The aim of this thesis is to develop approaches that aid agencies could use in the appraisal and/or development of basic education programs in South Pacific countries which address aspects of poverty. It is set in the context of wider international concern that aid programs need to have a more direct impact on the conditions of the poor than they have had in the recent past. Concepts of poverty, basic education and literacy appropriate to South Pacific countries are developed and relationships among them are examined as preliminary steps to data collection and analysis. The data for the thesis comes from programs of aid to basic education that were running in or have commenced since 1985 and consists of formal evaluations and reviews, the opinion of expert panels and anecdotal evidence from individuals. Analysis of the data is conducted in two stages; first, criteria by which to judge the success of programs are developed and applied to the data, and second, the common components of successful programs are identified. The 'components of success' are then used to develop approaches that aid agencies could employ in analysing program proposals and/or in developing programs in basic education that have a poverty focus. Examples of how these approaches could be applied to particular programs are given.

<p>This master’s paper first presents some of the principal theories and concepts developed by the poverty researchers Rowntree, Titmuss, Townsend, Sen and Lister. These theoretical frameworks are then related to two documents from the EU and Sweden concerning combating poverty and social exclusion, bearing on the establishment of the ‘Year 2010 against Poverty’. Finally, I discuss the value in practice of these theories and policy documents, as regards reducing poverty in Europe.</p><p>It has become clear in this investigation that the theories and concepts from earlier research are still relevant to the formulation of contemporary policy programmes, and that earlier research helps us to avoid old traps in fighting poverty. Central terms, perspectives and theories in this thesis are ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ poverty, inequality of social structures, human rights and wellbeing, the capability for overcoming poverty, the multidimensional nature of poverty, and the need for a future woman-friendly and cosmopolitan citizenship. The two policy documents contain different perspectives; such as rights, gender equality, integration and accessibility perspectives, together with the underlying empowerment perspective. In addition, the multidimensional nature of poverty is strongly emphasised. Policy documents have a limitation to their political and economic frames, and in order to avoid this, researchers should have a more active involvement in policy formulation, basically as in the case of official inquiries. Goal-oriented cooperation between policy, research and poor people themselves is crucial to achieving the reduction of poverty in Europe.</p>

<p>This thesis studies the impact from HIV/AIDS on economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. This is an important region for investigation since HIV/AIDS is more common in poor countries where economic growth levels are initially low.</p><p>The theoretical framework for the analysis is the Solow Growth Model. The analysis also considers the impact on changes to human capital and adds this factor to the Solow equation.</p><p>The analysis concludes that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has negative effects on per capita GDP growth through the parameters of the Solow Growth Model, including human capital. The thesis also deduces that the pandemic enhances income and gender inequality.</p><p> </p>

This project examines how Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton discussed issues of poverty and welfare from Johnson’s declaration of War on Poverty in 1964 to Clinton’s signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996. I argue that there are four critical tensions relevant to the debate concerning contemporary poverty in the United States—politics vs. policy, deserving vs. undeserving, help vs. hinder, and equality vs. freedom—and the key to improving the manner in which the nation confronts the problem of poverty requires understanding and negotiating these tensions. The analysis reveals that the five presidents had a mixed but overall rather poor record in confronting the four paradoxes. In general they tended either to avoid the tensions altogether, or fall to one or the other extreme. That being said, the analysis also reveals that there is considerable common ground concerning some critical issues between all the presidents, whether they were Democrats or Republicans, ideologically moderate or more partisan. Foremost among these are the beliefs that equal opportunity should be the overarching ideal, work should be rewarded well, and those that cannot help themselves should be supported as generously as possible by the government. I conclude that the 1996 law, while based in part on questionable assumptions concerning the condition of the poor, could lead to a significant re-framing of the debate away from the generally unpopular focus on welfare and welfare recipients and toward the working poor and the conditions and difficulties under which they labor, which could potentially lead to other positive transformations beneficial to the American poor.

<p>This thesis is based on material gathered during a field study in rural Sri Lanka, a Minor Field Study, (MFS) during April-May 2007. The core of the thesis deals with conceptualisations of empowerment and how they can be interpreted contextually from the perspectives of motherhood. The interplay of gender discourses with structural dimensions are analysed to see how these work to uphold ideals whilst posing contrary demands on mothers. Part of the focus has thus been to look at how discourses are adhered, aligned and adjusted to in various ways as strategies for survival in the context of poverty and marginalisation. The way social constructions perpetuate asymmetrical power relations as natural and normative is also discussed since this is central to how gender discourses are produced, upheld and reproduced. This study initiates in the every day experiences of mothers living in absolute poverty. Through narratives and participatory observations of their daily experiences contextual discourses, structural dimensions and agency are analysed. Their experiences are viewed as interconnected with the wider perspectives of political, economic and social conditions locally and globally. Analysis of these experiences against contextual discourses and structural implications attempts to identify possibilities and potential for empowerment. By raising central issues to the mothers regarding segregation, marginalisation and vulnerability, a more contextual understanding of how empowerment is constrained and facilitated is hopefully achieved. Furthermore, how women in this study respond and relate to these issues and whether empowering experiences can be traced even where overt challenges are absent. Finally, the thesis addresses the complexity of carrying out a study of this kind, where the prerogative to define and conceptualise lies with the researcher, the beholder, representing through this very role inequity in the division of power and privilege.</p>

This thesis studies the impact from HIV/AIDS on economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. This is an important region for investigation since HIV/AIDS is more common in poor countries where economic growth levels are initially low. The theoretical framework for the analysis is the Solow Growth Model. The analysis also considers the impact on changes to human capital and adds this factor to the Solow equation. The analysis concludes that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has negative effects on per capita GDP growth through the parameters of the Solow Growth Model, including human capital. The thesis also deduces that the pandemic enhances income and gender inequality.

This master’s paper first presents some of the principal theories and concepts developed by the poverty researchers Rowntree, Titmuss, Townsend, Sen and Lister. These theoretical frameworks are then related to two documents from the EU and Sweden concerning combating poverty and social exclusion, bearing on the establishment of the ‘Year 2010 against Poverty’. Finally, I discuss the value in practice of these theories and policy documents, as regards reducing poverty in Europe. It has become clear in this investigation that the theories and concepts from earlier research are still relevant to the formulation of contemporary policy programmes, and that earlier research helps us to avoid old traps in fighting poverty. Central terms, perspectives and theories in this thesis are ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ poverty, inequality of social structures, human rights and wellbeing, the capability for overcoming poverty, the multidimensional nature of poverty, and the need for a future woman-friendly and cosmopolitan citizenship. The two policy documents contain different perspectives; such as rights, gender equality, integration and accessibility perspectives, together with the underlying empowerment perspective. In addition, the multidimensional nature of poverty is strongly emphasised. Policy documents have a limitation to their political and economic frames, and in order to avoid this, researchers should have a more active involvement in policy formulation, basically as in the case of official inquiries. Goal-oriented cooperation between policy, research and poor people themselves is crucial to achieving the reduction of poverty in Europe.

This thesis is based on material gathered during a field study in rural Sri Lanka, a Minor Field Study, (MFS) during April-May 2007. The core of the thesis deals with conceptualisations of empowerment and how they can be interpreted contextually from the perspectives of motherhood. The interplay of gender discourses with structural dimensions are analysed to see how these work to uphold ideals whilst posing contrary demands on mothers. Part of the focus has thus been to look at how discourses are adhered, aligned and adjusted to in various ways as strategies for survival in the context of poverty and marginalisation. The way social constructions perpetuate asymmetrical power relations as natural and normative is also discussed since this is central to how gender discourses are produced, upheld and reproduced. This study initiates in the every day experiences of mothers living in absolute poverty. Through narratives and participatory observations of their daily experiences contextual discourses, structural dimensions and agency are analysed. Their experiences are viewed as interconnected with the wider perspectives of political, economic and social conditions locally and globally. Analysis of these experiences against contextual discourses and structural implications attempts to identify possibilities and potential for empowerment. By raising central issues to the mothers regarding segregation, marginalisation and vulnerability, a more contextual understanding of how empowerment is constrained and facilitated is hopefully achieved. Furthermore, how women in this study respond and relate to these issues and whether empowering experiences can be traced even where overt challenges are absent. Finally, the thesis addresses the complexity of carrying out a study of this kind, where the prerogative to define and conceptualise lies with the researcher, the beholder, representing through this very role inequity in the division of power and privilege.

This dissertation demonstrates how ACE has successfully equipped thousands of poor Filipinos with the tools necessary for them to raise themselves out of poverty by offering them a culture-specific curriculum that they can implement in their businesses. Furthermore, it will be argued that ACE's culture-specific curriculum could theoretically be applied in Mexico, where the "culture of poverty" exists in abundance.

The satisfaction-paradox, defined as the state of being satisfied with objectively unsatisfactory living conditions, represents a dysfunctional state of the poor for both the government and individuals by creating long-term poverty. Traditional rationales classify the reasons for this phenomenon as conscious decisions of individuals or shiftlessness and thereby results in material and social costs associated with this phenomenenon for both the individual and the government. This study undertakes a first step to provide empirical evidence for a constructive explanation of the satisfaction-paradox employing the theory of learned helplessness. A secondary analysis of the Hunger Factors Assessment data set in Oregon (1986, 1988) was performed. The study uses a newly developed theoretical model that incorporates both the quality of life model, from which the satisfaction-paradox evolves, as well as the learned helplessness model, offered as one explanation of the paradox. Criteria from the model were then defined by measures in the data set to identify the group of "learned helpless and satisfied poor". Approximately 10 percent of the Oregon Emergency Food Users have been identified as "learned helpless and satisfied poor". The investigation of their socio-demographic characteristics, in comparison to "not learned helpless and dissatisfied poor", has described them as rather more likely to be female, single, older, employed, home owners or renters, living with others, and long-term residents of Oregon. In these ways they seem to be more settled then the poverty stereotype and more closely resemble typical Oregon residents. However, like others in poverty, they lack income and information (or resource) networks. Discriminant analysis was utilized to make a first step towards early identification of the poor "at risk" of learning helplessness by assessing their socio-demographic characteristics. The resulting function includes these variables: age of respondents, their employment status, their gender, the fact that they receive welfare income, their household equipment, their educational level, the number of income sources, the length of residency, their health status, household size, their homeownership, the fact that they have health insurance and finally, the labor potential of their households. It explains, in total, 48.3 percent of the difference between the two groups at a p-level of 0.01 or less, a Chi-Square of 71.13 (dF = 14) and a Wilk's Lambda of 0.76. Its predictive assignment of learned helpless and satisfied poor was 12 percent higher than a random assignment and 15 percent in the case of the not learned helpless and dissatisfied poor. The model, therefore, seems to be useful in understanding a certain segment of the poor, but needs more development research. A longitudinal, primary data set, including psychological variables and refined operationalization of the learned helplessness concept would bring more detailed insight and practical implications. However, it could be shown that an individual attributing "failure" internally, and having opportunity to experience failure and uncontrollability, can enter the process of learning helplessness regardless of former achievements and value dispositions. Causality models to explain poverty should hence acknowledge both micro- and macro-level effects and thus result in more complex explanations and solutions than current models. / Graduation date: 1991