|
|
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a leading agency in the development of the value chain approach and in making it more applicable to the small-farmer agriculture context
. If agribusiness development is to play a key role in reducing rural poverty, then governments will need to understand and have the capacity to create enabling conditions for agribusiness while also monitoring and taking necessary steps to protect and enhance the livelihoods of small scale farmers and others members of rural and urban communities likely to be affected by agribusiness and agro-industry development
Read More
|
|
|
An IDRC-funded shared learning effort helps farmers deliver fresh water —and the prospect of a brighter future — to impoverished villages in China’s Guizhou province
. In the early 1990s, Guizhou — one of China’s poorest provinces — implemented a government-run water management project, with many facilities being rebuilt or maintained by the state. There was little accountability, however, and no proper management or local control. Throughout the province, the project’s effectiveness was limited, and the impoverished villages of Changshun saw few benefits. Researchers at the Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GAAS), funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), decided to try a different approach — community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), involving participatory decision-making. CBNRM is based on the notion of shared learning. It assumes that local people who use the natural resources will have a strong vested interest in protecting them. Scientists work directly with these people to try to understand their problems and to help them find the best solutions
Read More
|
|
|
This issue of id21 insight focuses on pro-poor tourism and how far it really helps the poor:
- How pro-poor is tourism? New practices can reduce poverty: Pro-poor tourism should increase the benefits of the tourism industry for poor people
. It is a term increasingly used by several development agencies, but what does it mean in practice? This issue of id21 insights looks at how pro-poor tourism has developed and explores some myths and misconceptions that have arisen around this term.
Can the private sector mainstream pro-poor tourism? Businesses run tourism, from micro-enterprises to multinational companies. How companies conduct their business influences how far poor people benefit from tourism.
Black Economic Empowerment - The South African approach: Inequality and unemployment still largely occurs along racial lines in South Africa, despite the end of apartheid. The government is addressing this by promoting Black Economic Empowerment throughout the economy.Pro-poor tourism is part of this.
Government support in Lao PDR - How effective is it? Foreign exchange from tourism (over US$ 146 million in 2005) significantly benefits the national economy in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). This money stimulates local production and consumption in many sectors, including transport, agriculture and education, but does it benefit poor people?
Linkages and leakages - Local supply and imports: Tourism is a major global industry, but is it good for developing countries? Since long-haul tourism to developing countries started in the late 1960s, many commentators have persistently claimed that tourism scarcely benefits the hosts. One suggested problem is the high level of leakages out of the destination country.
Can all-inclusive tourism be pro-poor? A key aspect of pro-poor tourism is creating and - more importantly - maintaining employment opportunities for poor communities. All-inclusive tourism businesses and large hotels can provide jobs in developing countries. As such, they have a potentially important role in pro-poor tourism.
Community-based tourism - Failing to deliver? Community-based tourism was a popular intervention during the 'ecotourism' boom of the 1990s. It is now being suggested as a form of pro-poor tourism. However, few projects have generated sufficient benefits to either provide incentives for conservation - the objective of ecotourism - or contribute to local poverty reduction.
Read More
|
|
|
This issue of id21 insights focuses on remittances and how they can reduce poverty:
- Sending money home: Can remittances reduce poverty? At least US$232 billion will be sent back home globally by around 200 million migrants to their families in 2005, three times official development aid (US$78
.6 billion dollars). Moreover, migration and remittance experts argue that the unofficial transfers could be as large as formal flows. What impact is this having on poverty reduction.
Do remittances reduce poverty? International remittances to developing countries will total around US$167 billion in 2005, more than twice official aid flows. Despite the ever-increasing size of international remittances, little attention has been paid to their effect on poverty and income distribution in developing countries and many policy questions remain unanswered.
Improving health and education: Remittances encourage investment in education and health, especially for children. New research suggests they can help families break the cycle of poverty and improve living conditions for future generations.
Boosting economic growth: Remittances by international migrants to their countries of origin constitute the largest source of external finance for developing economies after foreign direct investment (FDI). Estimated official remittances are US$167 billion for developing countries in 2005, double total development aid.
New regulations restrict Somali remittances: Approximately one million Somalis send US$1 billion back home every year, a crucial source of income for most of the Somali population. New regulations, however, as part of the 'war on terror', are restricting the flow of remittances into the country.
A better quality of life? Remittances have an important role to play in the economic development of a country. Yet their impact is primarily seen at the regional and local level as a source of income to improve the wellbeing of thousands of households in migrant-sending countries.
Sending money home to Asia: Half the world's international migrants and most international labour migrants come from Asia. It is the main destination region for remittance flows from north to south, as well as within Asia from countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand. The scale of remittances in Asia is unknown, however, and few policies exist to maximise their developmental impact.
- Gender matters: Are remittance flows gender-neutral? Does it matter if the people involved in these transactions are male or female? Do remittances reshape gender relations?
Read More
|
|
|
This newsletter presents the overall conclusions from the environmental service incentive (ESIs) component of the Roles of Agriculture Project Phase II
. The objective is to draw policy implications and to deliver practical policy guidance to design, implement and enforce ESIs consistent with poverty alleviation in developing countries. A key conclusion is that ‘pro-poor ESIs’ needs to be defined clearly in order to avoid confusion over the concept. The main source of confusion is whether poverty alleviation is treated as an objective before intervention, or an consequence or outcome of ESIs. The paper gives policy guidance for pro-poor ESIs in the following areas:
- for the design of ESIs:
- defining targeting criteria for eligible areas;
- determining contract types and payment levels;
- establishing compliance requirements;
- finding sustainable financing sources;
- reducing transaction costs whilst for collecting information on scheme design;
- for the implementation of ESIs:
- addressing insecure or unclear land tenure;
- overcoming initial investment requirements;
- easing technical capacity complaints;
- reducing transaction costs for arranging and implementing a contract;
- for the enforcement of ESIs:
- establishing an effective punishment scheme to free-riding land owners;
- reducing transaction costs for monitoring a contract.
Read More
|
|
|
This issue of id21 insights focuses on children and poverty:
- Make childhood poverty history: About 600 million children worldwide are growing up in absolute poverty
. Over ten million children under five years of age die every year. Nearly one billion children will be growing up with impaired mental development by 2020.
Economic policy must recognise children: Macroeconomic policies have powerful effects on children. They shape public spending on basic services such as education and health and influence how households respond to changing economic conditions, often in ways that are not good for children. Yet policy making on the whole does not recognise child well-being as an objective or an outcome. Pro-child interventions relating to economic growth, trade and macroeconomic policy are critical to overcoming poverty.
Educating women = healthier children? What is the best way to improve the health of a nation's children? Community healthcare facilities, water supplies and sewerage systems are traditional targets for public investment. Peru's experience suggests that improving women's education is just as important.
Children's issues ignored in Ethiopia's PRSP process: Donors, governments and other groups acknowledge that addressing childhood poverty and labour is an important part of broader poverty reduction efforts. Yet, policies with a more comprehensive approach to tackling the multi-dimensionality of child poverty are rarely included in national poverty strategies.
Cash transfers can reduce childhood poverty: Forty percent of children in developing countries struggle to survive on less than one US dollar a day, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Childhood poverty often leads to long term vulnerability. It is associated with lower educational attainment and schooling which affects future earning potential and well-being. Cash transfers can protect people's well-being as well enable them to invest in their future.
Monitoring budgets for child rights: The Bill of Rights in South Africa's constitution gives special consideration to child rights such as basic nutrition and education, health care and social services. Is it possible to ensure that these rights are realised?
Dynamics of child poverty in the Kyrgyz Republic: The Kyrgyz Republic is one of the smallest and least developed of the newly created independent states of the former Soviet Union. It ranks 110 out of the 177 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI). In the late 1990s, 88 percent of the population were living on less than US$ 4 per day. Children make up nearly two-fifths of its population but child poverty has received little attention.
Does child labour always undermine education? Children are often forced to work due to chronic poverty. Globally, work is the main occupation of almost 20 percent of all children aged under 15. This is considered a major obstacle to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education by 2015.
‘High achievers’ prioritise social policy: Costa Rica, Cuba, Barbados, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Kerala (India) have succeeded in improving child welfare to a much higher level than might be expected given their national wealth. They are 'high-achievers' in social policy: in 50 years they have made advances in health and education that took 200 years in the industrialised world.
Read More
|
|
|
In this issue of id21, the focus is on people living in protected areas:
- People and protected areas: New agendas for conservation: For many threatened plants and animals, protected areas are a vital refuge in the face of declining natural habitats
. However, across the world they face increasing pressures. Some conservation policies are also disadvantageous for local people. What does the future hold for protected areas?
Making waves: Protecting marine and coastal areas involves many similar issues to terrestrial protected areas, including balancing conservation and development needs and managing tradeoffs between multiple users. However, they also present unique challenges: they often cross international boundaries and the high mobility or migration of many marine species makes protection beyond boundaries difficult.
Is forced displacement acceptable in conservation projects? Over ten million people have been displaced from protected areas by conservation projects. Forced displacement in developing countries is a major obstacle to reducing poverty. It should no longer be considered a mainstream strategy for conservation and only applied in extreme cases following international standards.
Learning to learn: Societies place a high value on addressing two of the world's most pressing problems - alleviating poverty and protecting the world's biological diversity. A lot of money has been spent on these two objectives, international treaties have been signed and countless organisations have devoted time to implementing funds in projects.
Protecting nature, culture and people: Indigenous peoples' traditional ownership and use of land and resources has often been eroded by protected areas. Their consent has rarely been sought for establishing protected areas on their lands, nor have they received adequate compensation. But are conservation organisations and government protected area agencies beginning to recognise the important role these peoples can play?
Agriculture vs protected areas: Agriculturalists strive to increase crop production to provide poor communities with incomes and a secure food supply whilst environmentalists want to expand protected areas and reduce the intensity of farming.
Tourism in Nepal: Tourism in the Greater Himalaya supports the local economy with foreign exchange and by creating opportunities for local employment. Mass and unregulated tourism, however, can cause environmental damage, particularly in ecologically fragile areas. Is ecotourism - responsible travel that aims to conserve the environment and improve local people's welfare - an effective compromise?
Governance of protected areas: The 2003 World Parks Congress and 2004 Programme of Work on Protected Areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity brought unprecedented attention to the concept of governance of protected areas, with crucial implications for conservation worldwide.
Read More
|
|
|
The tourism industry has established itself as one of the world?s major industries, one that offers significant opportunities for employment creation, local economic development and integration in to the international market
. Millions of poor people live in places that are also tourism destinations. But many tourism companies claim that poverty reduction is not their business. This brief explains why poverty does matter to tourism businesses and describes what companies ? both in the originating and destination countries ? can do to contribute to the global effort on poverty reduction.
This policy briefing paper is based on the report Pro-Poor Tourism Strategies: Making Tourism Work for the Poor by Caroline Ashley, Dilys Roe and Harold Goodwin (April 2001). Findings are based on six case studies of pro-poor tourism initiatives in South Africa, Namibia, Uganda, Nepal, St Lucia, and Ecuador.
Pro-poor tourism briefing No 2.March 2002 http://www.propoortourism.org.u
Read More
|
|
|
This issue of ETFRN News explores innovative financing mechanisms for conservation and sustainable forest management, whether in conceptual stage, under development, or operational
.
The newsletter defines innovative forest financing mechanisms as new ways and institutional set-ups to transfer financial resources from actors who are willing to pay for the generation and maintenance of ecological services, to local actors willing to accept payment, in exchange for sustainable forest management, or for refraining from the use of forest resources. The overview presented illustrates the large variety in mechanisms; the types of actors involved, the specific contexts for which they were designed and the types of benefits from environmental services they are capturing.
This newsletter is divided into seven thematic Sections:
- the subject of the introductory article in Section I is the role of economic valuation of forest environmental services in relation to the development of new mechanisms;
- market mechanisms and measures enabling the increase of private investments and use of market-based instruments, are dealt with in Section II;
- section III is dedicated to international transfer payments and the role of international (financial) institutions in facilitating the development and implementation of innovative financing mechanisms;
- the specific environmental services that seem to have the best potential for channelling financial resources; towards sustainable forest management include carbon sequestration; biodiversity conservation; and hydrological services;
- sections IV, V and VI present financing mechanisms based on these specific services. The corresponding articles often deal with market-based instruments promoting the development of new green markets;
- section VII investigates the role of financing mechanisms supporting sustainable forest management with regard to sustainable livelihoods and poverty alleviation.
Read More
|
|
|
|
