Assessing the Welfare of Orphans in Rwanda: Poverty, Work, Schooling, and Health

One of the aspects of the orphan crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa relates to time use, namely where orphans end up living and what they spend their time doing in their new household of adoption. While some orphans are welcomed in centres and institutions, many live with relatives or other members of their communities, and others are welcomed by families which are not directly related to them. Orphans are in many ways better off when welcomed by relatives or other families than when living by themselves or in institutions, but there are also concerns that the orphans (and especially girls) that are welcomed in some families may be required to provide more help for the domestic tasks to be performed, with the resulting time pressure in terms of workload preventing them from benefitting from the same opportunities in education and other aspects of their development as other children. The objective of this paper is to conduct preliminary work to test this assumption using recent household survey data from Rwanda, with an attention not only to traditional variables of interest such as school enrollment, child labor and time use, but also with an eye to assessing other dimensions of the children’s welfare.Time Use; Orphans; Labor supply; Poverty; Rwanda

Lifeline or Means-Testing? Electric Utility Subsidies in Honduras

Many countries around the world have implemented subsidies for utility consumption, especially in the case of water and electricity. Most subsidies take the form of a lifeline or increasing block tariff, whereby households that consume less pay less on a unit basis. The idea is that households with low consumption levels are likely to be poor, and some intervention is warranted to enable them to meet their basic needs (the lifeline) at an affordable cost. Whether such subsidies are successful at helping the poor is not clear. In this chapter we assess the targeting performance of a similar subsidy for electricity implemented in Honduras. The subsidy is targeted through the lifeline principle; however, because the consumption threshold for eligibility is relatively high (300 kWh per month), and because those with access to electricity tend to be less poor than those without access, the program’s overall performance is low in terms of poverty reduction. Targeting through means-testing rather than a lifeline, or at least a lower threshold for the lifeline, could help improve the impact of the subsidy, and based on experience in other countries, would not necessarily imply high administrative costs.Electricity subsidies; ROC curves; targeting

Poverty in Mexico's Southern States

This paper attempts to answer the following questions: How poor are the southern states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca? How much progress was achieved in the 1990s toward reducing poverty in these states? Why are households in these states so poor? Specifically, does their poverty result from a lack of assets or from low returns to existing assets? Finally, to what extent do federal transfers and programs benefit the south and poor households within the south?Poverty; Mexico; Southern States

Food Aid for the Poor or Social Support? Case Study on a Belgian Social Restaurant

Many private non-profit organizations play an active role assisting the poor. Those organizations often benefit from government subsidies, which makes it important to assess the benefits of their programs. This paper provides a statistical analysis of the characteristics of the clients of a social restaurant providing free food in Namur, Belgium. The restaurant is successful in reaching very poor individuals. Yet many clients come less to satisfy their food needs than to socialize. The restaurant thus appears to contribute to the fight against social exclusion as much as to that against poverty per se.Poverty; Social Restaurant; Soup Kitchen; Social Exclusion

Migration and Poverty in Mexico’s Southern States

While Mexico's southern states differ substantially in terms of their migration profile, many of the issues confronted by the three states are the same. In this paper, we focus on five questions: (a) How large are migration flows, and what can be expected in the future?; (b) To what extent does migration increase per capita income and thereby reduce poverty?; (c) What are the determinants of migration?; (d) What is the impact of remittances on poverty, inequality, and development?; and (e) What programs are implemented by the government to increase the benefits from remittances, and what can be done to reduce the cost for migrants of remitting?Mexico; Migration; Remittances; Poverty; Policies

Assessing the Welfare of Orphans in Rwanda: Poverty, Work, Schooling, and Health

One of the aspects of the orphan crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa relates to time use, namely where orphans end up living and what they spend their time doing in their new household of adoption. While some orphans are welcomed in centres and institutions, many live with relatives or other members of their communities, and others are welcomed by families which are not directly related to them. Orphans are in many ways better off when welcomed by relatives or other families than when living by themselves or in institutions, but there are also concerns that the orphans (and especially girls) that are welcomed in some families may be required to provide more help for the domestic tasks to be performed, with the resulting time pressure in terms of workload preventing them from benefitting from the same opportunities in education and other aspects of their development as other children. The objective of this paper is to conduct preliminary work to test this assumption using recent household survey data from Rwanda, with an attention not only to traditional variables of interest such as school enrollment, child labor and time use, but also with an eye to assessing other dimensions of the children’s welfare

Assessing the Welfare of Orphans in Rwanda: Poverty, Work, Schooling, and Health

One of the aspects of the orphan crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa relates to time use, namely where orphans end up living and what they spend their time doing in their new household of adoption. While some orphans are welcomed in centres and institutions, many live with relatives or other members of their communities, and others are welcomed by families which are not directly related to them. Orphans are in many ways better off when welcomed by relatives or other families than when living by themselves or in institutions, but there are also concerns that the orphans (and especially girls) that are welcomed in some families may be required to provide more help for the domestic tasks to be performed, with the resulting time pressure in terms of workload preventing them from benefitting from the same opportunities in education and other aspects of their development as other children. The objective of this paper is to conduct preliminary work to test this assumption using recent household survey data from Rwanda, with an attention not only to traditional variables of interest such as school enrollment, child labor and time use, but also with an eye to assessing other dimensions of the children’s welfare

Poverty in Mexico's Southern States

This paper attempts to answer the following questions: How poor are the southern states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca? How much progress was achieved in the 1990s toward reducing poverty in these states? Why are households in these states so poor? Specifically, does their poverty result from a lack of assets or from low returns to existing assets? Finally, to what extent do federal transfers and programs benefit the south and poor households within the south

Poverty in Mexico's Southern States

This paper attempts to answer the following questions: How poor are the southern states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca? How much progress was achieved in the 1990s toward reducing poverty in these states? Why are households in these states so poor? Specifically, does their poverty result from a lack of assets or from low returns to existing assets? Finally, to what extent do federal transfers and programs benefit the south and poor households within the south

Lifeline or Means-Testing? Electric Utility Subsidies in Honduras

Many countries around the world have implemented subsidies for utility consumption, especially in the case of water and electricity. Most subsidies take the form of a lifeline or increasing block tariff, whereby households that consume less pay less on a unit basis. The idea is that households with low consumption levels are likely to be poor, and some intervention is warranted to enable them to meet their basic needs (the lifeline) at an affordable cost. Whether such subsidies are successful at helping the poor is not clear. In this chapter we assess the targeting performance of a similar subsidy for electricity implemented in Honduras. The subsidy is targeted through the lifeline principle; however, because the consumption threshold for eligibility is relatively high (300 kWh per month), and because those with access to electricity tend to be less poor than those without access, the program’s overall performance is low in terms of poverty reduction. Targeting through means-testing rather than a lifeline, or at least a lower threshold for the lifeline, could help improve the impact of the subsidy, and based on experience in other countries, would not necessarily imply high administrative costs