Building healthy communities through equitable food access

Community development

Equity in a pastoral commons : Bayan Mountain, Mongolia : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies

Common property regimes (CPRs) have been embraced as a means to achieve sustainable use of resources. However, it is also claimed that these and other forms of communal resource management can allow for equitable access to resources, which is of some importance given the heavier reliance of poorer households on common resources. This view however appears to be contradicted by the existence of wealth differentiation among resource users, suggesting that the reality is more complex. This case study of a local pastoral commons used by Kazak herders in western Mongolia explores factors influencing both access to resources and wealth differentiation, which has been considerable since the end of socialism and attempts to evaluate the extent to which resource access in the CPR can be considered equitable. There is differential resource access in the study community, both in terms of rights of access, with some inequities linked to non-wealth-related household characteristics, and in terms of the ability to realise nominal access rights, which is chiefly affected by relative wealth. Although allocation of access rights is not discriminatory, the interrelationship between wealth and resource access thus serves to reinforce wealth differentiation. Wealth differentiation itself however depends on multiple factors including but not limited to resource access, and does not reliably indicate inequitable access to resources. The case study indicates that CPRs cannot be considered inherently equitable, but that instead equity in resource access is affected by social differentiation in the user group. In addition, where factors considered necessary to successful collective action are wanting, equitable outcomes seem less likely. Thus most inequities in access rights date back to privatisation in Mongolia and the resulting institutional breakdown and lack of user participation both in allocation of resources and in devising appropriate resource access rules. Despite this, evidence from both the case study and other pastoral commons suggests that CPRs may still offer more equitable access to resources than do other types of property regime

Identifying and Evaluating Equity Provisions in State Health Care Reform

Identifies state policies that promote equitable access to quality health care and analyzes whether reform proposals in five states meet those equity benchmarks. Discusses innovative measures and the need to implement truly universal health insurance

Equitable Access to Financial Services: Is Microfinancing Sufficient?

Access to the financial sector has numerous benefits. Savers and investors are matched, transactions costs are lowered and liquidity is created. But less than half of the households in developing countries have access to financial services, compared to over 70 per cent in the developed world. By 2006, even in relatively successful countries such as Ghana and Tanzania, only about 6 per cent of the population had access to banking services. In Benin, there were only 35 bank branches serving a population of 7 million. Will microlending increase access to financial services? (...)Equitable Access to Financial Services: Is Microfinancing Sufficient?

Equitable Access to Basic Services: Who will Guarantee it?

Current practice in utility provision involves the following. Governments retain ownership and pay for capital investments, while privatising the operations and management of the companies. Does this modality guarantee equitable access to water and electricity services? (...)Equitable Access to Basic Services: Who will Guarantee it?

Equitable Access to Basic Utilities: Public versus Private Provision and Beyond

Providing universal access to basic utilities is justified on human rights grounds and also because of the positive externalities involved. Adequate provision of water, sanitation and electricity contributes to the achievement of the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Access to these services, however, is still unequal in the developing world. Services do not adequately reach the poor. This Poverty in Focus brings together a mix of policy issues and some country experiences. Degol Hailu and Raquel Tsukada provide an overview of the broad challenges involved in making access to basic services equitable and universal. Hulya Dagdeviren and Simon A. Robertson point out the difficulties of expanding utility networks in slum areas, which include technical barriers and a lack of land and housing tenure. They make a case for stronger public interventions. Kate Bayliss argues that the allocation of demand and investment risks during privatisation in Sub-Sahara Africa is distorted. This is because the risks are borne by governments and end users instead of the private contractors. David Hall and Emanuele Lobina provide a critique of both the investment potential of the private sector and cost recovery schemes in the provision of sanitation services. Ashley C. Brown discusses the externalities involved in supplying basic infrastructure to those who can least afford it. He argues that, contrary to established views, cross-subsidy schemes actually benefit all users and not only the targeted population. Alison Post emphasises the benefits of water metering but highlights problems of implementation and poor design in Argentina. Degol Hailu, Rafael Osorio and Raquel Tsukada examine the reasons for the privatisation and then renationalisation of the water supply in urban Bolivia. Andre Rossi de Oliveira explores water privatisation in Brazil. He argues that the expansion of coverage has stemmed mainly from high levels of investment by private operators. Suani Teixeira Coelho, Patricia Guardabassi, Beatriz A. Lora and José Goldemberg note that geographically isolated communities without access to electricity grids, such as those in the Amazon, can be served by renewable energy sources. Luc Savard, Dorothée Boccanfuso and Antonio Estache present the findings of a general equilibrium model that assesses the impact of electricity price changes on the poor in Mali and Senegal. Joana Costa, Degol Hailu, Elydia Silva and Raquel Tsukada empirically show that water provision reduces the total work burden on women in rural Ghana. Nitish Jha conducts a sociological analysis of access to water and sanitation in India, emphasising the challenges encountered in community-based schemes. Julia Kercher explains why and how a human rights framework must guide the design and implementation of private utility provision. We hope that this collection of articles will contribute to the discussion of how to provide vital infrastructure services more equitably. This Poverty in Focus is the result of an International Workshop on Equitable Access to Basic Services held on 5 December 2008 in São Paulo, Brazil. IPC-IG and the David Rockefeller Centre for Latin American Studies at Harvard University (DRCLAS) jointly organised the workshop. We gratefully acknowledge DRCLAS? contribution. (...)Equitable Access to Basic Utilities: Public versus Private Provision and Beyond

Proxy models of legal need: can they contribute to equity of access to justice?

Prioritisation of cases and resources as a means of rationing the limited legal aid budget has recently become a feature of access to justice in the UK. This article explores the utility of devising proxymodels of ‘legal need’ as a means of enabling the rational and equitable planning of legal services in these circumstances. Different conceptual and methodological approaches are considered, highlighting preliminary development work in Scotland. The likelihood of developing ‘legal needs’ measures that promote equity of access to appropriate legal services is discussed in the light of problems with defining ‘legal need’ and the diversity of services available for the resolution of legal problems

King County Equity and Social Justice Annual Report - November 2014

This report shows how King County is building equity by increasing access to health care, creating communities of opportunity, embedding equity in the budget process, becoming a more equitable and diverse employer, and more