Showing papers on "Poverty published in 2019"

The United Nations World Water Development Report 2019: Leaving No One Behind

Abstract: The 2019 Report seeks to inform policy and decision-makers, inside and outside the water community, how improvements in water resources management and access to water supply and sanitation services are essential to overcoming poverty and addressing various other social and economic inequities. In an increasingly globalized world, the impacts of water-related decisions cross borders and affect everyone. Extreme events, environmental degradation, population growth, rapid urbanization, unsustainable and inequitable consumption patterns, conflicts and social unrest, and unprecedented migratory flows are among the interconnected pressures faced by humanity, often hitting those in vulnerable situations the hardest through their impacts on water. Addressing the inequalities faced by disadvantaged groups requires tailored solutions that take account of the day-to-day realities of people and communities in vulnerable situations. Properly designed and adequately implemented policies, efficient and appropriate use of financial resources, as well as evidence-based knowledge on water resources and water-related issues are also vital to eliminating inequalities in access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Titled ‘Leaving No One Behind ’, the report reinforces the commitments made by the UN member states in adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and in recognizing the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, both of which are essential for eradicating poverty and for building prosperous, peaceful societies.

Strategy for a globally coordinated response to a priority neglected tropical disease: Snakebite envenoming.

Abstract: In one of his final essays, statesman and former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan said, ‘Snakebite is the most important tropical disease you’ve never heard of’ [1]. Mr. Annan firmly believed that victims of snakebite envenoming should be recognised and afforded greater efforts at improved prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. During the last years of his life, he advocated strongly for the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the global community to give greater priority to this disease of poverty and its victims.

Social determinants of breast cancer risk, stage, and survival

Abstract: Social determinants of health that have been examined in relation to breast cancer incidence, stage at diagnosis, and survival include socioeconomic status (income, education), neighborhood disadvantage, unemployment, racial discrimination, social support, and social network. Other social determinants of health include medical distrust, immigration, status, inadequate housing, food insecurity, and geographic factors such as neighborhood access to health services. Socioeconomic factors influence risk of breast cancer. For all racial/ethnic groups, breast cancer incidence rates tend to be positively associated with socioeconomic status. On the other hand, low socioeconomic status is associated with increased risk of aggressive premenopausal breast cancers as well as late stage of diagnosis and poorer survival. There are well-documented disparities in breast cancer survival by socioeconomic status, race, education, census-tract-level poverty, and access to health insurance and preventive care. Poverty is associated with other factors related to late stage at breast cancer diagnosis and poorer survival such as inadequate health insurance, lack of a primary care physician and poor access to health care. The results of this review indicate that social determinants such as poverty, lack of education, neighborhood disadvantage, residential segregation by race, racial discrimination, lack of social support, and social isolation play an important role in breast cancer stage at diagnosis and survival. To address these social determinants and eliminate cancer disparities, effective interventions are needed that account for the social and environmental contexts in which cancer patients live and are treated.

The price ain’t right? Hospital prices and health spending on the privately insured

Abstract: We use insurance claims data for 27.6 percent of individuals with private employer-sponsored insurance in the US between 2007 and 2011 to examine the variation in health spending and in hospitals’ transaction prices. We document the variation in hospital prices within and across geographic areas, examine how hospital prices influence the variation in health spending on the privately insured, and analyze the factors associated with hospital price variation. Four key findings emerge. First, health care spending per privately insured beneficiary varies by a factor of three across the 306 Hospital Referral Regions (HRRs) in the US. Moreover, the correlation between total spending per privately insured beneficiary and total spending per Medicare beneficiary across HRRs is only 0.14. Second, variation in providers’ transaction prices across HRRs is the primary driver of spending variation for the privately insured, whereas variation in the quantity of care provided across HRRs is the primary driver of Medicare spending variation. Consequently, extrapolating lessons on health spending from Medicare to the privately insured must be done with caution. Third, we document large dispersion in overall inpatient hospital prices and in prices for seven relatively homogenous procedures. For example, hospital prices for lower-limb MRIs vary by a factor of twelve across the nation and, on average, two-fold within HRRs. Finally, hospital prices are positively associated with indicators of hospital market power. Even after conditioning on many demand and cost factors, hospital prices in monopoly markets are 15.3 percent higher than those in markets with four or more hospitals.

Growth and Persistence of Place-Based Mortality in the United States: The Rural Mortality Penalty.

Abstract: Objectives. To examine 47 years of US urban and rural mortality trends at the county level, controlling for effects of education, income, poverty, and race.Methods. We obtained (1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention WONDER (Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research) data (1970–2016) on 104 million deaths; (2) US Census data on education, poverty, and race; and (3) Bureau of Economic Analysis data on income. We calculated ordinary least square regression models, including interaction models, for each year. We graphed standardized parameter estimates for 47 years.Results. Rural–urban mortality disparities increased from the mid-1980s through 2016. We found education, race, and rurality to be strong predictors; we found strong interactions between percentage poverty and percentage rural, indicating that the largest penalty was in high-poverty, rural counties.Conclusions. The rural–urban mortality disparity was persistent, growing, and large when compared to other place-based disparities. Th...

Adjusting for social risk factors impacts performance and penalties in the hospital readmissions reduction program

Abstract: Objective Medicare's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) does not account for social risk factors in risk adjustment, and this may lead the program to unfairly penalize safety-net hospitals. Our objective was to determine the impact of adjusting for social risk factors on HRRP penalties. Study design Retrospective cohort study. Data sources/study setting Claims data for 2 952 605 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), congestive heart failure (CHF) or pneumonia from December 2012 to November 2015. Principal findings Poverty, disability, housing instability, residence in a disadvantaged neighborhood, and hospital population from a disadvantaged neighborhood were associated with higher readmission rates. Under current program specifications, safety-net hospitals had higher readmission ratios (AMI, 1.020 vs 0.986 for the most affluent hospitals; pneumonia, 1.031 vs 0.984; and CHF, 1.037 vs 0.977). Adding social factors to risk adjustment cut these differences in half. Over half the safety-net hospitals saw their penalty decline; 4-7.5 percent went from having a penalty to having no penalty. These changes translated into a $17 million reduction in penalties to safety-net hospitals. Conclusions Accounting for social risk can have a major financial impact on safety-net hospitals. Adjustment for these factors could reduce negative unintended consequences of the HRRP.

Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy

Abstract: It may sound crazy to pay people an income whether or not they are working or looking for work But the idea of providing an unconditional basic income to every individual, rich or poor, active or inactive, has been advocated by such major thinkers as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and John Kenneth Galbraith For a long time, it was hardly noticed and never taken seriously Today, with the traditional welfare state creaking under pressure, it has become one of the most widely debated social policy proposals in the world Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght present the most comprehensive defense of this radical idea so far, advocating it as our most realistic hope for addressing economic insecurity and social exclusion in the twenty-first century The authors seamlessly combine philosophy, politics, and economics as they compare the idea of a basic income with rival ideas past and present for guarding against poverty and unemployment They trace its history, tackle the economic and ethical objections against an unconditional income--including its alleged tendency to sap incentives and foster free riding--and lay out how such an apparently implausible idea might be viable financially and achievable politically Finally, they consider the relevance of the proposal in an increasingly globalized economy In an age of growing inequality and divided politics, when old answers to enduring social problems no longer inspire confidence, Basic Income presents fresh reasons to hope that we might yet achieve a free society and a sane economy

The African Millennium Villages

Abstract: We describe the concept, strategy, and initial results of the Millennium Villages Project and implications regarding sustainability and scalability. Our underlying hypothesis is that the interacting crises of agriculture, health, and infrastructure in rural Africa can be overcome through targeted public-sector investments to raise rural productivity and, thereby, to increased private-sector saving and investments. This is carried out by empowering impoverished communities with science-based interventions. Seventy-eight Millennium Villages have been initiated in 12 sites in 10 African countries, each representing a major agroecological zone. In early results, the research villages in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Malawi have reduced malaria prevalence, met caloric requirements, generated crop surpluses, enabled school feeding programs, and provided cash earnings for farm families. agriculture environment hunger Millennium Development Goals poverty

Energy, Poverty, and Health in Climate Change: A Comprehensive Review of an Emerging Literature.

Abstract: Household energy is increasingly vital for maintaining good health. Unaffordable and inadequate household energy presents adverse consequences that are amplified by poverty and a changing climate. To date, the connections between energy, socioeconomic disadvantage, and well-being are generally underappreciated, and household energy connection with climate change is under-researched. Building on the energy insecurity framework, this review explores literature related to household energy, poverty, and health in order to highlight the disproportionate burdens borne by vulnerable populations in adequately meeting household energy needs. This paper is based on a comprehensive review of books, peer-reviewed articles, and reports published between 1990 and 2019, identified via databases including JSTOR and PubMed. A total of 406 publications were selected as having potential for full review, 203 received full review, and 162 were included in this paper on the basis of set inclusion criteria. From the literature review, we created an original heuristic model that describes energy insecurity as either acute or chronic, and we further explore the mediators and pathways that link energy insecurity to health. In the discussion, we posit that the extant literature does not sufficiently consider that vulnerable communities often experience energy insecurity bundled with other hardships. We also discuss energy, poverty, and health through the lens of climate change, making the criticism that most research on household energy does not consider climate change. This evidence is important for enhancing research in this field and developing programmatic and policy interventions as they pertain to energy access, affordability, and health, with special emphasis on vulnerable populations, climate change, and social inequality.

Energy poverty and social relations: a capabilities approach

Abstract: Energy poverty is widely understood to be a complex and multi-faceted problem, with a range of drivers. In this paper we draw on secondary qualitative data on energy poverty from the UK, as well as conceptual thinking informed by the capabilities approach, to explore a previously understudied facet of energy poverty: social relations. We focus particularly on how relationships with family, friends, agencies and distant others impact on people’s ability to cope with energy poverty. We find that the connection between social relations and energy poverty is recursive: good social relations can both enable access to energy services, and be a product of such access. This connection is also shaped by structural factors, such as access to a range of resources, membership of particular collectivities, the need to perform social roles, and the common reasons used to explain poverty and energy use. Our work suggests that attempts to address energy poverty need to take into account the quality of people’s social relations, as well as the potential impact of policy and practice on social relations, given that people rely on their friends and families for information support and advice, on key agency workers for access to resources, and are also constrained by discourses of poverty.

The nexus between carbon emissions, poverty, economic growth, and logistics operations-empirical evidence from southeast Asian countries.

Abstract: This research examines the role of poverty and logistical operations under the circumstance of environmental deterioration with panel data of ASEAN states from 2007 to 2017. The system-generalized method of moments (GMM) was adopted due to the presence of endogeneity. The results indicate that poverty and logistical operations have significant and positive relationship with greater environmental degradation. Because poor people are not skilled, they have to consume natural resources in original and unsustainable way for their survival and profits, which results in greater level of deforestation. On another hand, lacking fuel-efficient/green vehicles and green practices in logistical operations of ASEAN countries, logistics activities mainly depend on fossil fuel consumption, which generates greater carbon emission, methane, and greenhouse emissions that can directly damage the environment and become a primary source of climate change. Therefore, reduction in environmental degradation can be achieved through reduction in poverty and encouraging renewable energy and green practices in logistical operations. In addition, this study also provides detailed policy implications to regulatory bodies and corporate sector in order to improve environmental sustainability through adoption of green practices and reduction in poverty.

Role of economics in analyzing the environment and sustainable development.

Abstract: The environmental sciences have documented large and worrisome changes in earth systems, from climate change and loss of biodiversity, to changes in hydrological and nutrient cycles and depletion of natural resources (1⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓–12). These global environmental changes have potentially large negative consequences for future human well-being, and raise questions about whether global civilization is on a sustainable path or is “consuming too much” by depleting vital natural capital (13). The increased scale of economic activity and the consequent increasing impacts on a finite Earth arises from both major demographic changes—including population growth, shifts in age structure, urbanization, and spatial redistributions through migration (14⇓⇓⇓–18)—and rising per capita income and shifts in consumption patterns, such as increases in meat consumption with rising income (19, 20). At the same time, many people are consuming too little. In 2015, ∼10% of the world’s population (736 million) lived in extreme poverty with incomes of less than $1.90 per day (21). In 2017, 821 million people were malnourished, an increase in the number reported malnourished compared with 2016 (22). There is an urgent need for further economic development to lift people out of poverty. In addition, rising inequality resulting in increasing polarization of society is itself a threat to achieving sustainable development. Eliminating poverty (goal 1) and hunger (goal 2), achieving gender equality (goal 6), and reducing inequality (goal 10) feature prominently in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (23). A recent special issue in PNAS on natural capital framed the challenge of sustainable development as one of developing “economic, social, and governance systems capable of ending poverty and achieving sustainable levels of population and consumption while securing the life-support systems underpinning current and future human well-being” (24 … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: polasky{at}umn.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Reductions in deforestation and poverty from decentralized forest management in Nepal

Abstract: Since the 1980’s, decentralized forest management has been promoted as a way to enhance sustainable forest use and reduce rural poverty. Rural communities manage increasing amounts of the world’s forests, yet rigorous evidence using large-N data on whether community-based forest management (CFM) can jointly reduce both deforestation and poverty remains scarce. We estimate the impacts of CFM using a large longitudinal dataset that integrates national census-based poverty measures with high-resolution forest cover change data, and near-complete information on Nepal’s >18,000 community forests. We compare changes in forest cover and poverty from 2000–2012 for subdistricts with or without CFM arrangements, but that are otherwise similar in terms of socioeconomic and biophysical baseline measures. Our results indicate that CFM has, on average, contributed to significant net reductions in both poverty and deforestation across Nepal, and that CFM increases the likelihood of win–win outcomes. We also find that the estimated reduced deforestation impacts of community forests are lower where baseline poverty levels are high, and greater where community forests are larger and have existed longer. These results indicate that greater benefits may result from longer-term investments and larger areas committed to CFM, but that community forests established in poorer areas may require additional support to minimize tradeoffs between socioeconomic and environmental outcomes. Rural communities manage much of the world’s forests, but the effects on both landscapes and people are still unclear. This study estimates the impacts of such community-based forest management in Nepal from 2000–2012 and finds significant net reductions in both deforestation and poverty.

The Impact of Cash Transfers: A Review of the Evidence from Low- and Middle-income Countries

Abstract: This article presents the findings of a review of the impact of non-contributory cash transfers on individuals and households in low- and middle-income countries, covering the literature of 15 years, from 2000 to 2015. Based on evidence extracted from 165 studies, retrieved through a systematic search and screening process, this article discusses the impact of cash transfers on 35 indicators covering six outcome areas: monetary poverty; education; health and nutrition; savings, investment and production; work; and empowerment. For most of the studies, cash transfers contributed to progress in the selected indicators in the direction intended by policymakers. Despite variations in the size and strength of the underlying evidence base by outcome and indicator, this finding is consistent across all outcome areas. The article also investigates unintended effects of cash transfer receipt, such as potential reductions in adult work effort and increased fertility, finding limited evidence for such unintended effects. Finally, the article highlights gaps in the evidence base and areas which would benefit from additional future research.

Plumbing Poverty: Mapping Hot Spots of Racial and Geographic Inequality in U.S. Household Water Insecurity

Abstract: Household water insecurity is a global threat to human health and development, yet existing metrics lack a systematic consideration of geographic inequality and spatial variation. In this article, ...

Accelerating Poverty Reduction in Africa

Abstract: Sub-Saharan Africa's turnaround over the past couple of decades has been dramatic. After many years in decline, the continent's economy picked up in the mid-1990s. Along with this macroeconomic growth, people became healthier, many more youngsters attended schools, and the rate of extreme poverty declined from 54 percent in 1990 to 41 percent in 2015. Political and social freedoms expanded, and gender equality advanced. Conflict in the region also subsided, although it still claims thousands of civilian lives in some countries and still drives pressing numbers of displaced persons. Despite Africa’s widespread economic and social welfare accomplishments, the region’s challenges remain daunting: economic growth has slowed in recent years. Poverty rates in many countries are the highest in the world. And notably, the number of poor in Africa is rising because of population growth. From a global perspective, the biggest concentration of poverty has shifted from South Asia to Africa. Accelerating poverty reduction in Africa explores critical policy entry points to address the demographic, societal, and political drivers of poverty; improve income-earning opportunities both on and off the farm; and better mobilize resources for the poor. It looks beyond macroeconomic stability and growth - critical yet insufficient components of these objectives - to ask what more can be done and where policy makers should focus their attention to speed up poverty reduction. The pro-poor policy agenda advanced in this volume requires not only economic growth where the poor work and live, but also mitigation of the many risks to which African households are exposed. As such, this report takes a jobs lens to its task. It focuses squarely on the productivity and livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable - that is, what it will take to increase their earnings. Finally, it presents a road map for financing the poverty and development agenda.

Socioecologically informed use of remote sensing data to predict rural household poverty

Abstract: Tracking the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targeting interventions requires frequent, up-to-date data on social, economic, and ecosystem conditions. Monitoring socioeconomic targets using household survey data would require census enumeration combined with annual sample surveys on consumption and socioeconomic trends. Such surveys could cost up to $253 billion globally during the lifetime of the SDGs, almost double the global development assistance budget for 2013. We examine the role that satellite data could have in monitoring progress toward reducing poverty in rural areas by asking two questions: (i) Can household wealth be predicted from satellite data? (ii) Can a socioecologically informed multilevel treatment of the satellite data increase the ability to explain variance in household wealth? We found that satellite data explained up to 62% of the variation in household level wealth in a rural area of western Kenya when using a multilevel approach. This was a 10% increase compared with previously used single-level methods, which do not consider details of spatial landscape use. The size of buildings within a family compound (homestead), amount of bare agricultural land surrounding a homestead, amount of bare ground inside the homestead, and the length of growing season were important predictor variables. Our results show that a multilevel approach linking satellite and household data allows improved mapping of homestead characteristics, local land uses, and agricultural productivity, illustrating that satellite data can support the data revolution required for monitoring SDGs, especially those related to poverty and leaving no one behind.