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Introduction: About sixty million of home deliveries occur worldwide every year. The vast majority of them in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) where most of all out of health facility deliveries are attended by relatives and traditional births attendants . Poor hygienic conditions, ignorance of clean birth practices and lack of skills to manage the complications when they occur, make home deliveries unsafe for the mothers and their new-borns. Thus, getting pregnant women to give birth at health facility is critical in the efforts to improve reproductive health outcomes in many LMIC.

Background: In 2003, the Limpopo Department of Health and Social Development introduced a system to train students from poor families as auxiliary nurses as a poverty-alleviation strategy in the province. The programme was aimed at targeting the needy: those who depended on social grants for a living, were orphaned or who headed a family. Five years have passed but no formal evaluation has been done to estimate the impact of the programme. Objective: To evaluate the self-reported impact of auxiliary nursing training of youth from poor families in the Waterberg District on alleviation of their poverty Methodology: A cross-sectional study design using an anonymous structured questionnaire. The study population included 200 auxiliary nurses trained through the programme from 2003 to date. Results: This research found conclusive evidence that the poverty alleviation project in the Limpopo Province has significantly improved the economic conditions of the beneficiaries such as number of rooms in their houses, type of houses, type of floors, refuse collection, indoor water supply, indoor flash toilet, household assets, access to water and wood, number of meals, transport and domestic workers. This study also found positive changes in family income, bank and other accounts. This study shows significant changes in asset indicator scores after respondents had joined the programme. Conclusion: This is the first study to systematically evaluate a poverty alleviation programme in South Africa. Hopefully, both the Department of Finance and the Department of Health and Social Development in the Limpopo Province would utilise the findings of this study to review and to improve other poverty alleviation programmes in the Waterberg District and the Province.

Thesis advisor: Peter Gottschalk / Thesis advisor: Andrew Beauchamp / This dissertation examines whether the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program improves long-term labor force participation of its recipients. The first chapter studies the mechanisms which can generate prolonged effects of wage subsidies on employment, wages, job stability and poverty. I model three mechanisms: experience accumulation, heterogeneity in the job offer arrival rates, and the costs of switching in and out of employment. I estimate the dynamic discrete-choice model of employment and program participation using a sample of single women from Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The estimates suggest that the EITC program primarily stimulates part-time employment. EITC recipients do not become self-sufficient over the long-term because part-time experience accumulation does not translate into substantial wage growth. The interaction between EITC and other public assistance programs also makes part-time jobs desirable. Counterfactual experiments reveal that in order to promote human capital accumulation and wage growth, the number of hours worked should become one of the determinants in the EITC payment schedule. The second chapter estimates the life-long effects of the EITC program on employment decisions of single women. To identify those effects I choose a natural experiment framework and use the discontinuity in the eligibility criteria (and payments) associated with the age of the youngest child in the household. I estimate a model with a conditional (fixed-effect) logistic regression using a sample of single women from Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The estimates suggest that there is no significant life-long effect of the EITC program on female labor force participation. The result is robust to the definition of the control group and the length of the estimated long-term effects. This conclusion supports the concerns that low-skilled workers do not accumulate experience required for a better employment opportunities. That being said, EITC should be considered solely as a short-term subsidy rather than a long-term investment into experience accumulation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Thesis advisor: Eve Spangler / With large numbers of low-income single mothers facing a difficult job market while simultaneously experiencing the erosion of social welfare aid, it is vitally important to understand their efforts and the obstacles they face, trying to move out of poverty. This dissertation examines the ways in which a group of low-income single mothers, who were at the center of the enthnographic study presented here, struggled and also succeeded. Attention is paid to the institutional and personal obstacles that impacted the progress of the women. The research, including annual interviews, took place over a three-year period from 2009-2012, as part of a larger ethnographic study on the low-income single parents who were participants in a community based antipoverty program in South Boston. The articles call into question the ways in which social institutions like schools, workplaces, and social services agencies affect the progress of single mother-headed families, raising challenges to conventional approaches and embedded assumptions about social mobility. The mothers’ stories presented in the articles speak directly to the myth of the welfare queen single mother by offering a view of a group of low-income single mothers working very hard to parent, work and attend school. The research is presented in three articles: Article One: Social Network Development Among Low-income Single Mothers: Potential for Bridging, Bonding and Building Social Capital. This article explores social networks formed by the interviewees through their participation in the antipoverty program. The interview data refute the claim that bonds within the community hinder women in their attempts to move their families out of poverty. We observed benefits from social networks that emerged as a result of program participation in the following categories: practical support, emotional support, modeling and mentoring, and expansion of information resources. We also uncovered a new kind of social network formed among low-income women who were actively pursuing a path out of poverty. These hybrid networks, building social networks (BSNs), form among people who are straddling two worlds, and as such, are uniquely positioned to help one another. Article Two: Moving “Up and Out,” Together: Exploring the Benefits of the Mother-Child Bond for Low-Income Single Mother-headed Families. It is a commonly held belief, even among poverty researchers, that bearing children or bearing additional children negatively impacts the social mobility of low-income single mothers. The data here offer a more complex view of the interactions between mothers and children as they both try to move forward, suggesting that the mother-child bond may be a source of motivation and support. Benefits of the mother-child bond emerged in the following categories: forming an alliance around education for mother and child, viewing children as the primary motivation to move forward, and changing behaviors in order to be role models for children. Article Three: The Winding Path Back to School: Hidden Obstacles to Higher Education for Low-Income Single Mothers. This article explores obstacles to the pursuit of higher education for these low-income single mothers, uncovering challenges that have yet to be explored in the literature about higher education for low-income parents. Findings revealed institutional and practical obstacles to their pursuit of higher education, including conflicting advice from “experts” and difficulty retaining public benefits while attending school. The primary obstacles that emerged were categorized as follows: (a) winding paths and dead ends, (b) difficult transitions, (c) short-sighted decisions, and (d) inflexible institutions. Also evident among interviewees were misconceptions about the policies and practices of institutions of higher education, such as not predicting the difficulty of transferring credits between schools and lack of understanding about differences between degree programs. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis advisor: Andrea Vicini / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

This is a work of creative nonfiction that details the authors’ own experience with homelessness, relays the stories of homeless individuals he has encountered, challenges conventional notions of poverty and what it means to be home, and invites the reader to imagine herself into a day in the life of a destitute individual. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

by Lau Yin Ling. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-88). / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.i / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ii / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.iv / CHAPTER / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- CONCEPT OF ABSOLUTE POVERTY --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- CONCEPT OF RELATIVE POVERTY --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- CONCEPT OF SUBJECTIVE POVERTY --- p.16 / Chapter 2.4 --- STUDIES OF POVERTY IN HONG KONG --- p.18 / Chapter III. --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1 --- CONCEPTUAL ISSUES --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2 --- THE MODEL --- p.23 / Chapter IV. --- THE DATA --- p.32 / Chapter 4.1 --- SAMPLING METHODS --- p.32 / Chapter 4.2 --- GENERAL EXPENDITURE PATTERNS FROM THE 1989/90HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURE SURVEY --- p.35 / Chapter V. --- THE EXTENT OF POVERTY IN HONG KONG --- p.47 / Chapter 5.1 --- SPECIFICATION OF THE MODEL --- p.47 / Chapter 5.2 --- EMPIRICAL RESULTS --- p.52 / Chapter VI. --- THE ABSOLUTE POVERTY PROFILE IN HONG KONG --- p.60 / Chapter 6.1 --- HOUSEHOLD SIZE AND POVERTY --- p.61 / Chapter 6.2 --- HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS AND POVERTY --- p.62 / Chapter 6.3 --- TYPE OF HOUSING AND POVERTY --- p.64 / Chapter VII. --- CONCLUDING REMARKS AND RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.72 / APPENDIX --- p.75 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.82

Fung Shuk Wai Freda. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-75). / ABSTRACT --- p.i / ACKNOWLEDGMENT --- p.ii / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Review of Poverty in China --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Anti-poverty Campaign and Incidence of Poverty after1978 --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Distribution of the Poor --- p.6 / Chapter 1.2 --- Background Information of Guangdong --- p.11 / Chapter Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1 --- Previous Studies of Poverty Measurement in China --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- The Official Estimates of Poverty --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- The Unofficial Poverty Line Estimated by SSB --- p.17 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- The World Bank Poverty Line --- p.21 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- Other Studies of Poverty Line --- p.22 / Chapter 2.2 --- Conceptual Approaches on Appraising Well Being --- p.23 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Welfarist Approach --- p.23 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Non-Welfarist Approach --- p.24 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Relative Merits of Welfarist and Non-welfarist Perspectives --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Concept of Poverty --- p.25 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Absolute Concept of Poverty --- p.25 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Relative Concept of Poverty --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Subjective Concept of Poverty --- p.28 / Chapter 2.4 --- Unit of Analysis and Equivalence Scales --- p.29 / Chapter 2.5 --- The Measurement of Poverty --- p.30 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- Headcount Ratio --- p.31 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Index --- p.32 / Chapter Chapter 3. --- Method and Estimation Results of Equivalence Scales --- p.34 / Chapter 3.1 --- Analytical Framework --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2 --- Specification of the Demand System and Equivalence Scale --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Specification and Estimation of the Translog Model --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Estimation Results of the Demand System and Equivalence Scales --- p.43 / Chapter 3.2.2.1 --- Commodity Specific Equivalence Scales --- p.46 / Chapter 3.2.2.2 --- General Household Equivalence Scales --- p.48 / Chapter Chapter 4. --- Estimation of Poverty Line and Extent of Poverty --- p.52 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Estimation of Poverty Line --- p.52 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Extent of Poverty --- p.53 / Chapter 4.3 --- Sensitivity Analysis --- p.55 / Chapter Chapter 5. --- Concluding Remarks --- p.66 / REFERENCES --- p.70 / APPENDIXES / Appendix I: The Data Set --- p.77 / Appendix II: Details of Teqiong Xian and Fajian Xian Estimated by the SSB --- p.81 / Appendix III: Using Different Reference Household for the Estimation of the Extent of Poverty --- p.82

What is the nature of the links which may exist between social deprivation and harm to children? In seeking to shed light on the nature of these links this thesis will draw upon a study of parents' perceptions of the problems faced by them in bringing up children in neighbourhoods characterised by high scores on indices of social deprivation and high levels of child protection registrations. It will be demonstrated that parents facing social disadvantage encounter a range of adversities and hindrances which may have a cumulative adverse effect upon the care of children. The problems to which these lead will be shown to be linked by three main strands:- - social deprivation contributes to the existence of socially and economically impoverished neighbourhoods in which it is difficult for parents to provide a safe and healthy environment for children - by creating material, social, interpersonal and intrapersonal barriers in families, social deprivation can prevent parents from achieving the standards of parenting to which they might aspire and which society expects of them - in interaction with many other factors, social deprivation can contribute to high levels of psychosocial stress within families that may lead some parents to physically injure or neglect their children. In these ways the study will develop the argument that harm to children is linked to deficits in material resources and complex, interacting psychosocial stress factors. The study will be seen to have major implications for service-provision under the Children Act 1989 and promoting "partnership with parents".