Viewing all posts with tag: Poverty  

Living on 100 Rupees a Day

Last week Public Radio International reported on two young middle-class Indian men who spent three weeks in Bangalore living on 100 rupees a day followed by one week living at India’s controversial new poverty line of 32 rupees a day (roughly equal to 60 cents). “When you’re living on that amount, life is all about innovation,” says Tushar Vashisht  in this story“…because every hour you’re thinking at least 10 minutes on that hour how you’re going to survive the next hour.” It's an interesting story that underscores many of the findings from Portfolios of the Poor: How the Worlds’s Poor Live on $2 a Day, foremost among them is that these two young men used savings to fund their daily existence. They didn’t experience the erratic shifts in daily income that characterizes poverty in India and other parts of the global south. “Somebody doesn’t pop out of the ground and give you $2 every day,” says Daryl Collins, co-author of Portfolios of the Poor, in this PRI story. “What is the most difficult is that sometimes it’s $5 and then it’s nothing and then it’s $1 and then it’s $2 and then it goes back to nothing.” Additionally, she adds “Somebody who is living on 100 rupees a day, they could indeed be living on 40 rupees a day because they are sending so much back home to the villages." . . .

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Poor America

U.S. poverty-watchers have long expected another uptick in the poverty rate, and on Tuesday the Census put numbers to that (correct) expectation: 46.2 million Americans fell below the federal poverty line in 2010, a full 15.1% of the population. That marks the third annual increase in the poverty rate. In 2009, 14.3% of Americans were in poverty; in 2008, 13.2% were. . . .

For a real-world sense of what that means, consider that in 2010, the federal poverty line for a family with two adults and two children was $22,113. . . .

This, of course, is the continued impact of the Great Recession. The recession may have “ended” in June 2009, but the unemployment rate is still at 9.1%. We are also now starting to see the waning effects of stimulus spending, which, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, managed to keep 4.5 million people out of poverty in 2009. . . .

In other words, this story is going to be with us for a long while yet. And so we should be clear about what that story is . . .  . . .

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Eradicating poverty and the Buddhist dilemma: An Interview with Dean Karlan

Is there a sure-fire solution to eradicating global poverty? The experts generally fall into two camps: those who believe what is needed is more money in more places; and those who think that too much has already been spent too inefficiently and ineffectively, requiring a new and smarter approach to aid. Hence the Buddhist dilemma that Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel allude to in the introduction to their new book, More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics Is Helping to Solve Global Poverty. Karlan, a development economist at Yale and co-founder of FAI, and Appel, a researcher at Innovations for Poverty Action, founded by Karlan, argue that there is a third way ---combining behavioral economics with rigorous evaluation. Their new book takes readers around the globe –where economic theory collides with real life – and offers a new way to understand what is working (and not working) in the fight to reduce poverty. FAI talks to Dean Karlan. . . .

Solving poverty—checking your preconceptions at the door . . .  . . .

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Living on $1 a Day

Could you live on $1 a day? In New York City, probably not. What about in rural Guatemala?  Inspired by The Portfolios of the Poor, four American college students attempted to do just that. They spent nine weeks living and working in a rural Guatemalan village. Their goal? To understand and document how the world's poor, quite literally, live on a dollar a day. . . .

Their first step was to try to replicate the living conditions of poor farmers by taking a microfinance loan of $300, using it to rent a plot of land on which they grew crops to repay the loan installments. And these guys did their homework . . .  . . .

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Why "temptation goods matter"

Nicholas Kristof is catching a lot of flak these days for a recent column on what he calls an "ugly secret of global poverty."  Citing conversations with people in Congo, as well as research by IPA Research Affiliates Abhijit  Banerjee and Esther Duflo, Kristof explains that it is not necessarily true that the poor can't afford certain important purchases such as mosquito nets or school fees.  Rather, funds that could have been spent on those crucial items are instead funnelled away to less than virtuous items such as alcohol, tobacco, or gambling.  . . .

But calling this tendency to spend money on small luxuries an "ugly secret of global poverty" is misleading.  It's not only about global poverty.  Everyone spends money on things they don't necessarily need, and could forego in order to save for bigger, important purchases.  I, for one, would have around fifty more bucks a month in my savings account if I could kick my Diet Coke habit.  (Ouch!) It's just that I'm fortunate enough to live in a space where that fifty bucks isn't the difference between whether or not I get a primary education, or a deadly malaria infection.   I don't think it's that the poor are necessarily more susceptible to temptation than the rest of us.  The poor just have less room for error. . . .

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How microfinance can help Haiti

The recent tragedy in Haiti serves as a stark reminder of just how vulnerable the poor are in the face of emergencies. When crises hit, households often turn to family and friends for help, and the news stories from Haiti are full of inspiring stories of charity.  But the news reports also bring home the fact that in large-scale disasters, like the earthquake in Haiti, it’s hard to rely on acquaintances, neighbors, friends, and family members.  No one has much to spare. . . .

There’s hope that microfinance institutions can help provide a path towards recovery and reconstruction, despite the devastation.   . . .

Fonkoze is the largest microfinance institution in Haiti and one of the most admired in the hemisphere. Following the earthquake, the organization’s response was immediate. Within a matter of days, all 41 of its branches in Haiti were operational, providing the opportunity for customers to make withdrawals and receive transfers from friends and family members abroad. Fonkoze also developed a Relief and Rehabilitation Fund, which will be used for a range of purposes including: “providing relief to staff members, opening an emergency operations center, delivering remittances, acquiring equipment and facilities, and assisting clients who have lost their business and homes.” . . .

This is not the first time that Fonkoze has faced disaster . . .  . . .

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