Barriers that disconnect homeless people and make homelessness difficult to interpret

Homes are anchors of human life--whether they are permanent or temporary, are located in one place or are transported from place to place, are owned or rented, or are in planned communities or squatter settlements (Alterman, I., 1993 . In Arias E G (Ed.), The meaning on use of housing: international perspectives, approaches and their applications. London: Avebury, ixx ). This article discusses the definition, meaning and interpretation of 'home' and 'homelessness' based on theoretical constructs and homeless street people's perspective. It discusses the barriers that make homelessness difficult to interpret, such as negative, rejecting and unsympathetic perceptions versus positive, accepting and sympathetic perceptions. The article argues that the meaning and definition of 'home' or 'homelessness' should be contextualised within the broader issues of poverty, deprivation, socio-economic exclusion and, more recently, HIV/Aids. Furthermore, breaking down the barriers of labelling and stigmatisation of the homeless people will allow for a 'real' meaning and definition of home and homelessness. Any intervention with regard to homelessness must take cognisance of homeless people's perceptions.     

大理乳业发展现状及问题研究

作为大理州传统优势产业的乳业承担着稳定经济发展大局,促进农民收入,保障贫困户稳定脱贫的重要任务。首先对大理州乳业的现实发展状况进行了描述;然后分析了当前制约大理州乳业发展的影响因素;最后通过现状和问题的探讨,试图从完善奶牛良种繁育体系、提高技术创新能力、加大资金投入、强化政府支持力度、提升奶农环保意识、加强销售终端建设六个方面提出促进大理州乳产业健康发展的对策建议。     

Poverty Alleviation in the People's Republic of China: The Implications for Sino–African Cooperation in Poverty Reduction

Abstract: In the last thirty years, remarkable achievements have been made in China's poverty reduction course. The dramatic fall in China's poor can be attributed mainly to a high rate of economic growth, government poverty reduction policies and targeted programmes and pro‐poor macroeconomic and industrial policies. This paper focuses on China's poverty reduction policies and programmes and their impact on the poor regions and poor households. Lessons are drawn for poverty reduction and economic development in African countries. The paper also explores the potential for collaboration in poverty reduction between China and African countries and recommendations are made for the governments and donor agencies.     

社会保险缓解了农村老人的多维贫困吗？——兼论“贫困恶性循环”效应

老年人贫困是中国人口老龄化背景下亟需解决的问题,社会保险则在国家反贫与脱贫方面发挥着不可或缺的作用。采用具有代表性的中国老年健康影响因素（CLHLS2011）大样本微观跟踪调查数据,构建Logit计量回归模型,将农村老人贫困分为经济贫困、健康贫困与精神贫困三个维度,从实证的角度,探讨了社会保险与农村老人贫困的关系。研究发现,养老保险与医疗保险在不同程度上缓解了农村老人多个维度的贫困。文章进一步指出农村老人贫困存在“恶性循环”,经济贫困、健康贫困与精神贫困三个维度之间存在显著的相互正向影响,但社会保险对农村老人陷入“贫困恶性循环”起到了的调节效应,即社会保险弱化了不同贫困之间相互的正向作用。这些经验发现可以为政府改善农村老龄人群的贫困状况提供可靠的政策依据。     

宁夏回族自治区乡村旅游扶贫研究

乡村旅游扶贫是我国扶贫工作的重点。宁夏民族地区以其独特的自然优势将乡村旅游扶贫工作发挥的淋漓尽致,不仅帮助了贫困户实现脱贫,还带动了产业的转型。针对宁夏回族自治区为分析其贫困现状和导致贫困的原因进行了研究,以及展开对乡村旅游扶贫的优劣势和面临的阻碍。根据分析结果,探讨了宁夏乡村旅游扶贫的问题与对策。     

Constructing migration: Infrastructure,poverty and development in KwaZulu‐Natal

Migration and population movement are probably the most neglected of the significant dynamics behind rural poverty in South Africa. Little is known about how people move from place to place, and much of what we thought we knew may be incorrect. In KwaZulu‐Natal job search is no longer the single dominating reason given for migration. Instead, infrastructure ties with it for first place today, with land close behind. The first article in this two‐part report notes that as many as two thirds of the province's disadvantaged families have broken away from their communities of origin and moved at least once during their lifetimes. Perhaps three million have migrated in the last fifteen years. A second unexpected finding is the predominance of rural‐to‐rural migration. Three quarters of all moves recorded were rural to rural, with many orientated towards advantaged rural areas around small towns and secondary cities. Results show how streams are channelled towards poverty or opportunity, and argue for a review of prevailing concepts of rural‐urban relations which structure delivery efforts. The second article, to follow later, notes that recorded income levels are now higher in some rural destination areas than in the urban shack communities that accommodate rural‐to‐urban migrants. Results of various studies presented show how access to information affects migration patterns, and the article also explores the role of infrastructure as a determining force in the regional distribution of population and as a factor in people's own bootstrap anti‐poverty efforts.     

China's War on Poverty: Assessing Targeting and the Growth Impacts of Poverty Programs

In this paper, we attempt to assess the effectiveness of China's Poverty Alleviation Programs in contributing to economic growth in poor areas. To meet this overall goal, we briefly describe China's poor area policy and examine how its leaders have implemented one of the developing world's largest poverty alleviation programs. Second, we examine whether or not the poverty programs have been implemented in the parts of China that are truly poor. Finally, we attempt to assess if the poverty programs have affected growth. The major findings are that China's poverty programs do get implemented in areas of the nation that are poor, but there are many poor areas that have been left out of the government's various programs. We also find that poverty programs contribute to economic growth and that economic growth promotes poverty reduction.     

Making tourism work for the poor: Strategies and challenges in southern Africa

This article analyses strategies for 'pro-poor tourism' (PPT), ie strategies that increase the benefits to poor people from tourism development. Based on an international review of six pro-poor tourism case studies, it outlines the wide range of pro-poor tourism strategies used and their impacts to date, with particular focus on southern African case studies. By analysing their progress, problems and the critical factors influencing them, the article identifies implications for the way forward. This review underpins four propositions. First, despite commercial constraints, much can be done to enhance the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction, and a 'PPT' perspective assists in this endeavour. Secondly, PPT strategies can, and should be, incorporated by all actors in tourism, whether in government or business, at local or policy level. Thirdly, a wide range of impacts on poor people, going well beyond jobs, need to be recognised and enhanced. Finally, PPT strategies are difficult, but particularly relevant in southern Africa given the challenges of economic and political transformation, as well as the opportunity to influence international discussions on 'sustainable tourism' at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.     

The level of poverty in South Africa: Consideration of an experiential measure

Poverty is usually measured on a basis that is either subjective (respondent's perceptions) or objective (relating to some externally set standard). This article draws on an ‘experiential’ measure of poverty in which respondents with children report on whether or not they have had sufficient money to feed their children. Data from South Africa's 1994 October Household Survey showed that this and other measures revealed similar levels of poverty. However, the picture drawn of the social distribution of poverty suggests a higher incidence amongst those in squatter settlements and a lower incidence in rural areas.     

Shocks and rural livelihoods in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

This paper describes the impacts that three shocks in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, have had on rural livelihoods: the desiccation of river channels, animal diseases, and HIV/AIDS. Primary data was collected from five study areas, using formal questionnaire interviews and focus group discussions. The paper reveals the adverse effects on rural livelihoods. It describes the way households have been exposed to poverty and vulnerability and the various ways they have coped or adapted, such as by re-allocating their labour, liquidating their assets to cover medical expenses and funeral costs, reducing the area ploughed for crops, hiring labour, digging wells and switching from flood recession agriculture to dryland farming. The Botswana government has provided safety nets to help households cope, but this paper recommends that people's responses to these shocks should be taken into account in future policy and programme formulation.     

Can Social Capital Reduce Poverty? A Study of Rural Households in Eastern Bhutan

This study examines the impact of social capital on the poverty of rural households in eastern Bhutan, with a particular focus on households' participation in community groups, which can be a proxy for the structural aspect of social capital. Using a two‐stage probit least squares simultaneous equation model, the present study reveals that social capital positively contributes to poverty reduction in Bhutan. This study also finds that non‐farm income is important for poverty reduction in rural areas. Our results, however, indicate that poor households in remote areas are discouraged from participating in community groups.     

Anxious communities: the decline of mine migration in the Eastern Cape

This article addresses the neglected question of what happens to development when migration goes into decline. It examines two villages in the Eastern Cape, South Africa's poorest province and long dependent on mine migration, which is now burdened with returning ex-miners because of retrenchments in the mining industry. It describes the negative effect on ex-migrants' psychological wellbeing and standing in the community, and other effects such as the emergence of women as the new migrants as ex-miners fail to cope in other sectors or to apply mine skills at home; an increase in poverty through loss of wages; lack of money for education; a decline in investment in agriculture; the conversion of farmland to grazing; lack of business development; and dependence on pensions and child welfare grants. The article concludes that although migration did not provide a route out of poverty, its absence is making the poor a lot worse off.     

Born to be different: The role of local political leaders in poverty reduction in China

By incorporating imprinting theory into a political–economic framework, this paper studies the role of local political leaders in poverty reduction. Exploiting exogenous turnovers of city-level party secretaries in China, I find that city secretaries with early-life poverty experiences are more likely to increase the incomes of poor families in their jurisdictions. I further find that the effect of city secretaries' poverty experiences on the income of the poor is more pronounced in the counties that are not officially categorized as impoverished by the central government and among the families living above the poverty line set by the Chinese government but below the international poverty line proposed by the World Bank. It is suggested that local political leaders affect poverty reduction outcomes by instilling their personal preferences, which can be shaped by their early experiences, into their economic decisions.     

Poverty in South Africa – a statistical analysis

Poverty is one of the major challenges facing democratic South Africa. This article focuses on poverty in South Africa, using the Income and Expenditure Survey conducted in 1995 by Statistics South Africa (formerly the Central Statistical Service). In the first part, different approaches that can be followed in the measurement of poverty are discussed. In the second part, Sen's approach to the measurement of poverty and the Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) technique have been used to analyse the above data. CHAID is used to explore the relationship between the poverty status of the household (ie poor or non-poor) and other household characteristics. These variables can then be used as predictors of poverty status.     

Hard data or bleeding heart data: The value of qualitative data in research in a rural village in Matatiele District∗

Qualitative data derived from participant observation are often overlooked by development experts anxious to complete their projects speedily. But the surveys they use cannot reveal the details of poor people's lives.

This article presents the case of in‐depth research data about life in areas where development planners often intervene. It demonstrates some ways whereby poor Transkeian villagers deal with the exigencies of dependence on migrant labour, focusing on movements between domestic units and response to the availability of remittances.

It argues that developers should recognise the efficacy of such social practices as developed by the poor themselves. These practices may be usefully applied to effect development so long as this forms part of package aiming to fulfil the vital Southern African need for wealth redistribution. The development practioner's proper role is identified as one demanding direct engagement with the poor, acting as facilitators for their understanding of the structures which constrain them and intending to achieve their own carefully conceived aspirations.     

Seebohm Rowntree and secondary poverty, 1899–19541

This article, focusing on Seebohm Rowntree's poverty surveys, considers the importance and durability of the concept of secondary poverty. It argues that secondary poverty was a central component of Rowntree's first survey of York, carried out in 1899, and in his lectures and writing in the Edwardian period. Moreover, secondary poverty remained an important feature of Rowntree's analysis during the interwar years and after the Second World War, and was adopted by other researchers in various ways. Although secondary poverty was not seriously examined in the published version of Rowntree's 1936 York survey, there is evidence that it was originally intended to feature, and it is clear that impressionistic evidence of poverty was gathered by Rowntree's investigators, as had been the case in 1899. Moreover, although it was completely expunged from the third survey of York, carried out by Rowntree and Lavers in 1950, a separate inquiry into secondary poverty was carried out in the early 1950s, with a number of prominent supporters. Subsequently, dissatisfaction with income‐based definitions and measurements of poverty allowed the concept of secondary poverty to continue to exercise an influence on the study of poverty in the postwar period.     

Perceptions of informal safety nets: A case study from a South African informal settlement

The relevance and importance of informal safety nets that buffer poor households from livelihood hardships have been given little attention in South Africa's development programmes to date. This article contributes to the understanding of informal safety nets by investigating local perceptions in a South African informal settlement. The main findings of the study are that families perform an important safety net function, but that these sources of assistance can be susceptible to social isolation. Immediate neighbours and friends also play an important safety net role, but these reciprocal-based sources of assistance may be difficult to secure. Community-wide threats can have a severe impact on people's ability to engage in safety net transfers. Many of these difficulties stem from South Africa's structural unemployment crisis. This factor is the greatest danger to the future of the informal safety net system in the informal settlement.     

Trends in living conditions and satisfaction among poorer older South Africans: objective and subjective indicators of quality of life in the October Household Survey

The majority of South Africa's older population is income poor and lives in multigeneration households. Since the first democratically elected government came into power in 1994, South Africans have been promised ‘a better life for all’. A range of policies and programmes has been implemented to improve the living standards and quality of life of the poor. The article asks how the older poor have benefited from government interventions in the period 1995–8. Drawing on data compiled from Statistics South Africa's household surveys in 1995 and 1998 (n=20 000–30 000 households), a set of over 35 objective and subjective indicators broken down by income and younger and older households is reviewed. Older households include at least one member over 60 years of age. Results show that access to services and opportunities improves systematically from poor to rich households. Major material gains for the poor and older households during the review period include access to clean water, electricity and home ownership. Older poor households with better access to services and opportunities are more likely to express overall satisfaction with their living circumstances. The study concludes that the most effective mechanism for poverty alleviation appears to be the non-contributory, means-tested state old-age pension, which lifts some households out of the most disadvantaged bottom income group. Policies under discussion promise further opportunities for empowering poor households with older members.     

Identifying the poor in the 1870s and 1880s1

Poverty lines devised throughout England and Wales in the 1870s and 1880s defined ‘the poor’, a new class not recognized by the poor law. This article provides an account of the poverty lines adopted, mainly by school boards, in about 40 different places; the context in which they were developed; and what has been retrieved of the reasons determining the adoption of specific poverty lines. In particular, it examines the principal controversies surrounding them, and the challenge they posed to the poor law; and, incidentally, compares them to the poverty lines proposed, many years later, by Booth and Rowntree.