This paper reviews the theory and application of decomposition techniques in the context of spatial inequality. It establishes some new theoretical results with potentially wide applicability, and examines empirical evidence drawn from a large number of countries.
This paper looks at the potential for poverty alleviation in one part of Uganda, based on a poverty analysis of the local, and on analyses of the local civil society and of development discourses that are often dominated by the central over the local. In response to calls for micro-studies of actually existing civil society it points to the usefulness of including community wide processes and hegemonic discourses in analyses of the local civil society's development role.
Helle Munk Ravnborg, Michael Kidoido, Zarupa Akello, Jannik Boesen, Sarah Kasozi, Anne Sorensen, Bernard Bashaasha, and Veronica Wabukawo
Publication Date:
01-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The overall objective of the Danida supported Agricultural Sector Programme Support (ASPS) in Uganda is to improve the conditions for the poorest part of the population and contribute to reduce gender-based inequalities in Uganda in general and in the pilot focus districts in particular. Late in 2000, Danida asked Department of Agricultural Economics, Makerere University, Kampala, and Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen, to form an external task group with the purpose of monitoring the gender and poverty impact of the ASPS.
In recent years, the issues of international migration and asylum have risen to the top of the international agenda. The pressures and opportunities linked to the process of globalization have led to an increase in the number of people moving from one country and continent to another. At the same time, insecurity and armed conflict in many of the world's poorest and economically marginalized states have triggered new waves of displaced people.
The creation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), combined with many states' decisions to expand Medicaid eligibility, increased public coverage of black, white, and Hispanic children between 1997 and 2002. Uninsurance rates fell among children in low-income white, black, and Hispanic families, remained constant among white and black children in higher-income families, and increased among Hispanic children in higher-income families. The health status of children, as reported by their parents, was stable for blacks, whites, and Hispanics, except for a decline in health among higher-income Hispanic children.
Poverty has decreased among blacks, Hispanics, and whites in recent years. Yet only whites have experienced less hardship in the areas of food and housing. In contrast, blacks have seen an increase in housing hardship, while food hardship has increased among Hispanics.
In his January State of the Union Address, President George Bush announced an "Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief" that promised $3 billion a year in funding focused primarily on Africa and the Caribbean. Within weeks he broke that promise by seeking no new funding for 2003 and by requesting less than half a billion for the new effort in his 2004 budget. On the domestic front, this administration has proposed flat funding of the AIDS portfolio-which amounts to a decrease in funding- and diverted resources from HIV/AIDS research.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Poverty
MYTH: President Bush has significantly increased funding to fight AIDS in Africa. FACT: Bush is providing NO new money to fight AIDS in Africa this year. President Bush announced a $15 billion "emergency plan" to fight AIDS in Africa - but this was an empty promise. The President resident has requested NO new money for 2003, and very little for 2004. This is far less than the U.S. can, and should, provide. As a first step, Bush must show global leadership by providing the full $15 billion he promised. While he continues to stall, 7,000 Africans are dying everyday.
Gender inequalities are a major driving force behind the global AIDS crisis. Around the world, AIDS takes its most devastating toll on women and girls. Globally, nearly 5,000 women become infected with HIV every day. Hardest hit of all are Black women and girls in Africa and in the U.S., who are most vulnerable as a result of poverty and discrimination.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Poverty
HIV/AIDS is a deadly global threat, and no one is immune. But some people are more vulnerable than others. At home and abroad, AIDS takes its most devastating toll in poor communities, where people lack access to adequate health care.