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In spite of the enshrining anti-poverty programs and objectives of the poverty eradication programs contained in India's five year plans, women's poverty in India, even after 58 years of independence, is glaring. This paper, based on a field survey, addresses the issues of economic constraints and the denial of women's access to productive assets in the form of land ownership and human capital such as education, skill-training. The article contributes to the overall picture of female poverty at the national level. The author finds an exaggerated emphasis being placed on women laborers and inadequate economic opportunities among them as the major obstacle to reducing female poverty. Because of these constraints and discrimination, women enter into the unorganized sector, i.e. the agriculture sector. This paper examines how lack of skills, heavy physical work of different types, long hours of work with limited payment, lack of guarantee of minimum wages, lack of job security, lack of minimum facilities at the work place are the characteristics of the informal sector which contribute to women's economic disempowerment. With regard to the economic position of Indian women, it is clearly evident that India is principally an agricultural economy, and despite their significant contributions to economic production, they are far from equal to men. Land, for example, is a critical asset in rural areas. Evidence points to gender disparities in access to this and other assets necessary for poverty reduction. Having rights to land is a crucial factor in determining how people will ensure their basic livelihood. In all cases women's more limited access to these assets hamper their efforts to reduce poverty and diminishes the effectiveness of poverty reduction more generally. Although the principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution (in its preamble with respect to fundamental rights, fundamental duties and directive principles) with respect to

'In this paper, Owen Barder raises fundamental questions about the purpose of aid transfers. For many donors the purpose is "poverty reduction" but in the relatively narrow sense of growth that reduces poverty. In fact poverty reduction has other dimensions, including enabling the poor to live better lives through long-term, redistributional transfers while their country is developing, even with programs that might not contribute to growth. Barder's key concern is that the focus on poverty reduction through growth ignores such key tradeoffs as that between reducing current and future poverty, and between addressing the causes and symptoms of poverty. The reality of these tradeoffs stares us in the face; this is an important paper for practitioners as well as students of the way the aid system works.'

Improving lives through the alleviation of poverty is central to the UNDP approach to development. Some 1.2 billion people around the world live on less than a dollar a day, while almost 850 million go hungry every night. Poverty is not just about money: lack of access to essential resources goes beyond financial hardship to affect people's health, education, security and opportunities for political participation. Solutions, then, need to address many dimensions while remaining targeted and measurable, and sensitive to the wider impact of poverty on women. At the same time, solutions must derive from local conditions and enhance local capacity to respond and adapt to new challenges.

Disasters are often portrayed as acts of nature, or of a natural order. Yet this is mostly far from reality. The major factors influencing disaster risks are human and social vulnerability, matched with the overall capacity to respond to or reduce the impact of natural hazards. Poverty is therefore a major factor increasing disaster risk, by increasing vulnerability to disasters and reducing existing coping capacities. It is only by addressing these two issues together that we can make the difference between a community trapped in a grinding poverty cycle, and one with secure lives and livelihoods. Full publication in PDF format (1.74MB), Number of pages: 85p

'What are the impacts of of parental death and chronic poverty on children's education and health in Indonesia? This paper estimates the short- and long-term effects of maternal and paternal death on children's school enrolment, educational attainment and health in Indonesia, and compare it with the effect of chronic poverty. The authors also investigate whether there are any gender dimensions of the effects.'

Improving the Measurement of Poverty

This Practice Note outlines a framework for human rights integration in poverty reduction and provides practical steps to guide UNDP programming. The framework is purposely kept generic, as it should be applicable to a range of country situations and programming modalities; whether the focus is on macroeconomics, trade policies, micro-finance, reporting on the Millennium Development Goals, or livelihood skills. Full Practice Note in PDF format (364kb); Number of pages: 19p

Even in hard times, it can make commercial sense for companies to develop markets that include poor people, and business models that address poverty. Businesses that create decent jobs, access to markets or goods and services that benefit low-income groups in emerging economies help to build healthier, wealthier, and more highly skilled communities. Those communities will provide the customers, suppliers, and employees that companies need for sustainable growth. Full paper in PDF format; Number of pages: 12p

poverty

Transforming natural resource wealth into sustained growth and poverty reduction : a conceptual framework for Sub-Saharan African oil exporting countries

Development strategies and rural development: Exploring synergies, eradicating poverty The Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol.36, No.1, January2009, 103-137

Although Jharkhand is among the less urbanized states of India, the state has been witnessing rapid growth of urban population in recent decades. As per the 2001 Census, 60 lakh persons comprising 22.25 per cent of the state's population were residing in towns and cities. It is estimated that the urban population of Jharkhand will grow rapidly to reach 93 lakh by 2026. Along with rapid urbanization, there is a rapid growth of the urban poor population in Jharkhand. As per estimates of the National Sample Survey Organization, 13.2 lakh persons comprising 20.2 per cent of the state's urban population is living below poverty line. However, estimates of the Jharkhand government put the slum population at around 40 per cent of the total urban population. The urban poor rarely benefit from the facilities in urban areas and are as deprived as those in rural areas. The health of the urban poor is considerably worse off than the non poor and is comparable to the rural figures. This wall chart presents health of the urban poor in Jharkhand compared with other population groups based on an analysis of the Third National Family Health Survey conducted in 2005-06. A wealth index has been developed based on 33 assets and household characteristics. The bottom quartile in urban areas is taken as the representative of the urban poor.

'Forty percent of the world's population lives on less than $2 per day, according to the World Bank. Yet even in the midst of the current economic meltdown, there is reason for new optimism in the fight to reduce global poverty. The optimism starts with the evolution of microfinance, which has proved not only that the poor are credit-worthy, but that banking institutions serving the poor are investment-worthy.'

Institute of Microfinance in order to facilitate their future and current research initiatives and enable researchers outside the Institute to get a list of readily available literatures on topics related to microfinance, has taken initiatives to start an annotated bibliography series. InM hopes that the annotated bibliography would serve the purposes of dissemination of information to the professionals, researchers, international agencies and academics as well as helping in our capacity building. Articles includes on general aspects of microfinance and on issues like microfinance borrowers, poverty, savings mobilization, loan recovery and repayment, employment, women empowerment, microfinance innovations, sustainability, competition etc. It is a unique effort to reach general readers with the theories and practices involved in microfinance of Bangladesh in a simplistic and comprehensive manner. Full paper in PDF format (624kb); Number of pages: 108p; Source: InM.

'Secondary urban centres lack the scale of larger urban utilities, a feature which attracts both public and sometimes private investment (national and international); yet they are often too large to benefit from the community-based and micro-finance mechanisms that are often applied with success in rural areas. Given their scope, there are potentially significant economic development and poverty reduction impacts to be gained through sustainable access to safe water, sanitation programs, and effective drainage in these areas. Thus, financing water supply and sanitation services in Secondary urban centres demands creative thinking. This paper reviews some of the creative ideas that have emerged to address the financial constraints to Secondary urban centres water and sanitation service delivery. The paper emphasizes domestic sources of finance for both hardware and software investments. These ideas involve a range of different stakeholders, including users, informal providers, utilities, governments, NGOs, domestic banks, and donors.'

'Anemia afflicts an estimated two billion people worldwide, mostly due to iron deficiency. It primarily affects women. Yet among adolescents, prevalence rates of anemia are closer for males and females in some parts of the world. The prevalence of anemia is disproportionately high in developing countries, due to poverty, inadequate diet, certain diseases, pregnancy and lactation, and poor access to health services. Young people are particularly susceptible because of their rapid growth and associated high iron requirements. Anemia is a critical health concern because it affects growth and energy levels. In pregnancy it is associated with premature births, low birth weight, and perinatal and maternal mortality. Adolescence is an opportune time for interventions to address anemia. In addition to growth needs, girls need to improve iron status before pregnancy. And both boys and girls are more accessible to information about anemia through schools, recreational activities, and via the mass media than they will be later in their lives.'

This paper highlights why women's illiteracy needs to be addressed, and outlines documented experiences in using ICTs to address illiteracy. After reviewing some of the salient experiences of running literacy programmes for women in developing countries, the authors discuss the support needed from a broad array of sources and areas for meaningful use of ICT interventions in women's literacy. The paper then provides a brief description of the status, trends and problems relating to application of technology to adult literacy in some Third World countries, with a special focus on India. Thereafter, the paper analyses research experiences relating to the use of ICTs for women's programmes vis-à-vis women's access to ICTs, use of ICTs for poverty alleviation, and women's empowerment through ICTs, highlighting the lessons learnt.

'Artificial islands. Buildings that change shape. Skyscrapers that seem to literally scrape the sky. Most people have heard about the stunning projects in the Gulf born of unimaginable wealth. Where else in the world can one find fine powdered ski slopes in the desert? But while wealthy tourists enjoy the life of luxury on one side of the Middle East, one of the region's oldest states sees poverty like few can imagine.'