Young Lives Round 2 Survey Report Initial Findings: Andhra Pradesh, India

This report contains initial findings of the Young Lives survey (round 2)using quantitative methods, for Andhra Pradesh India. The survey was carried out in 2006/7 and has a sample of 3000 children spread across 2 cohorts. Young Lives is an international longitudinal study funded mainly by the DFID (UK), aiming to understand the causes and consequences of childhood poverty.childhood poverty; India; young lives; longitudinal

Mobiles and mobility: The Effect of Mobile Phones on Migration in Niger

Labor markets in developing countries are subject to a high degree of frictions. We report the results from a randomized evaluation of an adult education program (Project ABC) in Niger, in which students learned how to use simple mobile phones as part of a literacy and numeracy class. Overall, our preliminary results suggest that access to this technology substantially influenced seasonal migration in Niger, increasing the likelihood of migration by at least one household member by 7 percentage points and the number of households' members engaging in seasonal migration. Evidence suggests that there are some heterogeneous impacts of the program, with a higher probability of a household member migrating in one region. These effects do not appear to be driven by differences in observable characteristics of households or differential effects of drought during the survey period. Rather we posit that they are largely explained by the effectiveness of mobile phones as a search technology: Students in ABC villages used mobile phones in more active ways and communicated more with migrants within Niger. These initial results suggest that simple and cheap information technology can be harnessed to affect labor mobility among rural populations. --

Poverty in Kagera, Tanzania: Characteristics, Causes and Constraints

This paper analyses the determinants of household welfare in the Northwest region of Tanzania using microlevel cross section data. Despite having gone through a series of structural adjustment programs in the late-1980s, Tanzania is still considered one of the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper argues that the determinants of household welfare are numerous and complex, ranging from individual and household to community and social characteristics, but that the relative importance of these factors varies across the welfare distribution. Using quantile regressions, we find that human, social and physical capital all play a significant role in improving households’ living standards, but that the relatively poor are harmed more by weather shocks because they face more constraints in diversifying out of agriculture. Our results also reveal subtle insights into the relationships between gender and poverty.Poverty, inequality, quantile regression, gender, rainfall, shocks, agriculture, vulnerability, Kagera, Tanzania.

Findings from local consultations on resilience in Makueni County

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has convened a consortium that includes the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), the Kenya National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) and others to respond to a call for proposals by the Global Resilience Partnership. The project envisaged by the consortium is named ‘Dialling Up resilience: Mobilising ICTs to enhance bottom-up resilience measurement, programming and governance in the Horn of Africa’. The project is based on the belief that better measurement and tracking of resilience are key to ensuring that investments in resilience building are supporting the right activities and targeting the right people. In this context, CCAFS and KRCS, with the help of NDMA officials in Makueni County, organized community consultations to learn about how household resilience is conceptualized at the local level. Staff from CCAFS and KRCS trained KRCS volunteers to conduct focus group discussions (FGDs) and household case studies. The volunteers visited two communities in Makueni County between 24 June and 1 July 2015. This report summarizes the findings from their field work and draws lessons from the exercise to apply to any future similar exercises

A Critical Scan of Four Key Topics for the Philanthropic Sector: A study by the Rockefeller Foundation and Accenture Development Partnerships

The study aims to identify problem areas in the developing and developed world, as well as areas of dynamism and convergence that will, over the next five to 10 years, present opportunities to make a greater impact in the development sector. The study, which made use of a consultative process, investigates four key topics central to human wellbeing. These are: natural ecosystems, health, livelihoods, and urban environments. In each of the four identified topic areas there is a greater need to foster innovation and shift paradigms in order to expand opportunity for the vulnerable and those living in poverty, and strengthen their resilience