Chronic Poverty Report 2023: Pandemic Poverty

The Chronic Poverty Report 2023: Pandemic Poverty sets out to investigate the highly negative effects of the Covid-19 restrictions, and most importantly, the success or otherwise of the measures pursued to mitigate those effects on people in and near poverty. The leading message is that if restrictions were necessary, they should be minimised, and complemented by measures to mitigate their negative effects. During the pandemic, such measures were in most countries completely inadequate to prevent impoverishment and downward socio-economic mobility. The report makes suggestions on what needs to be done in a similar future crisis to avoid the economic and social reversals we have seen since 2020, and some steps on the road to recovery. This first CPAN report on Pandemic Poverty is the product of a long-term partnership across 18 countries in the global south. 12 of those countries participated in the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network’s Covid-19 Poverty Monitoring Initiative. These revisited life history respondents from pre-pandemic qualitative research and caught up with their lived experiences during the pandemic. This was designed as a people centred complement to the high-frequency phone surveys which were undertaken in many countries during the pandemic. Authors from some of the same countries and others based at the Institute of Development Studies, were involved in writing this report. They carried out key informant interviews with policymakers and implementers to track and understand the development of policy responses during the pandemic, and to analyse the policy discourses in each country. The co-authors met monthly for six months while the report was being written to ensure coherence

Putting Children First: New Frontiers in the Fight Against Child Poverty in Africa

Despite important strides in the fight against poverty in the past two decades, child poverty remains widespread and persistent, particularly in Africa. Poverty in all its dimensions is detrimental for early childhood development and often results in unreversed damage to the lives of girls and boys, locking children and families into intergenerational poverty. This edited volume contributes to the policy initiatives aiming to reduce child poverty and academic understanding of child poverty and its solutions by bringing together applied research from across the continent. With the Sustainable Development Goals having opened up an important space for the fight against child poverty, not least by broadening its conceptualization to be multidimensional, this collection aims to push the frontiers by challenging existing narratives and exploring alternative understandings of the complexities and dynamics underpinning child poverty. Furthermore, it examines policy options that work to address this critical challenge.Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP) at the University of Bergen.publishedVersio

I no longer have a hope of studying: gender norms, education and wellbeing of refugee girls in Rwanda

Adolescents are rarely considered as a distinct group within research about refugees, and relatively little is known about the lives and experiences of adolescent refugees in Rwanda. Rarely are adolescents’ perspectives, experiences and opinions sought, and their participation in decision-making [educational, economic, political] is limited. Our data are drawn from qualitative evidence collected in three Rwandan refugee camps from individual and group interactions with male and female adolescents, including adolescents who had given birth before age 20. Evidence focuses on two capability areas: education and learning and, psychosocial wellbeing. Gendered norms for adolescents affect educational outcomes and psychosocial wellbeing, and adolescent mothers experience multiple stressors to their psychosocial wellbeing. Our evidence highlights the extreme vulnerability – with lifelong implications – of some adolescent refugees. Refugee adolescent mothers face exceptionally heightened vulnerabilities because of the social stigma associated with non-marital pregnancy and childbearing. Investing in the lives of adolescent refugees – particularly those who are pregnant or mothers – is likely to yield significant medium- long-term dividends in terms of their life chances

If she's pregnant, then that means that her dreams fade away: exploring experiences of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood in Rwanda

Adolescent motherhood can alter the future opportunities available to girls and the challenges they face. This article considers how adolescents’ capabilities are influenced by pregnancy and motherhood, using a mixed-methods case study of Rwanda. Adolescent motherhood impacts girls’ lives across multiple capabilities including education, psychosocial well-being, voice and agency, and economic empowerment. Rarely were adolescent mothers in our sample supported to return to school, for instance. Their pregnancy and motherhood were stigmatised by their families, peers, wider community and service providers. The psychosocial consequences of adolescent motherhood are significant, linked to social isolation and multifaceted stressors, including poverty. Despite recent policy and service improvements, adolescent mothers continue to be left behind

Putting Children First: New Frontiers in the Fight Against Child Poverty in Africa

Despite important strides in the fight against poverty in the past two decades, child poverty remains widespread and persistent, particularly in Africa. Poverty in all its dimensions is detrimental for early childhood development and often results in unreversed damage to the lives of girls and boys, locking children and families into intergenerational poverty. This edited volume contributes to the policy initiatives aiming to reduce child poverty and academic understanding of child poverty and its solutions by bringing together applied research from across the continent. With the Sustainable Development Goals having opened up an important space for the fight against child poverty, not least by broadening its conceptualization to be multidimensional, this collection aims to push the frontiers by challenging existing narratives and exploring alternative understandings of the complexities and dynamics underpinning child poverty. Furthermore, it examines policy options that work to address this critical challenge