptation in Ethiopia: To What Extent Does Social Protection Influence Livelihood Diversification?

Social‐protection programmes like the Productive Safety‐Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia can play a positive role in promoting livelihoods and enhancing risk management. This article uses propensity score matching to estimate its effect on income diversification. The results suggest that receiving transfers from the PSNP, on average, did not increase farm or non‐farm income but significantly increases natural‐resource extraction (one component of off‐farm income). While these results should be treated with caution, they suggest that the PSNP may not be helping smallholders diversify income sources in a positive manner for climate adaptation. The article concludes by arguing for the promotion of positive forms of income diversification and the further investigation of the PSNPs influence on autonomous adaptation strategies.

Social protection and climate change: emerging issues for research, policy and practice

This article lays the foundation for this special issue on social protection and climate change, introducing and evaluating the ways in which the individual articles contribute to our understanding of the subject.

A history of tobacco production and marketing in Malawi, 1890-2010

During the past century tobacco production and marketing in Nyasaland/Malawi has undergone periods of dynamism similar to changes since the early 1990s. This article highlights three recurrent patterns. First, estate owners have fostered or constrained peasant/smallholder production dependent on complementarities or competition with estates. Second, the rapid expansion of peasant/smallholder production has led to large multiplier effects in tobacco-rich districts. Third, such expansion has also led to re-regulation of the marketing of peasant/smallholder tobacco by the (colonial) state. The article concludes by assessing whether recent changes in the industry – such as district markets, contract farming with smallholders, and the importance of credence factors – have historical precedents, or are new developments in the industry.

Agricultural Growth, Poverty Dynamics and Markets

Agricultural growth is a particularly important pathway for addressing the needs of the chronically poor who, as a group, are particularly reliant on agriculture. In summarising key findings on agricultural growth and poverty reduction from country studies commissioned by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), this paper suggests that agricultural growth has been a surprisingly important component of poverty exits, and also finds evidence that agricultural growth helps prevent entries into poverty.

What role for qualitative methods in randomized experiments

The vibrant debate on randomized experiments within international development has been slow to accept a role for qualitative methods within research designs. Whilst there are examples of how „field visits? or descriptive analyses of context can play a complementary, but secondary, role to quantitative methods, little attention has been paid to the possibility of randomized experiments that allow a primary role to qualitative methods. This paper assesses whether a range of qualitative methods compromise the internal and external validity criteria of randomized experiments. It suggests that life history interviews have advantages over other qualitative methods, and offers one alternative to the conventional survey tool.