Poverty Alleviation Policies
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The cases in this section address the interaction between income distribution, poverty, food security, and nutrition and illustrate how government action can influence all of these through conditional transfers programs, policies to facilitate migration out of agriculture, and a series of other policies to influence income distribution and poverty.
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Item PROGRESA: An Integrated Approach to Poverty Alleviation in MexicoGantner, Leigh (CUL Initiatives in Publishing (CIP), 2007)In 1997 the government of Mexico implemented PROGRESA (Programa de Educación, Salud, y Alimenación), an integrated approach to poverty alleviation through the development of human capital. PROGRESA was one part of a larger poverty alleviation strategy, and its role was to lay the groundwork for a healthy, well-educated population who could successfully contribute to Mexico’s economic development and break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. The program offered conditional cash transfers to the rural poor in exchange for sending their children to school and for regular attendance at health clinics and pláticas (small group sessions focusing on health and nutrition education). The conditional cash transfers replaced many earlier programs focused on poverty alleviation through the delivery of food subsidies and other in-kind transfers, which for political and logistical reasons often did not reach the rural poor in great numbers and were largely regarded as inefficient. The conditional cash transfers were demand-driven interventions that sought to remove many of the practical barriers and opportunity costs rural families faced in attending health clinics and sending their children to school (for example, children were often taken out of school to earn income for the family). The program sought to work with program beneficiaries and enable them to take responsibility for their own family’s welfare.Item Income Disparity in China and Its Policy ImplicationsCheng, Fuzhi (CUL Initiatives in Publishing (CIP), 2007)China’s economy has witnessed considerable achievements since economic reforms were initiated in 1978. Average overall gross domestic product (GDP) has grown approximately 9 percent annually during the past two decades. Coinciding with this rapid economic growth is a marked increase in income inequality. In recent years China has had alarmingly high income disparity levels and has become one of the countries with most unequal income distribution in the world.Item Migration in Rural Burkina FasoWouterse, Fleur (CUL Initiatives in Publishing (CIP), 2007)Migration plays an important role in development and as a strategy for poverty reduction. A recent World Bank investigation finds a significant positive relationship between international migration and poverty reduction at the country level (Adams and Page 2003). Burkina Faso, whose conditions for agriculture are far from favorable, has a long history of migratory movement, and migration within West Africa has long taken place in response to drought and low agricultural productivity. In recent decades, migration to destinations outside the African continent and in particular to Western Europe has become more important for migrants from Burkina Faso.