Uganda experienced significant economic growth from 1992 to 2009. Following economic restructuring, the national poverty rate fell from about 56 per cent in 1992 to 25 per cent in 2009/10. However, while the overall proportion of the people living in poverty dropped significantly, in 2007, 64 per cent of older people were still living below the poverty line (Help Age International, 2007). Older people in Uganda make up 4.2 per cent of the total population which is 30.7 million. They are economically active: 84 per cent are involved with agriculture. However, over 90 per cent of the older persons live in rural areas where poverty rates are higher than in urban areas. Older people are vulnerable owing to HIV/AIDs: 12 per cent of Ugandan children are AIDS orphans and a quarter of these live in a household headed by an older person. In addition, out of the 16 per cent of the population with a disability, older people comprise 53 per cent. Furthermore, more than half of the older persons have never been to school. However, the majority of older persons provide for their households, this challenges the government position that ‘older people are generally too weak to perform productive work and are economically dependent on others’ (UNHS, 2009/10:137). This thesis focuses on the following questions: What is poverty? What explains the exclusion of older people from poverty reduction programmes? How do older people address poverty in their households?The study used qualitative methods, employing 120 interviews, including in-depth interviews with 18 representatives of government and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) six focus group discussions and 60 semi-structured interviews, to provide insight into the strategies used to fight poverty at the Sub County level. Narrative interviews and observation of non-verbal communication were employed to analyse older people’s experience of Poverty reduction programmes and identify their poverty alleviation strategies. Programme guidelines and policy documents were reviewed to gain detailed information about the backgrounds to the strategies, the modes of implementation and the theories that influenced the strategies. The study was carried out in Katabi and Mbututumula subcounties of Wakiso and Luwero respectively. This study found that the Government and CBO’s official views of what poverty is do not seem to differ much, but when it comes to identification of the poor then differences arise. The research demonstrates that both sectors support the monetary perspective on poverty and identify minimum income and expenditure in terms of a level of consumption below which poverty is identified. This understanding has its roots in an absolute perspective on poverty. Meanwhile, older people’s perspectives on poverty included a wide range of deprivations in their households. For example, the inability to send their grandchildren to school was a common type of self-reported deprivation for the majority of respondents. Older people used a relative concept to define poverty. What was needed for basic survival did depend on the cultural context and involved comparison with what other people in that context could afford. Despite the government’s objective of fighting poverty at the Sub County level, it was clear that government strategies did not include old-age poverty alleviation. Anti-poverty approaches were more strongly linked to the government’s own agenda than to the needs of older people. Yet in all these the older people in poverty were disadvantaged. Older people tended to be excluded by strict eligibility rules and conditions and by individual relationships within the groups formed to tackle poverty. Older people in poverty shy away from Poverty reduction programmes leaving the relatively poor, but those not in absolute poverty, to participate. The participants’ definitions of poverty and living standards observed during the interviews revealed that they were living well above the official poverty line. Furthermore, findings revealed that the right of older people to participate in government Poverty reduction programmes was not supported by legislation and there was limited information available to enable them to demand accountability or even influence policy strategies to address poverty. v In contrast, community based organisations have been remarkable in seeking to reduce poverty among the older persons. Their approach provided support for participation of older people in Poverty reduction programmes. CBOs have conducted skills and possession audits among older people and, based on the results, old-age poverty has been included in development programmes. Such strategies have led to the establishment of credit facilities through community saving schemes and village banks, and age-friendly projects such as hand craft, mat and basket making, mushroom and vegetable growing. These motivate older people to participate and take into account their physical abilities. The formation of groups seems to be a major strategy used by CBOs to enable members to support each other and facilitate both the collective participation in decision making and the barter exchange strategy for goods and services among group members. This study concludes that despite the difficult living conditions of older people in poverty, the majority live independent lives, are self-reliant and use a variety of strategies to address poverty. These include involvement in agriculture, use of community banks, use of manual and business skills, fostering children, family visits, joining religious and collective social groups and training to gain new skills. The present study extends the literature by showing why old age poverty persists despite efforts to counter it. Some implication of the study’s findings are that strict eligibility rules should be used to ensure that poverty alleviation support reaches those who need it most, the formation of groups should not be used as a condition to qualify for government support, information on anti-poverty programmes should be readily available to older persons in poverty and best practices from CBOs and individuals should be incorporated in anti-poverty policies. Keywords: Uganda, poverty alleviation strategies, anti-poverty, older people, community based organisations, government, older people associations.

This study investigates what young people and community organisations see as their support needs in Bayelsa State of Nigeria in “tackling poverty. It also examines the process of influencing policy makers, using social marketing techniques. It seeks to expand understanding of the poverty elimination processes: not only within a developing country’s rural environmental context, but also endeavours to generalize the findings more broadly. It seeks an inclusive approach to policy determination driven by involving grassroots levels. A mixed-methods research design was adopted engaging a quantitative approach in which 300 young people were surveyed using self-completion questionnaires. In addition, a qualitative study in which policy-makers as well as young people and community organisations were interviewed. A discussion group methodology was adopted. Following the data-analysis, a strategy conference was organized in Nigeria, in which the major findings were presented and debated. This research has improved on the previous Multi-dimensional Poverty Index by enlarging it and combining it with a current Social Marketing Technique model. The new Multi-dimensional Poverty Index - Implementable Joint Programme of Action model is user friendly and retains the multidimensional paradigm. This extension was achieved through the literature research, the development of methodology, adopting mixed-methods approach and the strategy conference. The main findings of the research show that young people and community organisations’ support-needs in Bayelsa State of Nigeria are far from being met. A great deal of additional support is required. The most significant causes of poverty amongst young people and community organisations are corruption of government officials, absence of jobs, low wages, oil pollution and IMF/World Bank conditionalities. It was also found that the main experiences of poverty include a high youth unemployment rate, lack of money to go to school, lack of money to start small businesses, less food to eat, no money to treat sickness, no money to buy clothes, no money to afford decent homes, prostitution, and absence of a public transportation system. The research considers the ways in which this additional support might be provided. Importantly, the research also revealed how extreme poverty could be alleviated, and by persuading policy-makers to create real jobs and job opportunities as well as developing employability skills and improving agriculture. In addition, there is a need to attract investors/oil companies to Bayelsa State and to increase investment spending. The lack of social infrastructure and access to free education, steady electricity and free healthcare are also seen as problems. Finally, the research revealed that actively involving young people and community organisations in policy-decision making and policy-implementation processes, including setting new priorities, or re-directing, is likely to enhance the probability of ending extreme poverty.

Due to their disproportionate risk of tenancy non-sustainment there have been concerns raised for young people making a pathway out of homelessness into independent living. Despite these concerns, there has been limited research looking at how young people experience tenancy sustainment or where they move onto after terminating a tenancy. This thesis, drawing on Bourdieu’s (1990a) theory of practice, presents a reconceptualisation of tenancy sustainment as a practice of sustaining a tenancy. The theoretical-empirical analysis is based on data collected through longitudinal research involving two waves of semi- structured interviews with 25 young people, aged 16-25, who had recently made a pathway out of homelessness into their own independent tenancies. The interdependency between a tenant and their tenancy presented young people with pressures which they developed techniques of independent living in response to in order to sustain their tenancy and make it a home. Young people not only had a particular housing position of being a tenant, they held family and education-employment positions which took part in the formation and shaping of the pressures they experienced living independently. Tenancies were not seen as an end in themselves by young people who desired, through the experience of sustaining a tenancy, increasingly independent positions within their other social positions as well. An uneven process of actually existing neoliberalism across policy areas through its influence on young people’s constellation of interdependent relations also created a dissonance within the positions held by young people fostering social suffering. Young people ending a tenancy viewed this as a ‘step backwards’ when it meant decreasing independence such as a return to supported accommodation; ambivalence where it arose from the end of a relationship; and as a move forwards, or ‘getting on with life’, when making a youth transition and housing pathway towards establishing their own family household.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2012

Barriadas au Pérou, Favelas au Brésil, Suburbios en Espagne, Zones Urbaines Sensibles en France. Quel que soit le pays où ils se situent, ces territoires concentrent ce que la ville rejette : des populations en difficulté, exposées plus que d’autres à la pauvreté et à l’exclusion sociale. A partir de deux enquêtes de terrain menées à Villa El Salvador, l’un des plus grands bidonvilles de Lima (Pérou) et à Borny, l’un des quartiers les plus pauvres de Lorraine (France), cette recherche s’intéresse aux processus d’émergence des zones urbaines défavorisées et au rôle déterminant des structures et des rapports socio-économiques et politiques dans les situations de pauvreté et d’exclusion sociale auxquelles sont confrontés leurs habitants. S’appuyant à la fois sur l’outil statistique et sur la parole des habitants, elle met en évidence les particularités et similitudes des deux quartiers ainsi que les dynamiques individuelles et collectives qui leur permettent de faire face à la pauvreté. / Barriadas in Peru, Favelas in Brazil, Suburbios in Spain, Zones Urbaines Sensibles in France. Whatever is the country where they are located, these territories concentrate what the city rejects: populations in trouble, exposed more than others to the poverty and to the social exclusion. On the basis of two field studies, in Villa El Salvador, one of the largest slums in Lima, Peru, and in Borny, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the Lorraine region of France, this research focuses on the processes leading to disadvantaged urban areas and on the decisive role of socioeconomic and political structures and relations in situations of poverty and social exclusion faced by the inhabitants. Using statistical tools and the verbal testimony of the people, this research highlights the peculiarities and the similarities of both districts as well as the individual and collective dynamics which allow them to face the poverty.

No description available.

Ancrée dans une tradition ethnosociologique et dans une perspective compréhensive, cette thèse se fonde sur l’analyse des conditions d’existence de dix hommes « sans domicile » vivant dans la rue hors des circuits d’assistance depuis au moins une dizaine d’années. L’ambition de cette thèse était de recueillir sur leur lieu de vie, les témoignages de ces hommes qui nourrissent ce paradigme sur la grande « exclusion » ; celui-là même faisant d’eux, ces « inutiles au monde » fréquemment présentés comme des êtres « désocialisés », rétifs à toutes action sociales, sous l’emprise d’une pathologie psychique expliquant leur situation d’(auto) « exclusion ». Il s’agissait ainsi de tenter de briser ces représentations au principe même de cette « individualité négative » pour mieux saisir les tenants mais surtout les aboutissants de telles existences, et pour mieux montrer toutes les logiques en action afin de survivre à leur condition d’existence infrahumaine et aux effets du déclassement portés par ce phénomène de régression sociale. Pour ce faire et d’un point de vue méthodologique, l’approche biographique a été privilégiée en adoptant la technique du récit de vie répétés agrémentée d’observations in situ. La particularité de la méthode choisie a été d’être engagée sur la durée, souvent sur plusieurs mois, afin d’analyser en détails leurs trajectoires sociales pour au final découvrir, malgré la singularité des personnes et de leurs histoires de vie, cette forme commune de résistance aux interstices de l’espace social. Une résistance fondée sur une renégociation identitaire utilisant des réminiscences d’un passé d’avant la chute, bien présentes dans les discours et dans les actes, pour laisser s’exprimer cette continuité de l’être malgré les circonstances et cette constance à soi salvatrice. / Rooted in an ethnosociological tradition and from a comprehensive perspective, this thesis is based on the analysis of the conditions of existence of ten men 'homeless' living on the Street outside the channels of assistance for at least a decade.The aim of this thesis was to collect on their place of life, the testimony of these men who feed this paradigm on the great 'exclusion '; same one making them, these " useless to the world " frequently present as human beings «desocialized», reluctant to all social action, under the influence of a psychic pathology explaining their situation of (auto) "exclusion". It was done to try to break these representations to the principle of this " negative individuality ' to understand proponents but especially outs of such lives, and to better show all logic in action in order to survive to their condition of existence subhuman and the effects of decommissioning by the phenomenon of social regression.To do that, and from a methodological point of view, the biographical approach was privileged by adopting the technique of the narrative of repeated life with observations in situ. The peculiarity of the method chosen was to be engaged over time, often over several months, in order to analyze in detail their social trajectories to ultimately discover, despite the uniqueness of people and their life stories, this common form of resistance in the interstices of the social space. Resistance based on identity renegotiation using reminiscences of a past of prior to the drop, well presented in the speech and acts, to let this continuity to be despite the circumstances and this saving constance in itself.

L’objectif principal de cette étude est d’analyser la configuration du pouvoir local dans quatre États mexicains : le Chiapas, le Veracruz, le Yucatan et le District Fédéral, en lien avec la reproduction de la pauvreté et des inégalités, qui persistent en dépit de la mise en œuvre de programmes sociaux destinés aux personnes âgées du pays. Ces quatre États mexicains montrent des similitudes et des différences dans la reproduction du pouvoir par le PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) et par les « grandes familles ». Cette reproduction est à mettre en relation avec le clientélisme politique, qui alimente également la reproduction de la pauvreté et des inégalités. L’étude comparative entre ces quatre États est réalisée dans un contexte de transition sociodémographique et de vieillissement de la population mexicaine. L’étude aborde également les questions de la discrimination du genre, des relations conflictuelles entre classes sociales et du racisme dans les rapports sociaux, en articulation avec la persistance du « colonialisme du pouvoir » mis en œuvre par différents groupes exogènes et endogènes. / The main objective of this study is to analyze the local power configuration in four Mexican states: Chiapas, Veracruz, Yucatan and the Federal District, with regard to reproduction of poverty and inequality that persist despite the implementation of social programs for the elderly in Mexico. These four Mexican states show similarities and differences in the reproduction of power by the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) and by the "big families". This reproduction is related to political clientelism, which also supplies the reproduction of poverty and inequality. The comparative study between four states is carried out within a context of socio-demographic transition and ageing processes of Mexican population. The study also addresses issues of gender discrimination, conflicts between social classes and racism in social relations, in articulation with persistence of the "colonialism of power" implemented by various exogenous and endogenous groups.

Les déséquilibres socio-économiques entre les départements d’Outre-mer et l’Hexagone sont criants. En Martinique, la pauvreté est plus intense et plus diffuse qu’au plan national, elle frappe fortement les exclus du marché du travail et jusqu’aux salariés. Le chômage, un phénomène structurel et endémique, y est deux fois plus élevé et touche majoritairement les jeunes, les femmes et les non-diplômés. Depuis le mouvement social de 2009, et l’instabilité politico-institutionnelle qui l’a accompagné, les tensions sociales restent vives et sont l’expression de frustrations liées à des inégalités persistantes. Comment s’expliquent-elles ? La paupérisation croissante d’une part importante de la population découle d’un environnement économique particulièrement défavorable. La région se caractérise par un développement faible, une situation dégradée du marché de l’emploi, une économie dépendante des transferts publics. L’analyse géographique met en lumière les structures de la pauvreté : profils des familles, accès à l’emploi, qualification et formation, conditions de logement et situation sanitaire des publics démunis. Les dimensions territoriales des dynamiques de pauvreté soulignent le lien entre espace social et espace géographique : les phénomènes de pauvreté, de précarité et d’exclusion sont étudiés à l’échelle des quartiers d’habitat spontané et informel, encore nombreux aujourd’hui en Outre-mer, principaux espaces de production de pauvreté et de ségrégation dans les milieux urbains et ruraux. / There exist blatant socio-economic imbalances between the French overseas departments and metropolitan France. In Martinique more particularly, poverty is more intense and more diffuse than at the national level; it strongly hits both people excluded from the labor market and wage-earning laborers. Unemployment, both a structural and an endemic phenomenon, mainly affects young women and non-graduates. Since the social movement of 2009 and the political and institutional instability that followed, social tensions have remained high, revealing the people’s frustration as to persistent inequalities. How can one account for these inequalities? The increasing impoverishment of a large part of the population stems from a particularly unfavorable economic environment. The region is characterized by its low development, its degraded and deteriorating labor market, and its peculiar economy, relying on government subsidies. The geographic analysis provided by this dissertation highlights the distinctive features of poverty: the profiles of affected families, as well as the characteristics of the impoverished populations in terms of access to employment, skills and training, and health. The territorial dimensions of the dynamics of poverty will also be studied, thus emphasizing the link between social space and geographic space, as poverty, insecurity and exclusion will be analyzed at the level of spontaneous settlement areas (shantytowns / squatter homes). Indeed, poverty and segregation are primarily found in these spontaneous settlements – which are still very numerous in the French overseas departments – in both urban and rural environments.