Research Report submitted to the School of Public Health University of the Witwatersrand, Degree of Master of Public Health 25 May 2015 / In Zimbabwe, HIV prevalence is higher among women than men of reproductive age- 18% vs. 12%. Gender power imbalances exist in our societies and result in relationship power imbalances; which increase women’s vulnerability to HIV. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between relationship power and HIV sero-status among low-income urban Zimbabwean women attending post-natal care clinics. Methodology: A secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional survey conducted among 2 042 women aged 15-49 years, attending six low-income urban clinics in Harare in 2011. HIV results were based on rapid HIV diagnostic tests conducted during ANC. Shona intervieweradministered structured-questionnaires were used to collect data. This secondary analysis was limited to women with a known HIV status (n= 1 951). Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: The study population mean age of the 26 years (SD=5.8). HIV prevalence was 14.6% (n=299). Having a partner who ever refused use of any family planning method was associated with the women’s HIV status (aOR 1.75, 95% CI 1.10-2.78). A non-significant association was found between relationship control by the male partner and women’s HIV status after adjusting for other factors. Conclusion: Although there were patterns of high male partner control in intimate relationships, not all women were without agency. Our study provides further evidence that male dominance in intimate relationships increases women’s vulnerability to HIV. HIV prevention programmes, interventions and policies should address gender issues to help curb this disproportionate pandemic among the woman sub-population.

This dissertation uses data from the 2006 American Community Survey and Decennial Census 2000 to analyze trends and determinants of poverty among Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants in the Southwestern United States. The chapters include: 1) an Introduction; 2) a Literature Review with sub-sections on many issues related to these populations; 3) a discussion of Data and Methods including a section on the Development of a Proxy Variable for Undocumented Status; 4) Results for Mexican Americans (Individual Level); 5) Results for Mexican Immigrants (Individual Level); 6) Multilevel Results; and 7) Conclusions and Future Research Directions. The introduction and literature review will provide a background and overview of the research, as well as the analysis of poverty at the individual and contextual level (i.e. the Super-PUMA level). Data and methods are then discussed relative to all the analyses to be undertaken in the dissertation. In addition, specific emphasis in this chapter will be placed on the methodology pertaining to the development of the undocumented proxy variable. In Chapter IV data are analyzed at the individual level through the use of logistic regression. Special attention is placed on variables pertaining to ethnicity, citizenship status, and years spent in the US, among others, in order to predict the likelihood of Mexican Americans being in extreme poverty, one hundred percent poverty, and low-income. The focus is then narrowed in Chapter V to Mexican immigrants with special attention given to the effect on poverty of undocumented status. In Chapter VI, independent variables at the contextual level are used to predict poverty in conjunction with those used at the individual level; these include the percentage of persons in poverty, concentration of Mexican immigrants, and the relative presence of various industries. The findings confirm that both individual level and contextual level predictors are key in the determination of poverty for Mexican Americans and immigrants. In the conclusion, discussion is given to the fact that many studies have focused on the individual level predictors of poverty; this research goes one step further in that it examines poverty not only with respect to individual predictors, but also group level variables.

Thesis (M. Journ.)University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

London and its poorest inhabitants, the residuum, became pivotal in the development of the thought of both William Booth and Karl Marx. Each was to identify the residuum as a potential army of the poor. The London residuum's impact came from its size and the level and duration of poverty suffered. Booth and Marx were among many people who would search for a solution to the problem of the poverty of London's underclass. William Booth had been marked by the poverty he saw in his youth in Nottingham and was profoundly affected by the suffering of the London residuum. His interaction with this underclass was instrumental in the form his organisation, the Salvation Army, would take. The two crucial dates were 1865, when the size of the residuum led him to leave an itinerant evangelical ministry and remain in the East End of London, and 1890, when the intractability of the poverty of the submerged tenth caused Booth to publicise the problem and institutionalise his organisation's response. Karl Marx had first been drawn to the study of economics by the plight of the poor in the Moselle region of his native Germany. It was London's residuum, its size the result of the development of capitalism, that caused Marx to recognise that its members were the necessary victims of capitalism's advance. In the size of London's surplus population he also recognised its complexity, with the reserve army of labour an economic condition for, and the lumpenproletariat a consequence of, capitalism. Booth's organisation and Marx's economic theory began in their early encounters with poverty and were shaped in interaction with the London residuum, as each recognised that much of the suffering was caused by the working of laissez-faire capitalism and that its total solution required a challenge to the existing economic system.

Older women have been perceived as among the least powerful groups m society expenencmg poverty both as older people and as women. Contemporary challenges to oppression and discrimination, associated with age and gender, together with the social policy focus on combating social exclusion, raise important questions about i) the meanings of social inclusion and exclusion to older women, and ii) the ways in which older women act to achieve a sense of social inclusion. The notions of social inclusion and exclusion are closely linked with the concept of power, and the associated processes of empowerment and disempowerment. Within a theoretical framework based on developing conceptions of power, this thesis examines the role of collective action in achieving a sense of inclusion and empowerment. In-depth interviews were carried out with thirty-seven older women selected to reflect their involvement in four contrasting types of collective action: • political action groups emphasising consciousness raising and change; • organisations emphasising social/leisure activities; • group activity based around learning/education; • voluntary activity as well as a group of women who, through choice or circumstances, were not involved in collective action. Emerging themes were shared/reviewed/refined with five small groups made up of original participants in order to achieve a participatory and iterative process of interpretation, maximising the validity and utility of the findings. The study extends knowledge and understanding of the processes and dynamics of empowering change in the lives of older women, and in particular the potential of different forms of collective action for older women to support processes of empowerment and achieve a sense of social inclusion. It suggests that older women do not simply succumb to their circumstances, they can and do take action. However, it is important to appreciate that these actions are not always viewed as political or as resistance.

Abstract This paper is a contribution to the discussion about globalisation, democracy and development. It proposes revisiting the current multilateral architecture for economic growth and development whilst simultaneously encouraging greater coherence, cooperation and coordination amongst the countries of Southern Africa. Competing conceptual definitions, contextual histories and performance data regarding current institutions and agencies are then presented. The resulting proposals for global reform favours the identification of the critical role played by knowledge, technology and innovation systems in redressing the inequalities and asymmetries of mere 'market-led' development.

Dr. Brian Mayer's presentation from the Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop Community Forum held at the Habitat for Humanity, Tucson, May 15, 2015

Program from the Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop Community Forum held May 15, 2015, Habitat for Humanity Tucson

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No description available.