thesis statement of poverty

Aspects of Global Poverty Research Paper

Introduction, aspects of global poverty.

Poverty is a very critical global issues that affects a majority of people from different parts of the world including the developed and the developing countries. This is brought about by poor living conditions where the income earning is far below the poverty line with combination of other factors like economic inflation and recession hence the inability to live a normal life above poverty level (Jones 11).

This piece of work looks into the different aspects associated with global poverty with much emphasis being given to the causes, the extent to which it has spread and the various ways of reducing and eliminating it.

There are various aspects that are linked with global poverty each of them contributing to our understanding on the general concept of global poverty.

There are arguments that have been put forth in regard to the causes of poverty in various nations with some people saying that the governments in various nations are there to be blamed for their poor policies while others argue that the poor are to blame for their own state as it is as a result of poor decisions and lack of positive efforts to save their situation.

All in all it is evident that every party has its part to play in order to deal with this ordeal that has affected a majority of people rather than blaming one another for what has already happened (Barr 27).

There are various causes of poverty for instance bad governance in terms of policy making and implementation where equality is not adhered to, lack of individual responsibility where people do not do anything about their deteriorating situations, destruction of the environment due to human indulgence in environmental unfriendly operations making it unproductive, exploitation of people by those with power for instance business enterprises or even a combination of some of these aspects (Shah par 3).

Poverty rates in many countries have risen with the economic crisis and recession which has in a way resulted to decreased loss of value of other currencies especially with respect to the dollar making it very hard for local people to make ends meet. The gap between the rich and the poor is also very wide where the rich have more than enough while the poor are left to struggle in very difficult situations.

The rich usually have a say in various policies formulation while the poor are powerless and not influential in any way hence making it difficult for them to escape poverty (Garcia 45).

According to Cook (par 6), more than forty millions Americans are officially poor with about ninety millions struggling to make ends meet and thus could be classified as poor or near the poverty line. He added that in addressing the poverty problem then policies must be put in place that ensures that the gap between the rich and the poor is narrowed. Despite the fact that poverty is a problem by itself, it is also associated with other problems for instance increased rates of crime and violence.

This is so because when people are poor, they tend to try all means to save their situations and hide their frustration and indulging in criminal activities like drug trafficking, substance abuse among others is usually a quick option to them. Hunger is also another aspect that is linked to poverty and it has had many adverse effects to individuals including deaths and so in order to eliminate hunger in the world, there is dire need to deal with the issue of poverty (Rivlin 53).

Poverty is a global issue and has affected a majority of people and there is therefore a need for various parties like the government, public organizations, private agencies as well as individual well wishers to join hands in an effort to alleviate this ordeal and save people from suffering from the adverse effects of poverty.

“Opportunity, empowerment, and security have intrinsic value for poor people. And given the important complementarities among them, an effective poverty reduction strategy will require action on all three fronts, by the full range of agents in society—government, civil” (Lodge and Wilson 102)

Stoner ( 112) asserts that there are various moves that can be adopted to deal with poverty for instance technical measures that allow for meaningful and long term solution for example improving the agricultural sector and also investing in empowerment projects aimed at providing individuals with a stable source of income which will in return make their living conditions better and bearable.

Promotion of opportunities is also a key aspect that can help in curbing the issue of global poverty. It entails the expansion of economic opportunities for the poor in various nations through the stimulation of the overall growth and building up assets as well as increasing returns on the assets.

Empowering the poor in other political and social aspects is also a recommended step which entails making state related institutions to be more accountable and responsive to the less fortunate individuals for instance through involving them in various political and social decision making which will in return ensure that their needs are incorporated in the policies and decision making procedures.

Empowering of the poor people will also ensure that the social barriers that exist between the poor and the rich are eliminated (Rector par 6). Security is also a critical issue when it comes to the concept of global poverty.

To curb poverty among the populations, it is important that the vulnerability of poor people to various poverty aspects like poor health, natural disasters, displacements, violence and discrimination, among others are reduced as well as laying down strategies that are necessary in coping with these problems in case they occur such that the poor people do not suffer much.

The above measures are positive and should be recommended as compared to provision of food aid which in the long run exacerbate the poverty situation as it only provide for a short term solution which make the vulnerable people more dependent and expecting food aid all the time an aspect that is not good (World bank 51).

It is evident that global poverty is an issue of concern and it cannot go unmentioned when it comes to the discussion of the ordeals facing people in various nations in the world especially the third world countries.

It is a condition that has caused a lot of negative effects to human beings for instance heath problems brought about by poor living conditions and insufficient and inappropriate nutrition coupled with poor health facilities. To the extreme end, global poverty has resulted to deaths of many people including children and adults where they are unable to withstand the adverse effects associated with poverty.

Barr, Nicholas. The economics of the welfare state . Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993.

Cook, Richard. ‘‘Sustainable Economics to End Global Poverty’’. Global Research 2007. Web.

Garcia, Ginny. Mexican American and Immigrant Poverty in the United States . New York: Springer, 2011.

Jones Gruffydd Branwen. Explaining Global Poverty: A Critical Realist Approach . New York: Taylor & Francis, 2006.

Lodge, George and Wilson, Craig. A corporate Solution to Global Poverty: How Multinationals Can Help the Poor and Invigorate Their Own Legitimacy . New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006

Rector, Robert. “ Understanding and Reducing Poverty in America ”. The Heritage Foundation. 2008. Web.

Rivlin, Gary. Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty . New York: Harper Business INC, 2010.

Shah, Anup. “ Causes of Poverty ”. Global Issues 2011. Web.

Stoner Finch Arthur James. Innovative Approaches to Reducing Global Poverty . USA: IAP, 2007

World Bank. Causes of Poverty and a Framework for Action. World Development Report 2000/2001.

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IvyPanda. (2018, May 30). Aspects of Global Poverty. https://ivypanda.com/essays/global-poverty/

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IvyPanda . (2018) 'Aspects of Global Poverty'. 30 May.

IvyPanda . 2018. "Aspects of Global Poverty." May 30, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/global-poverty/.

1. IvyPanda . "Aspects of Global Poverty." May 30, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/global-poverty/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Aspects of Global Poverty." May 30, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/global-poverty/.

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The Social Consequences of Poverty: An Empirical Test on Longitudinal Data

Carina mood.

Institute for Futures Studies, Box 591, 101 31 Stockholm, Sweden

Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Jan O. Jonsson

Nuffield College, OX1 1NF Oxford, England, UK

Poverty is commonly defined as a lack of economic resources that has negative social consequences, but surprisingly little is known about the importance of economic hardship for social outcomes. This article offers an empirical investigation into this issue. We apply panel data methods on longitudinal data from the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey 2000 and 2010 (n = 3089) to study whether poverty affects four social outcomes—close social relations (social support), other social relations (friends and relatives), political participation, and activity in organizations. We also compare these effects across five different poverty indicators. Our main conclusion is that poverty in general has negative effects on social life. It has more harmful effects for relations with friends and relatives than for social support; and more for political participation than organizational activity. The poverty indicator that shows the greatest impact is material deprivation (lack of cash margin), while the most prevalent poverty indicators—absolute income poverty, and especially relative income poverty—appear to have the least effect on social outcomes.

Introduction

According to the most influential definitions, poverty is seen as a lack of economic resources that have negative social consequences—this is in fact a view that dominates current theories of poverty (Townsend 1979 ; Sen 1983 ; UN 1995 ), and also has a long heritage (Smith 1776 /1976). The idea is that even when people have food, clothes, and shelter, economic problems lead to a deterioration of social relations and participation. Being poor is about not being able to partake in society on equal terms with others, and therefore in the long run being excluded by fellow citizens or withdrawing from social and civic life because of a lack of economic resources, typically in combination with the concomitant shame of not being able to live a life like them (e.g., Sen 1983 ). Economic hardship affects the standard of life, consumption patterns, and leisure time activities, and this is directly or indirectly related to the possibility of making or maintaining friends or acquaintances: poverty is revealed by not having appropriate clothes, or a car; by not being able to afford vacation trips, visits to the restaurant, or hosting dinner parties (e.g., Mack and Lansley 1985 ; Callan et al. 1993 )—in short, low incomes prevent the poor from living a life in “decency” (Galbraith 1958 ).

The relational nature of poverty is also central to the social exclusion literature, which puts poverty in a larger perspective of multiple disadvantages and their interrelationships (Hills et al. 2002 , Rodgers et al. 1995 ; Room 1995 ). While there are different definitions of the social exclusion concept, the literature is characterized by a move from distributional to relational concerns (Gore 1995 ) and by an emphasis on the importance of social integration and active participation in public life. The inability of living a decent or “ordinary” social life may in this perspective erode social networks, social relations, and social participation, potentially setting off a downward spiral of misfortune (Paugam 1995 ) reinforcing disadvantages in several domains of life. This perspective on poverty and social exclusion is essentially sociological: the playing field of the private economy is social. It is ultimately about individuals’ relations with other people—not only primary social relations, with kin and friends, but extending to secondary relations reflected by participation in the wider community, such as in organizations and in political life (UN 1995 ).

Despite the fact that the social consequences of limited economic resources are central to modern perspectives on poverty and marginalization, this relation is surprisingly seldom studied empirically. Qualitative research on the poor give interesting examples on how the negative effects of poverty works, and portray the way that economic problems are transformed into social ones (Ridge and Millar 2011 ; Attree 2006 ). Such studies, however, have too small sample sizes to generalize to the population, and they cannot tell us much about the range of the problem. The (relatively few) studies that have addressed the association between poverty and social outcomes on larger scale tend to verify that the poor have worse social relations (Böhnke 2008 ; Jonsson and Östberg 2004 ; Levitas 2006 ), but Barnes et al. ( 2002 ) did not find any noteworthy association between poverty (measured as relative income poverty, using the 60 %-limit) and social relations or social isolation. Dahl et al. ( 2008 ) found no relation between poverty and friendships, but report less participation in civic organizations among the poor. All these studies have however been limited to cross-sectional data or hampered by methodological shortcomings, and therefore have not been able to address the separation of selection effects from potentially causal ones.

Our aim in this study is to make good these omissions. We use longitudinal data from the Swedish Level of Living Surveys (LNU) 2000 and 2010 to study how falling into poverty, or rising from it, is associated with outcomes in terms of primary and secondary social relations, including participation in civil society. These panel data make it possible to generalize the results to the Swedish adult population (19–65 in 2000; 29–75 in 2010), to address the issue of causality, and to estimate how strong the relation between economic vulnerability and social outcomes is. Because the data provide us with the possibility of measuring poverty in several ways, we are also able to address the question using different—alternative or complementary—indicators. Poverty is measured as economic deprivation (lack of cash margin, self-reported economic problems), income poverty (absolute and relative), and long-term poverty, respectively. The primary, or core, social outcomes are indicated by having social support if needed, and by social relations with friends and relatives. We expand our analysis to secondary, or fringe, social outcomes in terms of participation in social life at large, such as in civil society: our indicators here include the participation in organizations and in political life.

Different Dimensions/Definitions of Poverty

In modern welfare states, the normal take on the issue of poverty is to regard it as the relative lack of economic resources, that is, to define the poor in relation to their fellow citizens in the same country at the same time. Three approaches dominate the scholarly literature today. The first takes as a point of departure the income deemed necessary for living a life on par with others, or that makes possible an “acceptable” living standard—defined as the goods and services judged necessary, often on the basis of consumer or household budget studies. This usage of a poverty threshold is often (somewhat confusingly) called absolute income poverty , and is most common in North America (cf. Corak 2006 for a review), although most countries have poverty lines defined for different kinds of social benefits. In Europe and in the OECD, the convention is instead to use versions of relative income poverty , defining as poor those whose incomes fall well behind the median income in the country in question (European Union using 60 % and OECD 50 % of the median as the threshold). As an alternative to using purchasing power (as in the “absolute” measure), this relative measure defines poverty by income inequality in the bottom half of the income distribution (Atkinson et al. 2002 ; OECD 2008 ).

The third approach argues that income measures are too indirect; poverty should instead be indicated directly by the lack of consumer products and services that are necessary for an acceptable living standard (Mack and Lansley 1985 ; Ringen 1988 ; Townsend 1979 ). This approach often involves listing a number of possessions and conditions, such as having a car, washing machine, modern kitchen; and being able to dine out sometimes, to have the home adequately heated and mended, to have sufficient insurances, and so on. An elaborate version includes information on what people in general see as necessities, what is often termed “consensual” poverty (e.g., Mack and Lansley 1985 ; Gordon et al. 2000 ; Halleröd 1995 ; van den Bosch 2001 ). Other direct indicators include the ability to cover unforeseen costs (cash margin) and subjective definitions of poverty (e.g., van den Bosch 2001 ). The direct approach to poverty has gained in popularity and measures of economic/material deprivation and consensual poverty are used in several recent and contemporary comparative surveys such as ECHP (Whelan et al. 2003 ) and EU-SILC (e.g., UNICEF 2012 ; Nolan and Whelan 2011 ).

It is often pointed out that, due to the often quite volatile income careers of households, the majority of poverty episodes are short term and the group that is identified as poor in the cross-section therefore tends to be rather diluted (Bane and Ellwood 1986 ; Duncan et al. 1993 ). Those who suffer most from the downsides of poverty are, it could be argued, instead the long-term, persistent, or chronically poor, and there is empirical evidence that those who experience more years in poverty also are more deprived of a “common lifestyle” (Whelan et al. 2003 ). Poverty persistence has been defined in several ways, such as having spent a given number of years below a poverty threshold, or having an average income over a number of years that falls under the poverty line (e.g., Duncan and Rodgers 1991 ; Rodgers and Rodgers 1993 ). The persistently poor can only be detected with any precision in longitudinal studies, and typically on the basis of low incomes, as data covering repeated measures of material deprivation are uncommon.

For the purposes of this study, it is not essential to nominate the best or most appropriate poverty measure. The measures outlined above, while each having some disadvantage, all provide plausible theoretical grounds for predicting negative social outcomes. Low incomes, either in “absolute” or relative terms, may inhibit social activities and participation because these are costly (e.g., having decent housing, needing a car, paying membership fees, entrance tickets, or new clothes). Economic deprivation, often indicated by items or habits that are directly relevant to social life, is also a valid representation of a lack of resources. Lastly, to be in long-term poverty is no doubt a worse condition than being in shorter-term poverty.

It is worth underlining that we see different measures of poverty as relevant indicators despite the fact that the overlap between them often is surprisingly small (Bradshaw and Finch 2003 ). The lack of overlap is not necessarily a problem, as different people may have different configurations of economic problems but share in common many of the experiences of poverty—experiences, we argue, that are (in theory at least) all likely to lead to adverse social outcomes. Whether this is the case or not is one of the questions that we address, but if previous studies on child poverty are of any guidance, different definitions of poverty may show surprisingly similar associations with a number of outcomes (Jonsson and Östberg 2004 ).

What are the Likely Social Consequences of Poverty?

We have concluded that poverty is, according to most influential poverty definitions, manifested in the social sphere. This connects with the idea of Veblen ( 1899 ) of the relation between consumption and social status. What you buy and consume—clothes, furniture, vacation trips—in part define who you are, which group you aspire to belong to, and what view others will have of you. Inclusion into and exclusion from status groups and social circles are, in this view, dependent on economic resources as reflected in consumption patterns. While Veblen was mostly concerned about the rich and their conspicuous consumption, it is not difficult to transfer these ideas to the less fortunate: the poor are under risk of exclusion, of losing their social status and identity, and perhaps also, therefore, their friends. It is however likely that this is a process that differs according to outcome, with an unknown time-lag.

If, as outlined above, we can speak of primary and secondary social consequences, the former should include socializing with friends, but also more intimate relations. Our conjecture is that the closer the relation, the less affected is it by poverty, simply because intimate social bonds are characterized by more unconditional personal relations, typically not requiring costs to uphold.

When it comes to the secondary social consequences, we move outside the realm of closer interpersonal relations to acquaintances and the wider social network, and to the (sometimes relatively anonymous) participation in civil or political life. This dimension of poverty lies at the heart of the social exclusion perspective, which strongly emphasizes the broader issues of societal participation and civic engagement, vital to democratic societies. It is also reflected in the United Nation’s definition, following the Copenhagen summit in 1995, where “overall poverty” in addition to lack of economic resources is said to be “…characterized by lack of participation in decision-making and in civil, social, and cultural life” (UN 1995 , p. 57). Poverty may bring about secondary social consequences because such participation is costly—as in the examples of travel, need for special equipment, or membership fees—but also because of psychological mechanisms, such as lowered self-esteem triggering disbelief in civic and political activities, and a general passivity leading to decreased organizational and social activities overall. If processes like these exist there is a risk of a “downward spiral of social exclusion” where unemployment leads to poverty and social isolation, which in turn reduce the chances of re-gaining a footing in the labour market (Paugam 1995 ).

What theories of poverty and social exclusion postulate is, in conclusion, that both what we have called primary and secondary social relations will be negatively affected by economic hardship—the latter supposedly more than the former. Our strategy in the following is to test this basic hypothesis by applying multivariate panel-data analyses on longitudinal data. In this way, we believe that we can come further than previous studies towards estimating causal effects, although, as is the case in social sciences, the causal relation must remain preliminary due to the nature of observational data.

Data and Definitions

We use the two most recent waves of the Swedish Level-of-living Survey, conducted in 2000 and 2010 on random (1/1000) samples of adult Swedes, aged 18–75. 1 The attrition rate is low, with 84 % of panel respondents remaining from 2000 to 2010. This is one of the few data sets from which we can get over-time measures of both poverty and social outcomes for a panel that is representative of the adult population (at the first time point, t 0 )—in addition, there is annual income information from register data between the waves. The panel feature obviously restricts the age-groups slightly (ages 19–65 in 2000; 29–75 in 2010), the final number of analyzed cases being between 2995 and 3144, depending on the number of missing cases on the respective poverty measure and social outcome variable. For ease of interpretation and comparison of effect sizes, we have constructed all social outcome variables and poverty variables to be dichotomous (0/1). 2

In constructing poverty variables, we must balance theoretical validity with the need to have group sizes large enough for statistical analysis. For example, we expand the absolute poverty measure to include those who received social assistance any time during the year. As social assistance recipients receive this benefit based on having an income below a poverty line that is similar to the one we use, this seems justifiable. In other cases, however, group sizes are small but we find no theoretically reasonable way of making the variables more inclusive, meaning that some analyses cannot be carried out in full detail.

Our income poverty measures are based on register data and are thus free from recall error or misreporting, but—as the proponents of deprivation measures point out—income poverty measures are indirect measures of hardship. The deprivation measure is more direct, but self-reporting always carries a risk of subjectivity in the assessment. To the extent that changes in one’s judgment of the economic situation depend on changes in non-economic factors that are also related to social relations, the deprivation measure will give upwardly biased estimates. 3 As there is no general agreement about whether income or deprivation definitions are superior, our use of several definitions is a strength because the results will give an overall picture that is not sensitive to potential limitations in any one measure. In addition, we are able to see whether results vary systematically across commonly used definitions.

Poverty Measures

• Cash margin whether the respondent can raise a given sum of money in a week, if necessary (in 2000, the sum was 12,000 SEK; in 2010, 14,000 SEK, the latter sum corresponding to approximately 1600 Euro, 2200 USD, or 1400 GBP in 2013 currency rates). For those who answer in the affirmative, there is a follow-up question of how this can be done: by (a) own/household resources, (b) borrowing.
• Economic crisis Those who claim that they have had problems meeting costs for rent, food, bills, etc. during the last 12 months (responded “yes” to a yes/no alternative).
• Absolute poverty is defined as either (a) having a disposable family income below a poverty threshold or (b) receiving social assistance, both assessed in 1999 (for the survey 2000) or 2009 (for the survey 2010). The poverty line varies by family type/composition according to a commonly used calculation of household necessities (Jansson 2000 ). This “basket” of goods and services is intended to define an acceptable living standard, and was originally constructed for calculating an income threshold for social assistance, with addition of estimated costs for housing and transport. The threshold is adjusted for changes in the Consumer Price Index, using 2010 as the base year. In order to get analyzable group sizes, we classify anyone with an income below 1.25 times this threshold as poor. Self-employed are excluded because their nominal incomes are often a poor indicator of their economic standard.
• Deprived and income poor A combination of the indicator of economic deprivation and the indicator of absolute poverty. The poor are defined as those who are economically deprived and in addition are either absolute income-poor or have had social assistance some time during the last calendar year.
• Long - term poor are defined as those interviewed in 2010 (2000) who had an equivalized disposable income that fell below the 1.25 absolute poverty threshold (excluding self-employed) or who received social assistance in 2009 (1999), and who were in this situation for at least two of the years 2000–2008 (1990–1998). The long-term poor (coded 1) are contrasted to the non-poor (coded 0), excluding the short-term poor (coded missing) in order to distinguish whether long-term poverty is particularly detrimental (as compared to absolute poverty in general).
• Relative poverty is defined, according to the EU standard, as having a disposable equivalized income that is lower than 60 % of the median income in Sweden the year in question (EU 2005). 4 As for absolute poverty, this variable is based on incomes the year prior to the survey year. Self-employed are excluded.

Social and Participation Outcomes

Primary (core) social relations.

• Social support The value 1 (has support) is given to those who have answered in the positive to three questions about whether one has a close friend who can help if one (a) gets sick, (b) needs someone to talk to about troubles, or (c) needs company. Those who lack support in at least one of these respects are coded 0 (lack of support).
• Frequent social relations This variable is based on four questions about how often one meets (a) relatives and (b) friends, either (i) at ones’ home or (ii) at the home of those one meets, with the response set being “yes, often”, “sometimes”, and “no, never”. Respondents are defined as having frequent relations (1) if they have at least one “often” of the four possible and no “never”, 5 and 0 otherwise.

Secondary (fringe) Social Relations/Participation

• Political participation : Coded 1 (yes) if one during the last 12 months actively participated (held an elected position or was at a meeting) in a trade union or a political party, and 0 (no) otherwise. 6
• Organizational activity : Coded 1 (yes) if one is a member of an organization and actively participate in its activities at least once in a year, and 0 (no) otherwise.

Control Variables

• Age (in years)
• Educational qualifications in 2010 (five levels according to a standard schema used by Statistics Sweden (1985), entered as dummy variables)
• Civil status distinguishes between single and cohabiting/married persons, and is used as a time-varying covariate (TVC) where we register any changes from couple to single and vice versa.
• Immigrant origin is coded 1 if both parents were born in any country outside Sweden, 0 otherwise.
• Labour market status is also used as a TVC, with four values indicating labour market participation (yes/no) in 2000 and 2010, respectively.
• Global self - rated health in 2000, with three response alternatives: Good, bad, or in between. 7

Table  1 shows descriptive statistics for the 2 years we study, 2000 and 2010 (percentages in the upper panel; averages, standard deviations, max and min values in the lower panel). Recall that the sample is longitudinal with the same respondents appearing in both years. This means, naturally, that the sample ages 10 years between the waves, the upper age limit being pushed up from 65 to 75. Both the change over years and the ageing of the sample have repercussions for their conditions: somewhat more have poor health, for example, fewer lack social support but more lack frequent social relations, and more are single in 2010 (where widows are a growing category). The group has however improved their economic conditions, with a sizeable reduction in poverty rates. Most of the changes are in fact period effects, and it is particularly obvious for the change in poverty—in 2000 people still suffered from the deep recession in Sweden that begun in 1991 and started to turn in 1996/97 (Jonsson et al. 2010 ), while the most recent international recession (starting in 2008/09) did not affect Sweden that much.

Table 1

Descriptive statistics of dependent and independent variables in the LNU panel

N for variables used as change variables pertains to non-missing observations in both 2000 and 2010

The overall decrease in poverty masks changes that our respondents experienced between 2000 and 2010: Table  2 reveals these for the measure of economic deprivation, showing the outflow (row) percentages and the total percentages (and the number of respondents in parentheses). It is evident that there was quite a lot of mobility out of poverty between the years (61 % left), but also a very strong relative risk of being found in poverty in 2010 among those who were poor in 2000 (39 vs. 5 % of those who were non-poor in 2000). Of all our respondents, the most common situation was to be non-poor both years (81 %), while few were poor on both occasions (6 %). Table  2 also demonstrates some small cell numbers: 13.3 % of the panel (9.4 % + 3.9 %), or a good 400 cases, changed poverty status, and these cases are crucial for identifying our models. As in many panel studies based on survey data, this will inevitably lead to some problems with large standard errors and difficulties in arriving at statistically significant and precise estimates; but to preview the findings, our results are surprisingly consistent all the same.

Table 2

Mobility in poverty (measured as economic deprivation) in Sweden between 2000 and 2010

Outflow percentage (row %), total percentage, and number of cases (in parentheses). LNU panel 2000–2010

We begin with showing descriptive results of how poverty is associated with our outcome variables, using the economic deprivation measure of poverty. 8 Figure  1 confirms that those who are poor have worse social relationships and participate less in political life and in organizations. Poverty is thus connected with both primary and secondary social relations.

The relation between poverty (measured as economic deprivation) and social relations/participation in Sweden, LNU 2010. N = 5271

The descriptive picture in Fig.  1 does not tell us anything about the causal nature of the relation between poverty and social outcomes, only that such a relation exists, and that it is in the predicted direction: poor people have weaker social relations, less support, and lower levels of political and civic participation. Our task now is to apply more stringent statistical models to test whether the relation we have uncovered is likely to be of a causal nature. This means that we must try to rid the association of both the risk for reverse causality—that, for example, a weaker social network leads to poverty—and the risk that there is a common underlying cause of both poverty and social outcomes, such as poor health or singlehood.

The Change Model

First, as we have panel data, we can study the difference in change across two time-points T (called t 0 and t 1 , respectively) in an outcome variable (e.g., social relations), between groups (i.e. those who changed poverty status versus those who did not). The respondents are assigned to either of these groups on the grounds of entering or leaving poverty; in the first case, one group is non-poor at t 0 but experiences poverty at t 1 , and the change in this group is compared to the group consisting of those who are non-poor both at t 0 and t 1 . The question in focus then is: Do social relations in the group entering poverty worsen in relation to the corresponding change in social relations in the group who remains non-poor? Because we have symmetric hypotheses of the effect of poverty on social outcomes—assuming leaving poverty has positive consequences similar to the negative consequences of entering poverty—we also study whether those who exit poverty improve their social outcomes as compared to those remaining poor. We ask, that is, not only what damage falling into poverty might have for social outcomes, but also what “social gains” could be expected for someone who climbs out of poverty.

Thus, in our analyses we use two different “change groups”, poverty leavers and poverty entrants , and two “comparison groups”, constantly poor and never poor , respectively. 9 The setup comparing the change in social outcomes for those who change poverty status and those who do not is analogous to a so-called difference-in-difference design, but as the allocation of respondents to comparison groups and change groups in our data cannot be assumed to be random (as with control groups and treatment groups in experimental designs), we take further measures to approach causal interpretations.

Accounting for the Starting Value of the Dependent Variable

An important indication of the non-randomness of the allocation to the change and comparison groups is that their average values of the social outcomes (i.e. the dependent variable) at t 0 differ systematically: Those who become poor between 2000 and 2010 have on average worse social outcomes already in 2000 than those who stay out of poverty. Similarly, those who stay in poverty both years have on average worse social outcomes than those who have exited poverty in 2010. In order to further reduce the impact of unobserved variables, we therefore make all comparisons of changes in social outcomes between t 0 and t 1 for fixed t 0 values of both social outcome and poverty status.

As we use dichotomous outcome variables, we get eight combinations of poverty and outcome states (2 × 2 × 2 = 8), and four direct strategic comparisons:

• Poverty leavers versus constantly poor, positive social outcome in 2000 , showing if those who exit poverty have a higher chance of maintaining the positive social outcome than those who stay in poverty
• Poverty leavers versus constantly poor, negative social outcome in 2000 , showing if those who exit poverty have a higher chance of improvement in the social outcome than those who stay in poverty
• Poverty entrants versus never poor, positive social outcome in 2000 , showing if those who enter poverty have a higher risk of deterioration in the social outcome than those who stay out of poverty, and
• Poverty entrants versus never poor, negative social outcome in 2000 , showing if those who enter poverty have a lower chance of improvement in the social outcome.

Thus, we hold the initial social situation and poverty status fixed, letting only the poverty in 2010 vary. 10 The analytical strategy is set out in Table  3 , showing estimates of the probability to have frequent social relations in 2010, for poverty defined (as in Table  2 and Fig.  1 above) as economic deprivation.

Table 3

Per cent with frequent social relations in “comparison” and “change” groups in 2000 and 2010, according to initial value on social relations in 2000 and poverty (measured as economic deprivation) in 2000 and 2010

LNU panel 2000–2010. N = 3083

The figures in Table  3 should be read like this: 0.59 in the upper left cell means that among those who were poor neither in 2000 nor in 2010 (“never poor”, or 0–0), and who had non-frequent social relations to begin with, 59 % had frequent social relations in 2010. Among those never poor who instead started out with more frequent social relations, 90 per cent had frequent social relations in 2010. This difference (59 vs. 90) tells us either that the initial conditions were important (weak social relations can be inherently difficult to improve) or that there is heterogeneity within the group of never poor people, such as some having (to us perhaps unobserved) characteristics that support relation building while others have not.

Because our strategy is to condition on the initial situation in order to minimize the impact of initial conditions and unobserved heterogeneity, we focus on the comparisons across columns. If we follow each column downwards, that is, for a given initial social outcome (weak or not weak social relations, respectively) it is apparent that the outcome is worse for the “poverty entrants” in comparison with the “never poor” (upper three lines). Comparing the change group [those who became poor (0–1)] with the comparison group [never poor (0–0)] for those who started out with weak social relations (left column), the estimated probability of frequent social relations in 2010 is 7 % points lower for those who became poor. Among those who started out with frequent relations, those who became poor have a 17 % points lower probability of frequent relations in 2010 than those who stayed out of poverty.

If we move down Table  3 , to the three bottom lines, the change and comparison groups are now different. The comparison group is the “constantly poor” (1–1), and the change group are “poverty leavers” (1–0). Again following the columns downwards, we can see that the change group improved their social relations in comparison with the constantly poor; and this is true whether they started out with weak social relations or not. In fact, the chance of improvement for those who started off with non-frequent social relations is the most noteworthy, being 33 % units higher for those who escaped poverty than for those who did not. In sum, Table  3 suggests that becoming poor appears to be bad for social relations whereas escaping poverty is beneficial.

Expanding the Model

The model exemplified in Table  3 is a panel model that studies change across time within the same individuals, conditioning on their initial state. It does away with time-constant effects of observed and unobserved respondent characteristics, and although this is far superior to a cross-sectional model (such as the one underlying Fig.  1 ) there are still threats to causal interpretations. It is possible (if probably unusual) that permanent characteristics may trigger a change over time in both the dependent and independent variables; or, put in another way, whether a person stays in or exits poverty may be partly caused by a variable that also predicts change in the outcome (what is sometimes referred to as a violation of the “common trend assumption”). In our case, we can for example imagine that health problems in 2000 can affect who becomes poor in 2010, at t 1 , and that the same health problems can lead to a deterioration of social relations between 2000 and 2010, so even conditioning on the social relations at t 0 will not be enough. This we handle by adding control variables, attempting to condition the comparison of poor and non-poor also on sex, age, highest level of education (in 2010), immigrant status, and health (in 2000). 11

Given the set-up of our data—with 10 years between the two data-points and with no information on the precise time ordering of poverty and social outcomes at t 1 , the model can be further improved by including change in some of the control variables. It is possible, for example, that a non-poor and married respondent in 2000 divorced before 2010, triggering both poverty and reduced social relations at the time of the interview in 2010. 12 There are two major events that in this way may bias our results, divorce/separation and unemployment (because each can lead to poverty, and possibly also affect social outcomes). We handle this by controlling for variables combining civil status and unemployment in 2000 as well as in 2010. To the extent that these factors are a consequence of becoming poor, there is a risk of biasing our estimates downwards (e.g., if becoming poor increases the risk of divorce). However, as there is no way to distinguish empirically whether control variables (divorce, unemployment) or poverty changed first we prefer to report conservative estimates. 13

Throughout, we use logistic regression to estimate our models (one model for each social outcome and poverty definition). We create a dummy variable for each of the combinations of poverty in 2000, poverty in 2010 and the social outcome in 2000, and alternate the reference category in order to get the four strategic comparisons described above. Coefficients do thus express the distance between the relevant change and comparison groups. The coefficients reported are average marginal effects (AME) for a one-unit change in the respective poverty variable (i.e. going from non-poor to poor and vice versa), which are straightforwardly interpretable as percentage unit differences and (unlike odds ratios or log odds ratios) comparable across models and outcomes (Mood 2010 ).

Regression Results

As detailed above, we use changes over time in poverty and social outcomes to estimate the effects of interest. The effect of poverty is allowed to be heterogeneous, and is assessed through four comparisons of the social outcome in 2010 (Y 1 ):

• Those entering poverty relative to those in constant non-poverty (P 01  = 0,1 vs. P 01  = 0,0) when both have favourable social outcomes at t 0 (Y 0  = 1)
• Those exiting poverty relative to those in constant poverty (P 01  = 1,0 vs. P 01  = 1,1) when both have favourable social outcomes at t 0 (Y 0  = 1)
• Those entering poverty relative to those in constant non-poverty (P 01  = 0,1 vs. P 01  = 0,0) when both have non-favourable social outcomes at t 0 (Y 0  = 0)
• Those exiting poverty relative to those in constant poverty (P 01  = 1,0 vs. P 01  = 1,1) when both have non-favourable social outcomes at t 0 (Y 0  = 0)

Poverty is a rare outcome, and as noted above it is particularly uncommon to enter poverty between 2000 and 2010 because of the improving macro-economic situation. Some of the social outcomes were also rare in 2000. This unfortunately means that in some comparisons we have cell frequencies that are prohibitively small, and we have chosen to exclude all comparisons involving cells where N < 20.

The regression results are displayed in Table  4 . To understand how the estimates come to be, consider the four in the upper left part of the Table (0.330, 0.138, −0.175 and −0.065), reflecting the effect of poverty, measured as economic deprivation, on the probability of having frequent social relations. Because these estimates are all derived from a regression without any controls, they are identical (apart from using three decimal places) to the percentage comparisons in Table  3 (0.33, 0.14, −0.17, −0.07), and can be straightforwardly interpreted as average differences in the probability of the outcome in question. From Table  4 it is clear that the three first differences are all statistically significant, whereas the estimate −0.07 is not (primarily because those who entered poverty in 2010 and had infrequent social relations in 2000 is a small group, N = 25).

Table 4

Average marginal effects (from logistic regression) of five types of poverty (1–5) on four social outcomes (A-D) comparing those with different poverty statuses in 2000 and 2010 and conditioning on the starting value of the social outcome (in 2000)

Right columns control for sex, education, age, immigrant status, health in 2000, civil status change between 2000 and 2010, and unemployment change between 2000 and 2010. P values in parentheses. Excluded estimates involve variable categories with N < 20. Shaded cells are in hypothesized direction, bold estimates are statistically significant ( P  < 0.05). N in regressions: 1A: 3075; 1B: 3073; 1C: 3075; 1D: 3069; 2A: 3144; 2B: 3137; 2C: 3144; 2D: 3130; 3A: 3074, 3B: 3072; 3C: 3074; 3D: 3068; 4A: 2995; 4B: 2988; 4C: 2995; 4D: 2981; 5A: 3128; 5B: 3121; 5C: 3128; 5D: 3114

In the column to the right, we can see what difference the controls make: the estimates are reduced, but not substantially so, and the three first differences are still statistically significant.

The estimates for each social outcome, reflecting the four comparisons described above, support the hypothesis of poverty affecting social relations negatively (note that the signs of the estimates should differ in order to do so, the upper two being positive as they reflect an effect of the exit from poverty, and the lower two being negative as they reflect an effect of entering poverty). We have indicated support for the hypothesis in Table  4 by shading the estimates and standard errors for estimates that go in the predicted direction.

Following the first two columns down, we can see that there is mostly support for the hypothesis of a negative effect of poverty, but when controlling for other variables, the effects on social support are not impressive. In fact, if we concentrate on each social outcome (i.e., row-wise), one conclusion is that, when controlling for confounders, there are rather small effects of poverty on the probability of having access to social support. The opposite is true for political participation, where the consistency in the estimated effects of poverty is striking.

If we instead follow the columns, we ask whether any of the definitions of poverty is a better predictor of social outcomes than the others. The measure of economic deprivation appears to be the most stable one, followed by absolute poverty and the combined deprivation/absolute poverty variable. 14 The relative poverty measure is less able to predict social outcomes: in many instances it even has the non-expected sign. Interestingly, long-term poverty (as measured here) does not appear to have more severe negative consequences than absolute poverty in general.

Because some of our comparison groups are small, it is difficult to get high precision in the estimates, efficiency being a concern particularly in view of the set of control variables in Table  4 . Only 14 out of 62 estimates in models with controls are significant and in the right direction. Nonetheless, with 52 out of 62 estimates in these models having the expected sign, we believe that the hypothesis of a negative effect of poverty on social outcomes receives quite strong support.

Although control variables are not shown in the table, one thing should be noted about them: The reduction of coefficients when including control variables is almost exclusively driven by changes in civil status. 15 The time constant characteristics that are included are cross-sectionally related to both poverty and social outcomes, but they have only minor impacts on the estimated effects of poverty. This suggests that the conditioning on prior values of the dependent and independent variables eliminates much time invariant heterogeneity, which increases the credibility of estimates.

Conclusions

We set out to test a fundamental, but rarely questioned assumption in dominating definitions of poverty: whether shortage of economic resources has negative consequences for social relations and participation. By using longitudinal data from the Swedish Level-of-living Surveys 2000 and 2010, including repeated measures of poverty (according to several commonly used definitions) and four social outcome variables, we are able to come further than previous studies in estimating the relation between poverty and social outcomes: Our main conclusion is that there appears to be a causal relation between them.

Panel models suggest that falling into poverty increases the risk of weakening social relations and decreasing (civic and political) participation. Climbing out of poverty tends to have the opposite effects, a result that strengthens the interpretation of causality. The sample is too small to estimate the effect sizes with any precision, yet they appear to be substantial, with statistically significant estimates ranging between 5 and 21 % units.

While these findings are disquieting insofar as poverty goes, our results also suggest two more positive results. First, the negative effects of poverty appear to be reversible: once the private economy recovers, social outcomes improve. Secondly, the negative consequences are less for the closest social relations, whether there is someone there in cases of need (sickness, personal problems, etc.). This is in line with an interpretation of such close relations being unconditional: our nearest and dearest tend to hang on to us also in times of financial troubles, which may bolster risks for social isolation and psychological ill-being,

Our finding of negative effects of poverty on civic and political participation relates to the fears of a “downward spiral of social exclusion”, as there is a risk that the loss of less intimate social relations shrinks social networks and decreases the available social capital in terms of contacts that can be important for outcomes such as finding a job (e.g., Lin 2001 ; Granovetter 1974 ). However, Gallie et al. ( 2003 ) found no evidence for any strong impact of social isolation on unemployment, suggesting that the negative effects on social outcomes that we observe are unlikely to lead to self-reinforcement of poverty. Nevertheless, social relations are of course important outcomes in their own right, so if they are negatively affected by poverty it matters regardless of whether social relations in turn are important for other outcomes. Effects on political and civic participation are also relevant in themselves beyond individuals’ wellbeing, as they suggest a potentially democratic problem where poor have less of a voice and less influence on society than others.

Our results show the merits of our approach, to study the relation between poverty and social outcomes longitudinally. The fact that the poor have worse social relations and lower participation is partly because of selection. This may be because the socially isolated, or those with a weaker social network, more easily fall into poverty; or it can be because of a common denominator, such as poor health or social problems. But once we have stripped the analysis of such selection effects, we also find what is likely to be a causal relation between poverty and social relations. However, this effect of poverty on social outcomes, in turn, varies between different definitions of poverty. Here it appears that economic deprivation, primarily indicated by the ability of raising money with short notice, is the strongest predictor of social outcomes. Income poverty, whether in absolute or (particularly) relative terms, are weaker predictors of social outcomes, which is interesting as they are the two most common indicators of poverty in existing research.

Even if we are fortunate to have panel data at our disposal, there are limitations in our analyses that render our conclusions tentative. One is that we do not have a random allocation to the comparison groups at t 0 ; another that there is a 10-year span between the waves that we analyze, and both poverty and social outcomes may vary across this time-span. We have been able to address these problems by conditioning on the outcome at t 0 and by controlling for confounders, but in order to perform more rigorous tests future research would benefit from data with a more detailed temporal structure, and preferably with an experimental or at least quasi-experimental design.

Finally, our analyses concern Sweden, and given the position as an active welfare state with a low degree of inequality and low poverty rates, one can ask whether the results are valid also for other comparable countries. While both the level of poverty and the pattern of social relations differ between countries (for policy or cultural reasons), we believe that the mechanisms linking poverty and social outcomes are of a quite general kind, especially as the “costs for social participation” can be expected to be relative to the general wealth of a country—however, until comparative longitudinal data become available, this must remain a hypothesis for future research.

1 http://www.sofi.su.se/english/2.17851/research/three-research-departments/lnu-level-of-living .

2 We have tested various alternative codings and the overall pattern of results in terms of e.g., direction of effects and differences across poverty definitions are similar, but more difficult to present in an accessible way.

3 Our deprivation questions are however designed to reduce the impact of subjectivity by asking, e.g., about getting a specified sum within a specified time (see below).

4 In the equivalence scale, the first adult gets a weight of one, the second of 0.6, and each child gets a weight of 0.5.

5 We have also tried using single indicators (either a/b or i/ii) without detecting any meaningful difference between them. One would perhaps have assumed that poverty would be more consequential for having others over to one’s own place, but the absence of support for this can perhaps be understood in light of the strong social norm of reciprocity in social relations.

6 We have refrained from using information on voting and membership in trade unions and political parties, because these indicators do not capture the active, social nature of civic engagement to the same extent as participation in meetings and the holding of positions.

7 We have also estimated models with a more extensive health variable, a s ymptom index , which sums responses to 47 questions about self-reported health symptoms. However, this variable has virtually zero effects once global self-rated health is controlled, and does not lead to any substantive differences in other estimates. Adding the global health measure and the symptom index as TVC had no effect either.

8 Using the other indicators of poverty yields very similar results, although for some of those the difference between poor and non-poor is smaller.

9 We call these comparison groups ”never poor” and ”constantly poor” for expository purposes, although their poverty status pertains only to the years 2000 and 2010, i.e., without information on the years in between.

10 With this design we allow different effects of poverty on improvement versus deterioration of the social outcome. We have also estimated models with a lagged dependent variable, which constrains the effects of poverty changes to be of the same size for deterioration as for improvement of the social outcome. Conclusions from that analysis are roughly a weighted average of the estimates for deterioration and improvement that we report. As our analyses suggest that effects of poverty differ in size depending on the value of the lagged dependent variable (the social outcome) our current specification gives a more adequate representation of the process.

11 We have also tested models with a wider range of controls for, e.g., economic and social background (i.e. characteristics of the respondent’s parents), geography, detailed family type and a more detailed health variable, but none of these had any impact on the estimated poverty effects.

12 It is also possible that we register reverse causality, namely if worsening social outcomes that occur after t 0 lead to poverty at t 1 . This situation is almost inevitable when using panel data with no clear temporal ordering of events occurring between waves. However, reverse causality strikes us, in this case, as theoretically implausible.

13 We have also estimated models controlling for changes in health, which did not change the results.

14 If respondents’ judgments of the deprivation questions (access to cash margin and ability to pay rent, food, bills etc.) change due to non-economic factors that are related to changes in social relations, the better predictive capacity of the deprivation measure may be caused by a larger bias in this measure than in the (register-based) income measures.

15 As mentioned above, this variable may to some extent be endogenous (i.e., a mediator of the poverty effect rather than a confounder), in which case we get a downward bias of estimates.

Contributor Information

Carina Mood, Phone: +44-8-402 12 22, Email: [email protected] .

Jan O. Jonsson, Phone: +44 1865 278513, Email: [email protected] .

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THREE ESSAYS ON POVERTY REDUCTION AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN MALAWI

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• September 23, 2019
• Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Public Policy
• Malawi remains one of the impoverished countries in the world with about 70 per cent of the population living below $1.9 a day as of 2018. In 2017, the country ranked 171 out of 189 countries in terms of the human development index. The government of Malawi is pursuing various public policies aimed at reducing poverty, building household resilience to shocks and spurring economic growth. One such policy is a nationwide social cash transfer programme (MSCT) aimed at ultra-poor, labor constrained households. The first paper examines the impact of the MSCT on household resilience, and formally tests the validity of the resilience measure. The result show that the MSCT has a positive impact on household resilience, and the resilience indicator is a valid measure of the construct in terms of its predictive power of the likelihood of households adopting positive coping mechanisms to future shocks. The main conclusion from this result is that the resilience index is a good candidate for profiling of household for interventions, and that cash transfers can be considered as a credible option in the search for interventions that seek to improve household resilience. The second paper examines the heterogeneous impacts of the MSCT on household consumption mobility to understand household characteristics and programme design features that could potentially predict sustainable escape from poverty. The results show that design features were the more consistent correlates of high mobility potential than household characteristics. The main conclusion from this paper is that the design features and implementation of cash transfer programs are key to ensure transformative impacts on beneficiaries. The third paper examined the potential and policy option that Malawi could adopt to realize a sizeable demographic dividend by leveraging on the ongoing demographic transition in the country. The analysis shows that even in the best-case scenario, the demographic dividend that would be realized would be moderate, and there is the need to continue to expand social protection programmes and policies to cater for the rising absolute numbers of poor people even if poverty rates fall moderately in the medium to long term.
• demographic dividend
• heterogenous treatment effect
• Public policy
• https://doi.org/10.17615/3mk0-9985
• Dissertation
• Handa, Sudhanshu
• Chowa, Gina
• Angeles, Gustavo
• Morgan, Philip
• Gitterman, Daniel
• Doctor of Philosophy
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School

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Yologlu, Ali Cenap. "A Critical Evaluation Of Enabling Strategies Toward Poverty Reduction: The Case Of Conditional Cash Transfer Program In Turkey." Master's thesis, METU, 2004. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12605477/index.pdf.

Bayor, Isaac. "Community Participation in Poverty Reduction Interventions: Examiningthe Factors that impact on the Community-Based Organisation (CBO) Empowerment Project in Ghana." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2010. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_2150_1298618279.

Hence, in this mini-thesis I argue that community participation does not automatically facilitate gains for the poor. My main assumption is that internal rigidities in communities, such as weak social capital, culture, trust and reciprocity, affect mutual cooperation towards collective community gains. I used two communities, where a community empowerment project is implemented, as a case study to demonstrate that the success of community participation is contingent on the stocks of social capital in the community. The results show that the responsiveness of the two communities to the project activities differs with the stocks of social capital. I found that trust among community members facilitates information flow in the community. The level of trust is also related to the sources of information of community members about development activities in the community. I also found that solidarity is an important dimension of social capital, which determines community members&rsquo willingness to help one another and to participate in activities towards collective community gain. The research also demonstrated that perception of community members about target beneficiaries of projects&ndash whether they represent the interest of the majority of the community or only the interest of community leaders &ndash influences the level of confidence and ownership of the project. From my research findings, I concluded that, in order for community participation to work successfully, development managers need to identify the stocks of social capital in the community that will form the basis to determine the level of engagement with community members in the participatory process.

Weinstein, Flore Saint Louis. "Women's Empowerment as a Policy for Poverty Reduction in Haiti." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7092.

Lawrence, Yolisa Innocentia. "Poverty alleviation through empowerment and participation: the Seki Women's Foundation." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020020.

Khuluq, Lathiful. "Democracy, participation, and empowerment: poverty alleviation programs in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia." Thesis, McGill University, 2009. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=32533.

Gudjonsson, Sigurdur <1976&gt. "The Road to Poverty Reduction: Corporate Governance and Female Participation in MFIs." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2015. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/6838/.

Tanghöj, Erike. "Poverty Reduction through the participation of the poor!? : A study of the Poverty Reduction Strategies in Uganda and Bolivia from a civil-society perspective." Thesis, Jönköping University, JIBS, Political Science, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-684.

The situation of the low developed countries has been on the agenda of IMF and the World Bank throughout the years. However, after the disastrous failure of the Structural Adjustment Programs, the two financial institutions left the ideas of 'one model fits all' and economic growth equals development. Rather, tailored development programs and poverty reduction became the new foci. Further, it is today stressed that the broad-based participation of the civil-society and the ownership of the nation over the development process are the most important factors for successful and sustainable development. These ideas conforms the basis of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) initiative which was adopted by IMF and the World Bank in 1999.

This paper will investigate indications and perceptions, given by the civil-society, of the concepts of its participation and ownership within the Poverty Reduction Processes in Bolivia and Uganda. The objective is also to, in an inductive manner, develop and increase the understanding of how, and through what means, the two concepts have been realised and contextualised. In order to fulfil this purpose, the contents and origins of the PRS initiative are outlined and the definitions of participation and national ownership, in accordance to IMF and the World Bank, are stated. Secondly, against the derived theoretical framework an empirical pilot study will be conducted, based on literature studies. The primary conclusion drawn from the analysis is that it is impossible to broaden the understanding of what types of participation that have been applied. However, important and interesting insights have been reached in relation to how participation has been contextualised. First and foremost, for a genuine participation of the civil-society it is not enough with physical presence at official consultation meetings. The people must be enabled to actively and directly participate in, and influence the agenda of, all the stages of the PRS process. In regard to national ownership it has been concluded that the term bestow more than the balance between national, governmental and international influence - it is also a feeling of being able to participate in, and influence the outcome of, PRS process. Overall, the major finding is that for a real apprehension of national ownership and participation the perception of the civil-society must be accounted for. It is the people who decide whether they have been adequately involved and if they see themselves to be the owners of the process!

Diedhiou, Mamadou Alpha. "Good governance and participation in poverty reduction strategy papers in sub-Saharan Africa : a policy genealogy." Thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432303.

Mustafa, Zahid, and Nodirbek Ismailov. "Entrepreneurship and Microfinance-A tool for empowerment of poor-Case of Akhuwat, Pakistan." Thesis, Mälardalen University, School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-852.

Purpose: Our main purpose is to carry out a research on combining microfinance with entrepreneurship for poverty alleviation, empowerment of poor and sustainable development.

Target group: Students, researchers in Microfinance field, MFI’s, NGO’s and Governmental structures.

Research Question: How do micro entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and microfinance serve as a combined tool to reduce poverty, empower people, and contribute to sustainable development in Pakistan?

Approach: We used qualitative approach for research. The data have been collected through interviews which held as structured and unstructured, and as secondary sources web page of the organization, statistics of Pakistan and Book of organization have also been consulted.

Delimitations: Due to distance problem between Pakistan and Sweden and, it was difficult to organize interviews at large scale from borrowers and this can reflect limited information about micro entrepreneurship. It is worthy to say here that Islamic microfinance is quite new practice and very limited data was available. With this, we mainly emphasized on microfinance and entrepreneurship as a combined tool, therefore, there is not enough discussion on Islamic microfinance. But we try to elaborate a complete picture of Islamic microfinance. Originality/value: This paper emphasizes on both Microfinance and Entrepreneurship, as case study we choose Akhuwat organization which started to give loans to poor people without interest. Also we focused on Social Entrepreneurship side of organization which challenges to other MFI’s with innovative type of loaning. Research will give a vision to Akhuwat and other micro financing organization that how they can develop activities more successfully.

Future implications: During our research we investigate that there is need to carry out more research on lending methods other than solidarity group. The other area is micro entrepreneurship that needs to be more investigated by researcher because in developing countries micro business with only traditional ways will not be so successful. There will be need of more innovation in production system or in business processes. Islamic microfinance is quite new way for lending loan. It is needed that researcher of western world also do research on this method. So that clear result should come and method becomes more mature.

Social Entrepreneurship also need to be discovered from many points, especially relation with profit and non for profit, public, private and nongovernmental models.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Microfinance, Social Entrepreneurship

Paper type: Master Thesis

Kamruzzaman, Palash. "Participation in theory and practice in the production of a poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) : the case of Bangladesh." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.494163.

Garr, Ewald Quaye. "Infrastructure policy reforms and rural poverty reduction in Ghana : the case of the Keta Sea Defence Project." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2010. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_3240_1299063830.

This minithesis seeks to understand why infrastructure projects fail to contribute effectively to poverty (rural) reduction. The thesis assumes that though infrastructure provision can impact positively on rural poverty reduction, the same infrastructure provision has worsened or put people in worse conditions of poverty. Therefore it is not automatic that infrastructure provision would reduce rural poverty as often held. The thesis goes on to postulate that a positive relationship between infrastructure and rural poverty reduction is best achieved within a broad or generic policy which provides the framework for providing such infrastructure. The thesis assesses these assertions empirically by first, testing the relationships between infrastructure and rural poverty reduction. Here a large scale infrastructure project in Ghana known as the Keta sea defence project serves as the case study. Secondly the thesis assesses Ghana&rsquo s infrastructure provision policy environment and its implications on rural poverty reduction in the affected communities of the Keta sea defence project.

Musingafi, Maxwell. "Single mothers empowerment through small business development projects in Gweru, Zimbabwe : the case of the GWAPA Poverty Alleviation Programme / Maxwell Constantine Chando Musingafi." Thesis, North-West University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/2861.

Yeldell, Shauna Dilworth. "Impact of Microfinance Institutions for Female Entrepreneurs: Evidence from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2019. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/563112.

Bruiners, Natasja. "Multi-purpose community centres : a local economic development strategy towards sustainable community empowerment and poverty alleviation in the Dwars River region." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/53509.

Eduah, Gregory. "The Impact of the World Bank’s SAP and PRSP on Ghana: Neoliberal and Civil Society Participation Perspectives." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/31487.

Redman, David F. "Tourism as a poverty alleviation strategy: opportunities and barriers for creating backward economic linkages in Lang Co, Vietnam : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, New Zealand." Massey University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10179/1059.

Kinuthia, Wanyee. "“Accumulation by Dispossession” by the Global Extractive Industry: The Case of Canada." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/30170.

Bambeni, Ntobeko. "Challenges faced by the state- funded rural women’s co-operatives in reducing poverty in the Mbhashe area, Eastern Cape Province." Diss., 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/36810.

Worton, Jane. "Poor people's participation in poverty reduction." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/1400.

Krüger, Abraham Andries Johannes. "The textile industry as a vehicle for poverty reduction : a community empowerment model." 2015. http://encore.tut.ac.za/iii/cpro/DigitalItemViewPage.external?sp=1001490.

Icheku, Jude Emeka. "The church and poverty reduction : the case of the Hope Empowerment Scheme of Durban Christian Centre Church." Thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/2081.

Muruvi, Wanzirai. "Assessing Community Conditions that Facilitate Implementation of Participatory Poverty Reduction Strategies." Thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10214/3167.

Kodj, Grace Dede. "The role of women in poverty reduction in Ghana." Diss., 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/27560.

Callistus, Agbaam Akachabwon. "Assessing the impact of the livelihood empowerment against poverty (leap) social grant programme on household poverty reduction in rural Ghana: a case study of the Tolon-Kumbungu district in northern Ghana." 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3940.

Runguma, Sebastian Njagi. "The political economy of poverty reduction in Kenya : a comparative analysis of two rural countries." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/15407.

Abiche, Tefera Talore. "Community empowerment and sustainable livelihoods : transforming social capital into entrepreneurship in rural Southern Ethiopia." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/10190.

Chauya, Ivy Violet. "The effectiveness of community development groups in poverty reduction with regards to individual community members : the case of Likasi area development programme in Mchinji district, Malawi." Diss., 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/18928.

Menyuko, Elsie Deliwe. "The experiences of participants in income-generating projects in Atteridgeville, Tshwane." Diss., 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/4802.

Chibwe, Edward M. "Using robust identification strategies to evaluate impact of 2010/2011 farmer input support programme on maize yields and asset accumulation in rural Zambia." Diss., 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/43301.

Koagetse, Motlapele Sylvia. "The impact of a development centre approach on poverty alleviation in Region A of the City of Johannesburg." Diss., 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23641.

Mashego, Thabo Rodney. "Evaluation of the level of community participation in the implementation of the Indigent Exit Strategy as a poverty alleviation measure in the City of Tshwane." Diss., 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19611.

Eschbach, Philipp. "The effect of entitlement and patronage on empowerment : a case study on a development project in Bangladesh." Diss., 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/25544.

Anjos, Ana Paula Dionísio dos. "Os orçamentos participativos na capacitação territorial de Bragança e o papel do serviço social." Master's thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10316/94877.

Oberholzer, Petra Malan. "Bemagtiging van kliënte in die maatskaplike werk binne die konteks van armoede." 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/15685.

Ali, Adem Chanie. "Participatory development communication in Ethiopia : a local development organization in focus." Thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22071.

Kapundu, Anny Kalingwishi. "A critical evaluation of the roles and strategies of civil society organisations in development : a case study of Planact in Johannesburg." Diss., 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/23561.

Bhomoyi, Ntombikayise Mandisa. "Human security and development : a case of Diepsloot, extention 12, Johannesburg." Diss., 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/27551.

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Social Issues Thesis: Poverty and Homelessness

Social issues thesis: poverty and homelessness presentation, free google slides theme, powerpoint template, and canva presentation template.

Social injustices like poverty and homelessness must be stopped, and for that we must investigate its causes in thorough research. Why are we allowing a system to keep people on the streets, without food and house, while there are millions of empty houses around the world? This is a structural problem, and social mobility has long been gone, the capitalist dream has proven not to work and the consequences of it are impacting our lives, and the planet. If you have conducted a research on this issue and are planning to defend your thesis, this template will make your job easier. It contains lot of resources and a formal design that will make the most of your speech.

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Sanford Celebrates the Class of 2024

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Our newest graduates join more than 9,500 Duke Sanford alumni worldwide.

for undergraduates, public policy is a liberal arts major. Students to read critically, think analytically, and write concisely.

This celebration concided with Duke University's centennial celebration .

Families joined us from around the world.

Duke Sanford is one of the nation's premier schools of public policy, recognized both nationally and abroad for teaching, policy engagement and research.

The Sanford School of Public Policy graduation ceremonies on May 10 recognized more than 300 graduates from six academic programs this spring:

• Executive Master of National Security Policy (MNSP);
• International Master of Environmental Policy (IMEP);
• Master of International Development Policy (MIDP);
• Master of Public Policy (MPP);
• Public Policy doctoral program (PhD); and
• Public Policy undergraduate major (PPS).

Graduate Degree Ceremony Overview

Both the graduate (9AM) and undergraduate (1PM) ceremonies were introduced by Sanford Dean Judith Kelley. She began her remarks by connecting the graduating students to an ancient story of the “red thread” told through ancient Greek mythology, relating it to the thread of community that will always guide Sanford graduates back to their common roots.

As new members of the 9,500-plus Sanford alumni population that spans over 100 countries, Kelley reminded graduates of the lifetime of aspirations and expectations that await Sanford students.

Her address was punctuated by the inclusion of an actual red ribbon in each student program, a reminder not only of the Greek reference but also of her own Danish heritage, “The story of Theseus and Adriadne’s thread was part of the inspiration for what has become a concept in Scandinavian countries, including Denmark, my home country. “Den røde tråd.” The red thread,” said Kelley.

Watch her address.

Distinguished Alumni Speaker Ryan Smith, MPP’14

The Distinguished Alumni Speaker was Ryan Smith, MPP’14. Currently serving as the Innovation Team Project Manager for the City of Durham, Smith delivered a poignant speech to the graduating class of 2024, reflecting on his journey and sharing insights gleaned from his experiences. Smith, who leads a rapidly growing department, expressed his deep honor in addressing the class and welcomed them as fellow alumni. He compared the graduates to his own team and welcomed them as alums. "I’m so glad you’re a part of our team. And I’m excited for what we can accomplish with the addition of your heart, talents, and experience that we could not have otherwise,” said Smith.

Reflecting on his own journey, Smith shared instances where he found purpose and joy in serving his community. He recounted initiatives such as the development of a legal services program, collaboration with formerly incarcerated individuals, and leading a branch of public safety focused on compassionate responses to behavioral health crises. Through these experiences, Smith emphasized the fulfillment derived from making a positive impact on society.

Smith acknowledged the inevitability of facing difficult days and encouraged the graduates to embrace them. He shared two guiding principles for navigating challenging times: drawing near to those impacted by their work and taking action despite limitations. "When you are working on really challenging issues, you have to make sure you’re taking time to draw close and center those most impacted and marginalized,” Smith expressed.

Drawing from his work with the Durham Community Safety Department, Smith emphasized the importance of empathizing with marginalized communities and centering their experiences in policymaking. He shared the story of Martin, a homeless individual struggling with mental illness, to illustrate the significance of understanding individual needs and addressing systemic barriers.

Smith emphasized the role of leadership in mobilizing collective efforts to address societal challenges. He recounted how his team collaborated with various stakeholders to establish emergency shelters for the homeless during cold weather, demonstrating the power of unified action in effecting change. "Leadership is about the ability to bring people together around a common challenge and finding a way forward, drawing upon the group’s collective power, resources, and talent."

Finally, Smith encouraged the graduates to celebrate small victories and to remain connected to their support networks. He emphasized the importance of cherishing every step forward and expressed optimism for the graduates' future endeavors.

"Don’t take the small wins for granted. Celebrate every step you can along the way."

Read more about Ryan Smith.  | Watch his address

2024 Richard Stubbing Award: Professor Mallory SoRelle

Mallory SoRelle with Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Manoj Mohanan.

Professor Mallory SoRelle won the 2024 Stubbing Award for teaching and mentoring graduate students. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the school's graduate programs and commitment to the personal and professional development of their students.  

Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Manoj Mohanan announced the award during the 2024 Graduate Commencement ceremony, congratulating SoRelle for her extraordinary care for students and the greater Sanford community.

This award, established in honor of the late Richard Stubbing (a celebrated Sanford professor), is nominated by graduate students. SoRelle received numerous nominations, one of which included this summary of SoRelle's excellence in teaching.

“Professor Mallory SoRelle is deeply committed to teaching at all levels. This semester, she created a new undergraduate course on policy feedback with a hands-on survey lab component. She also teaches a core course for PhD first-year students, laying the foundation for a successful PhD journey. For me personally, she has been invaluable in terms of my professional and personal development. I would not be finishing my PhD this year with a tenure-track position without her.”

Read more about SoRelle and the Stubbing Award.  | Watch her receive the award

3 PhDs awarded

Public Policy: Xinyue "Alison" Pei | Essays on Labor Market Dynamics and Innovation. Advisor: Prof Matthew S. Johnson. Posing with: Prof Kate Bundorf.

Environmental Policy: Maya Chandrasekaran| Energy Access, Time Use, and Women’s Empowerment in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Advisor: Prof Marc Jeuland. Posing with Prof Subhrendu Pattanayak.

Environmental Policy: Zhenxuan Wang | The Economics of Energy Infrastructure and Climate Change. Advisor: Prof Robyn Meeks. Posing with: Robyn Meeks and Prof Billy Pizer.

Undergraduate Degree Ceremony Overview

Undergraduate speaker: laya sathyan.

Undergraduate speaker Laya Sathyan emphasized potential for positive change.

Laya Sathyan delivered Sanford’s 2024 student address. As a graduating student focused on Public Policy and Global Health, she began by expressing her gratitude for the opportunity to address her fellow graduates, faculty, and guests, reflecting on her journey since arriving at Duke in 2020. "If you're like me, you graduated high school by reaching for your diploma out of your car window, like picking up a hashbrown at the McDonalds drive-through,” said Sathyan, eliciting laughter from her classmates.

From there, Sathyan acknowledged the transformative power of her education at Duke and Sanford, emphasizing the importance of embracing change. She highlighted the impact of the pandemic on their academic journey and personal growth, noting the resilience required to navigate through unfamiliar circumstances. She compared her personal change to the potential for change in all people. "Sanford has changed all of us, in our maturity, capabilities, and understandings of the world,” she pointed out. "I hope we can all run towards [change] rather than away."

To illustrate this, Sathyan shared a powerful anecdote about Durham racial justice advocate Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis, the former leader of the Durham Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating the transformative potential of forgiveness in overcoming deep-seated differences. She emphasized the importance of forgiveness as a catalyst for progress and unity in a divided world.

"Society has become more divisive and fragmented than ever before. We are encouraged to hate and to hate blindly with no compassion for those on the other side. As Sanford graduates, we have the power to either further this divide or bridge it."

In her closing remarks, Sathyan urged her fellow graduates to honor their education and continue the legacy of Sanford by advocating for positive change. She emphasized the importance of forgiveness, self-reflection, and the belief in the capacity for personal and societal transformation. "In a world that is marked by division, to love and forgive is a radical act,” said Sathyan.

She finished again encouraging the audience to embrace change. “I ask my classmates, the class of 2024, for one thing. Do not leave Sanford behind. This graduation marks our transformation from students into policymakers, advocates, and leaders. As you move forward into the next stage of your lives, I ask you to honor the gift that was our education here, and to carry Sanford, and everything this school stands for into the future. I ask you to remember the importance of forgiveness, to others and to yourself. And I ask you to remember that everyone has the capacity to change.”

Read more about Laya Sathyan.  | Watch her address

Fleishman Award Winner (Highest Grade Point Average)

Katie Heath, Hannah Galdes, Grace Endrud and Anisha Reddy posing with Sanford's founding director Joel Fleishman for which the award is named.

Best Honors Thesis: Christina Wang

Christina Wang is Sanford’s 2024 Best Thesis winner with an Honors Thesis titled "What Do Americans Think Democracy Means?” which includes research that reflects her dedication to understanding democratic principles and amplifying the voices of the American people. Read more about Christina and her research.

Featured Video

2024 Terry Sanford Leadership Award Winner: Grace Endrud

Grace is one of two 2024 Terry Sanford Leadership Award winners, a prestigious award for public policy undergraduates at Duke. She says when she first came to Duke, she didn’t see herself as a leader, instead she focused on her work in the classroom. But when she applied for Duke’s Nakayama Public Service Scholars program, something clicked.

2024 Terry Sanford Leadership Award Winner: Chloe Nguyen

Chloe Nguyen is one of two winners of the 2024 Terry Sanford Leadership Award. Chloe is passionate about understanding the psychological drivers of intergroup conflict like political polarization and developing interventions to address them. 

More awards

• Charles B. Rangel Fellowship : Manon Fuchs
• Critical Language Scholarship : Manon Fuchs, Charles Hester and Samyuktha Sreeram
• Schwarzman Scholarship: Sejal Mayer-Patel
• Gaither Junior Fellowship: Kristin Zhu
• Fulbright Scholarship: Andrew Greene

Watch Fleishman and Terry Sanford Leadership Award Winners on stage.

Tifft Teaching Award: Lisa Gennetian

Named after the esteemed Susan Tifft, the Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the Practice of Communications and Journalism, this award celebrates educators who excel in guiding and nurturing undergraduate students.

Students nominated Lisa Gennetian for the 2024 award, and the praise for her instruction was glowing. Gennetian is Pritzker Professor of Early Learning Policy Studies at Sanford and is an applied economist who studies how poverty and policy interventions to alleviate it affect children’s development, education, and other outcomes.

Gennetian teaches the core microeconomics course for Sanford undergraduates. The many students who nominated her for this award praised her ability to make economics less daunting by engaging the class with accessible real-world examples, including from her own research.

The nominations called her a “phenomenal” and “passionate” teacher who cares deeply about her students, always wanting them to see how economic principles matter to understanding and addressing the policy problems they care about. Students appreciated her flexibility, accessibility, and sense of humor, as well as the welcoming and lively environment she created in the classroom.

Read more about Lisa Gennetian and the Tifft Teaching Award.  | Watch her receive the award

More Graduation Stories

We have profiled a wide variety of Duke Sanford School of Public Policy graduates. 

Matt LoJacono

Matt LoJacono is Sanford's Senior Public Relations Manager. With a focus on media relations, Matt oversees and nurtures connections between the institution and various outlets, ensuring effective communication about faculty, staff, and students. He is also responsible for crafting engaging news stories and in-depth articles that highlight the events and achievements within Sanford. As such, when the need arises, Matt is in charge of updating printed materials including the faculty guide throughout the year.

Matt holds a BA in Public Relations from George Mason University and an MS in Communication from North Carolina State University. He is an active member of the Public Relations Society of America, further expanding his and Sanford's network. Outside of work, Matt enjoys going to baseball games and is an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox.

Related Stories

2024 Graduation Stories: Solomon Ayehu

2024 Graduation Stories: Chloe Nguyen

Graduation Stories 2024: Grace Endrud

Funding endowed chair in agricultural economics reflects couple’s global vision brought home: “Purdue is special in our lives”

• Story by Nancy Alexander
• Photos by Bosch Studios Photography
• May 13, 2024

B ob and Karen Thompson have operated as a team, both throughout their 55-year marriage and in their long-standing commitment to sending Purdue Agriculture students abroad and welcoming international students to their home.

Now the Thompsons are strengthening the international focus of Bob’s former department by endowing the Robert and Karen Thompson Chair in International Agricultural Economics. The couple hopes the position will ensure a leading scholar in an international aspect of the discipline such as trade, development or comparative agricultural policy “to help solidify the commitment to the international focus in the offerings of the department,” he says.

The Thompson Chair is open-ended by design. “As a former dean, I understand that the college has to have the flexibility to respond to greatest needs and opportunities that come along that you never see coming,” Bob says.

Thompson knows about unanticipated opportunities. He grew up in New York state, so close to the Canadian border that the news source in his home was the Canadian Broadcasting Company, which he credits with “more of an international perspective than the average American community would get.”

Despite his emerging interest in international affairs, his options for study abroad were limited. Some local high schools sent students overseas through American Field Service (AFS) programs. “I really wished my little rural high school — I was in a graduating class of 20 — would get an AFS program, but it never did,” he recalls.

Thompson’s focus on agricultural policy emerged as an undergraduate at Cornell University, where he became intrigued by international food issues such as hunger and poverty. He applied for the university’s two study abroad scholarships — and ended up as first runner-up for each of them. Based on his interest, however, officials told him that if he was accepted to another program, Cornell would support him with additional scholarship funds.

Thompson wasn’t selective about his destination. “My first choice was ‘wherever,’” he says.

“Wherever” turned out to be Denmark for his junior year, where he met Karen, then a student in elementary education who grew up on a small farm on the Danish island of Bornholm. The couple maintained a long-distance romance for two years after Bob returned to Cornell and then completed a master’s degree at Purdue.

Shortly after they married in August 1968, the Thompsons went to Laos with International Voluntary Service, a Peace Corps-type program that allowed the two citizens of different countries to serve together, working with local agriculture and home economics extension agents.

Karen immigrated to the U.S. when they returned from Laos in 1970. That summer, they came to Purdue for her to complete her elementary education degree and Bob to begin a PhD program in agricultural economics. After earning her teaching degree in 1971, Karen started a master’s degree in special education.

In summer 1972, the Thompsons went abroad again, this time to Brazil, where Purdue had an institutional strengthening program with the Federal University of Viçosa dating to the 1950s. Bob collected data for his thesis and taught agricultural production economics in Portuguese, while Karen taught the elementary school-age children of Purdue professors on the Viçosa project.

Now a family of three — their daughter, Kristina, was born in Brazil — the Thompsons returned to Purdue in January 1974. At the May commencement, Karen received her master’s degree, and Bob received his PhD and joined the agricultural economics faculty. Their second child, Eric, arrived a year later. As a faculty member, Bob developed a nationally recognized program in international trade and agricultural development.

In 1983, the family moved to Washington, D.C. for a one-year leave that extended to four. There Bob served as a senior staff economist for the President’s Council on Economic Advisers, and later, assistant secretary for economics for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  

Thompson returned to Purdue as dean of the College of Agriculture in 1987 and was a strong advocate for study abroad.  At the beginning of his tenure, only one student in the College of Agriculture was studying overseas. When he left six-and-a-half years later, 10 percent of agriculture students graduated having had an international experience.

Thompson equates his one year in Denmark, two in Laos and two in Brazil, all within a nine-year time frame, to “a second PhD program.”

Having on-the-ground international experience made me much more effective as a professional doing research in other countries. Agriculture is such a global industry. To be a well-prepared professional in any agricultural occupation requires having a global vision or perspective.” - Bob Thompson

In 1993 Thompson left the dean’s position to return to his passion for developing agriculture and reducing hunger in low-income countries. He became president and chief executive officer of the Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development; and later moved back to Washington, D.C. to become director of rural development for the World Bank.

In Washington, Karen became volunteer curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s lace collection in its American History Museum. Her mother had taught her the basics of bobbin lace, and over time she honed her skills through training courses in several European countries. In addition to research and writing on lace made in colonial Ipswich, Massachusetts, the only U.S. site of a commercial bobbin lace industry, Karen continues to teach online courses on the technique. 

Thompson’s commitment to study abroad laid the groundwork for the nearly 40 percent of Agriculture students who now graduate having studied abroad in hundreds of wide-ranging programs the college offers through International Programs in Agriculture  (IPIA).

The Thompsons were so passionate about providing international opportunities to undergraduates that they endowed the Robert L. and Karen H. Thompson Scholarship to support students who participate in international study programs in agriculture.

IPIA asks the scholarship recipients to send the couple a postcard from their overseas institution. “Those are so nice to receive,” Bob says. “The comment that you hear most often is that it’s ‘a life-changing experience.’ It certainly was for me.”

Ensuring that agriculture students experience different cultures firsthand is good for Indiana agriculture, Karen adds. “It’s great for the ones who go back on the farms, but for the ones who are hired by agribusiness, the firms want international experience.”

Bob credits Karen for managing family and hosting responsibilities while he taught, conducted research and served in administrative positions. In addition to raising bicultural and bilingual children, the Thompsons regularly welcomed international students and friends to their home. Karen recalls learning to prepare an American Thanksgiving dinner before she had ever had one herself.

“Our children grew up with the American part of the family, the Danish part of the family, but also the international students at Purdue, because they really became our third family, to us and our children,” she says. “And it’s so important for the international students to get to know an American home and family.”

Not surprisingly, the travel bug also bit the Thompsons’ children. Kristina studied in Denmark in high school and college before volunteering with the Peace Corps in Benin and later, in Rwanda with her husband, Tom. The couple currently is assigned to Cotonou, Benin, where she is the Peace Corps’ country program and training director, and Tom teaches in the international school.

Both Eric and his wife, Amy, are Purdue graduates. Eric spent his junior year in Purdue Engineering at a German university and completed graduate study at the Danish Technical University. He now works in human hearing research for the Air Force. Their son is a high school senior, and their two daughters both studied abroad as college students.

“You detect a pattern here?” Bob asks, smiling.

The international perspective that the Thompsons cultivated in their own home has over time changed the College of Agriculture, by broadening student horizons through study abroad, and now, in a new chair in agricultural economics that promises to impact teaching and research.

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