Thesis (B.A.)--University of Wisconsin -- La Crosse, 2009. / Also available online. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-40).

No description available.

Research on the effects of Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs), implemented in Third World countries since the early 1980s, has been dominated, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, by the analysis of quantitative, national-level data. The relationship between gender and SAPs at the household level has been largely neglected. This thesis examines the above relationship in Harare, Zimbabwe where the government's recent adoption of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme, ESAP (1991-95) has allowed a study of the processes of change at the household level following changes in macro-economic and social policies. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to provide an integrated picture of changes in the lives of women and men in a random sample of 100 households in one typical high-density suburb in Harare. A base-line study was carried out in mid-1991 and the same households followed up in mid-1992. Gender-specific changes in employment and income, household expenditure, domestic work and involvement in social organisations were investigated as well as responses to the dramatic rises in the cost of living following measures implemented under ESAP. The research shows that almost all households have been negatively affected by ESAP, with widening income differentials and a much greater proportion of households falling below the Poverty Datum Line. Household savings have been depleted and a greater number of households are in debt. Women's income has declined to a greater extent than men's and their responsibility to meet daily consumption needs of the household has become more difficult to fulfil, resulting in increased gender-based conflict. Although all households were forced to cut consumption, the poorest households have been worst affected with women taking greater cuts than men. Coping responses were found to be individual and family-based, sometimes across urban and rural areas, rather than community-based. Responses have been defensive, aimed at coping with rather than changing the situation, and largely ineffective in compensating for declining real wages, rising prices and diminishing income generating opportunities. The relationship between changes at household level and specific policy measures were assessed and the evidence indicates that both income and gender based inequalities have, to date, been exacerbated by ESAP. The Social Dimensions of Adjustment poverty alleviation programme is very weak in its conceptualisation and implementation. The study emphasizes the need for more equitable and gender-sensitive strategies for development.

No description available.

The objective of this thesis is to understand how poor farm households in developing countries are affected by and cope with the legacy of internal war. The theoretical analysis is based on a peasant household model for land abundant countries as war can be shown to weaken markets, re-enforce household subsistence and increase overall land abundance. The empirical analysis uses regression techniques and a household survey from post-war northern Mozambique to assess the implications of the war legacy for land access, coping strategies, and household welfare. The key findings include that war can enhance the degree of land abundance while also creating barriers to land access for some households, thus re-defining land abundance as a household-level concept. Land emerges as the least war vulnerable asset thus encouraging households to shift to land-based subsistence activities during the war. The experience of war increases the number of endogenously determined land variables, which should therefore be reflected in models of African land use. The thesis advances the literature of household coping strategies by focussing on little researched post-disaster and war-induced strategies. Households are found to respond to indirect war effects and thus to rely on subsistence and non-market activities and to make selective use of markets. Surprisingly, social exchange does not play a large role for insuring incomes. Finally, the thesis finds that the war legacy continues to depress household welfare for many years after the end of the conflict, which is attributed to a variety of poverty traps. Importantly, and in contrast to other studies of post-war Mozambique, education and cotton adoption are not found to enhance household welfare significantly but a larger area farmed does. The findings indicate that post-war reconstruction policy should re-capitalise household endowments and stimulate rural markets as part of a broadly based programme of rural development.

When grain production falls short of consumption expectations in self-provisioning households, a range of responses is possible. How each household selects from and manages these responses provides the theoretical and empirical focus of this thesis. Several problematic issues in the 'coping strategies' literature are addressed, including questions of response sequencing and 'discrete stages', the timing of asset sales for food, and the relationship between consumption protecting and consumption modifying strategies. Among other theoretical advances, criteria for response sequencing are identified which explain decisions about which assets to sell for food, and when, in terms of each asset's expected return rather than its immediate 'entitlement' value. This thesis is grounded in fieldwork conducted in the West African semi-arid tropics, a region characterised by seasonally, agricultural risk and market imperfections. Drought and armyworms undermined crop production in the fieldwork village in 1987/8. The community is highly stratified economically, and striking cross-sectional contrasts in household behaviour and nutritional outcomes were observed. Food secure households practice demographic, agronomic and economic diversification, which provide access to sources of food and income that are not correlated to local economic fluctuations. Consumption insecure households have narrower options and respond to production deficits by wealth depletion (asset monetisation, debt acquisition) and severe food rationing. Responses to production deficits are not confined to strategies for acquiring food. Multiple objectives - economic, nutritional and social - are retained. Nutritional adjustments are motivated by intertemporal economic priorities. The poorest households protected their assets and rationed consumption most severely: the cost of consuming resources rises as the number and value of assets owned falls. Within households, nutritional surveillance revealed that adults rationed their food consumption earlier and more severely than their children. Adult anthropometric status may therefore be a more robust predictor of food insecurity and economic stress than child anthropometry.

No description available.

Social housing wait lists are indicative of the need for affordable housing in communities across Ontario. Growing wait lists also suggest that existing social housing supply and programs are not a solution to immediate or foreseeable housing problems for most low-income households. As a result, many households turn to shelters or make do with what they are able to find in the private market, often spending more than 30% of their income on rent. The focus of this study is one-person households under the age of 65 who make up approximately 40% of the applicants on Ontario social housing wait lists. This cohort has the longest wait times. What are the housing experiences of this demographic while they wait? How do municipalities respond and what do community advocates say about this response? This study addresses these questions through key informant interviews conducted with single non-senior social housing applicants, community advocates and policy-makers, doing so comparatively for two CMAs: Guelph and Kingston. Examining homelessness through a critical lens of neoliberalism, this study concludes with policy recommendations to address urban housing issues for low-income singles.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Civil Engineering)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2004. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.