The ability of the mobile phone to reach and connect people like no technology before it, coupled with its productive potential to benefit private industry, governments, and the poor, makes it an extremely powerful tool for economic development – a tool that is worth investing in. Since their introduction, cell phones have demonstrated the ability to yield for the public good through improved information exchange and access to health care and financial services. In order to realize this potential, the private and public sectors must cooperate to improve regulations to encourage healthy competition and new capital investment while facilitating education in cell phone use.

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The world has witnessed a transformation process associated with the drastic changes in social, political and economic spheres under the constraints of neo-liberalism with opening up new challenges for humanity. At that context, as a global problem, poverty has been aggravating at the world-wide and now urban areas are more exposed to risks of poverty. In this regard, reforms of that restructuring process have centered on the requirement of local administrations at poverty struggle. The purpose of this study is to explore local policy initiatives of local administrations at combating urban poverty with also taking into consideration the central government practices. By the help of the GEKA provinces of Denizli, Aydin, and Mugla cases, urban poverty struggle has been examined in detail by a method covering survey application to the impoverished and the in-depth interview method with local and central government officials. At the study, it is seen that in each case study, local administrations have different institutional, political and social service based contingency variables. Local authorities of case provinces cannot produce systematic, standardized, equal and general poverty alleviation policies and services because of the inherent nature of local government tied to uneven development and contingent local variation. Thus, within the limitation of the study, urban poverty struggle have been searched in specific cases, but it is not possible to determine the results of the research to other cases in Turkey. Even though the research covers up few cases at the urban level, the results will be worthwhile and shed light on other future studies.

Worldwide, poverty remains to be an obstacle to achieve sustainable development and improve the well-being of people. Microfinance has become a popular tool for poverty alleviation and it can now be found in poor countries across the world. Microfinance is based on the principle that poor people can initiate their own development out of poverty, given they have the starting capital to do so. The capital can be invested in income-generating activities and it is assumed that this will lead to a higher income and additional positive effects, like an increase in well-being, will follow. However others argue that the focus on income is only one aspects of poverty, other forms of deprivation and constraints are excluded. This thesis aims to address how microfinance, the provision of credit in particular, has an influence on the well-being of women. A participatory rural appraisal was conducted in order to explore how women define well-being. The perspectives of four women groups from the urban and peri-urban areas of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were included in understanding the local definition of well-being, the developments in their lives and the changes in well-being they have perceived. The results show that the group loans may contribute to positive changes in the well-being of women, but these changes cannot be attributed to the loans alone. The changes in well-being caused by the loan intertwine with other factors like group dynamics and family life; therefore the results need to be interpreted considering the specific context. Furthermore the results show that the changes in well-being are not necessarily related to an increase in income, thus contesting the assumptions on which microfinance is based.

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The main aim of this study is to investigate the poverty situation and outline a strategy for poverty alleviation in the rural area of Mashau. Mashau is one of the villages in the Limpopo province of South Africa and it forms part of the 70% of the country's most poor people who are in the rural areas. Chapter 1 of this study presupposed by way of a central theoretical argument that community based job creation projects that ensure the participation of all stakeholders, community members, government, traditional leaders, non-government and faith-based organizations and business people, can be a useful poverty alleviation strategy in general and also in Mashau. This should be implemented in line with the human centred approach. Each of the four objectives (1.3) comes under scrutiny in Chapters 2-5 respectively. The quest to investigate and assess the poverty situation at Mashau and to come up with a relevant strategy required a broader understanding of the economic and demographic context of the entire Republic of South Africa. That is why Chapter 2 of this study mainly focused on identifying the core variables that are used to measure levels of poverty in South Africa, whilst Chapter 3 focused on current strategic initiatives for poverty alleviation on the part of the government. Chapter 4 paid attention to the scale, manifestations and causes of poverty in Mashau. It became clear that the majority of people in Mashau are unemployed, lack the basics of life and are unable to access services. They depend mainly on government social grants and natural resources (small-scale farming) for subsistence. Although South African policies and frameworks for poverty alleviation are among the best in the world, they have failed the country's people regarding implementation. Mashau village is one of many examples of this neglect. The government has succeeded in building a small number of RDP houses and providing other services at a very low pace. But further than that, the Mashau people cannot experience and enjoy the beauty of South African economic policies and strategies for poverty alleviation. Chapter 5 suggests a relevant strategy for poverty alleviation at Mashau. The strategy proposed affirms the central theoretical argument outlined in Chapter 1. It may be concluded that the suggested strategy can only succeed if the implementation plan or program is put in place together with monitoring and evaluating systems. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

<p>It is the aim of this study to determine the location of poverty alleviation within the framework of the church's missionary activity. The following three approaches will be examined, namely a dualistic approach, the approach of liberation theology and a multi-dimensional approach. The author analysed literature of writers within the context of South African missiological discourse.</p>

<p>In South Africa, poverty engendered by the apartheid regime has long been part of the fabric of the economy. Against this background of social marginalisation, material deprivation and individual vulnerability, tourism has over the years increasingly been mooted as a strategically important and lucrative sector that, if fully explored and exploited, would lead to sustained poverty alleviation in the Republic of South Africa. The central aim of this study was to establish whether tourism as evident in the Spier Tourism model is a sustainable poverty-reduction strategy. The specific objectives of this study were to examine the socio-economic impact of Spier tourism initiatives on its workers (previously disadvantaged individuals) and the local population, to assess the pro-poor tourism practices as implemented by Spier in relation to Rogerson&rsquo / s pro-poor approach, to identify the challenges that Spier is facing in its pro-poor tourism approach with respect to poverty reduction goals, to provide recommendations on how the challenges can be met most effectively and to examine how pro-poor tourism can be promoted and enhanced in South Africa. The study employed both the qualitative and quantitative research designs. Data were collected through different qualitative and quantitative techniques (in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaire). Summary findings indicate that Spier has positively contributed to the socio-economic improvement in the living standards (contribution to livelihood &ndash / increased income, enhanced health and food status), through job creation, improved education/healthcare, empowerment through training and skill development, investment in the corporate social responsibility. However, Spier is still grappling with challenges such as racial disputes, insufficient income of employees and unqualified staff to mention a few. This study makes several recommendations which are based on the findings.</p>

Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. This study analyzes whether rural poverty increases the incidence of food insecurity and whether food insecurity perpetuates the condition of poverty among the rural poor in Bolivia. In order to achieve this aim, the risks that households face and the capacity of households to implement coping strategies in order to mitigate vulnerability shocks are identified. We suggest that efforts by households to become food secure may be difficult in rural areas because of poverty and the vulnerability associated with a lack of physical assets, low levels of human capital, poor infrastructure, and poor health; as well as the precarious regional environment aggravating the severity of vulnerability to food insecurity.

Fantomsmärta är ett komplext fenomen som drabbar många patienter efter amputation av extremitet. Syftet var att utforska hur fantomsmärtor efter amputation av extremitet kan upplevas och lindras. Litteraturstudiens resultat utgörs av 15 vetenskapliga artiklar som presenteras i tre huvudteman vilka är fantomsmärtans komplexitet, lindring genom transkutan elektrisk nervstimulering och lindring genom rörelseterapi. Det har visat sig att upplevelsen av fantomsmärta medför en negativ påverkan för patienter efter amputation av extremitet. Olika behandlingsmetoder till exempel transkutan elektrisk nervstimulering och rörelseterapi har beprövats med varierande resultat. Vidare forskning är nödvändig för att klarlägga den bakomliggande patofysiologin gällande fantomfenomenet för att generera bättre anpassade lindringsmetoder. Vidare forskning är även angelägen för att få en ökad förståelse för patienters upplevelser kring smärtproblematiken. Utformande av PM gällande vård av patienter som lider av fantomsmärtor efter amputation av extremitet vore betydelsefulla. / Phantom limb pain is a complex phenomenon that affects numerous patients following amputation of the extremities. The aim of this study was to explore how phantom limb pain following amputation of extremities can be experienced and alleviated. The study was conducted as a literature review where 15 scientific articles were the basis for the results. Three major themes are presented in the result: the complexity of phantom limb pain, alleviation through transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and alleviation through movement therapy. It has been shown that the experiences of phantom limb have a negative impact on patients following amputation of extremities. Different options regarding treatment, for example transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and movement theory, has been proven with variation in the results. Further research is required to elucidate the underlyingpathophysiology regarding the phantom phenomenon for better understanding and suitable alleviation options. Specific guidelines regarding nursing for patients who suffer from phantom limb pain would be of importance.