Graduating Out of Poverty Across Generations: Unpacking Children’s Well‐being Trajectories in Burundi

Graduation model interventions represent a new wave of anti‐poverty programming that seeks to offer a sustainable pathway out of poverty. An expanding evidence base points towards positive economic outcomes at household level but little is known about impacts on child well‐being. This paper investigates children’s well‐being in Burundi during and after participation in a graduation model programme using a longitudinal mixed‐methods approach. The programme is found to improve child well‐being, particularly in relation to housing, food security and education. Covariate shocks undermine sustainability of effects but greater knowledge, experience and prioritisation of children’s needs contribute to harnessing improved outcomes.     

“小产权房”应理性看待和恰当解决

“小产权房”问题的产生既有历史原因也有现实原因，目前在关于“小产权房”地位的论争中存在两种截然相反的观点。对“小产权房”的合法化不应一概反对，应具体分析，恰当处理与疏导“小产权房”问题，从农村内部、城市内部和城乡一体化发展中寻求解决途径。     

行政组织边界理论基础上的我国农业行政执法体制改革理论模型研究

农业行政执法正逐步成为一项重要的农业行政职能 ,农业行政综合执法是我国农业行政执法体制改革中产生的新生事物 ,在实践中受到各方利益群体的质疑。本文以我国行政体制改革是行政边界和行政组织边界的双重边界重构为理论基础 ,研究归纳出我国农业行政执法的三种理论模型 ,并阐述了模型形成的依据和模型的替代顺序 ,认为综合执法是我国现阶段提高农业行政执法效率切实可行的选择 ,从长远来看也可能是一种过渡形式。     

Linking taxation and social protection: Evidence on redistribution and poverty reduction in Ethiopia

Although redistribution results from the simultaneous effects of taxes and transfers, analyses of their distributional effects in low‐income countries have largely been undertaken from singular perspectives. This article jointly assesses the distributional effect of taxes and transfers (through social protection) using Ethiopia as a case study. We find that Ethiopia's flagship social protection programme is more effective than income taxation in achieving poverty reduction, while neither policy achieves a sizeable reduction in overall inequality. We also find that Ethiopia does not currently have the capacity to close the poverty gap or to fully fund its main safety net programme using domestic income sources alone.     

The relevance of institutions and people’s preferences in the PSNP and IN-SCT programmes in Ethiopia

The effective implementation of social protection interventions is key for achieving positive change. The existing literature mainly focuses on issues related to programme design and impact, rather than the factors that influence the emergence, expansion and provision of these programmes. This article builds on the recent literature that indicates that the quality of institutions and people’s preferences play an important role in the implementation of social protection. It does so by using Ethiopia and its Productive Safety Net Programme – one of the largest social protection programmes in sub-Saharan Africa – as a case study, thereby contributing to debates on how to implement social protection more effectively, particularly in settings of widespread poverty and relatively low levels of institutional capacity. Based on primary qualitative data, the article finds that greater institutional quality at the local level is associated with the more effective provision of social protection. The ability of community members and social protection clients to voice preferences can lead to adaptations in implementation, although the extent to which this occurs is highly gendered.     

Social Welfare in Vietnam: A Curse or Blessing for Poor Children?

Despite a rapid increase in economic growth accompanied by the rise of living standards over the last two decades in Vietnam, there is still a considerable proportion of the population that lives in poor and vulnerable conditions. Children in particular are disproportionately affected by poverty. The country employs a broad range of social protection programs that tend to be regressive in effect rather than supportive of the poor. The present paper evaluates the social welfare scheme in Vietnam in terms of child poverty. We use the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) 2006 and identify and quantify child poverty in monetary as well as multidimensional terms. We consider the link between social welfare receipt and poverty and evaluate coverage, exclusion, and inclusion errors. Furthermore, we use benefit incidence analysis to evaluate the impact of social welfare on monetary child poverty. Findings suggest that coverage of the social welfare scheme is limited and that the scheme suffers from considerable exclusion and inclusion errors. Furthermore, we find that social welfare only slightly reduces the incidence and depth of monetary poverty.     

Beyond averages: Child well-being in Kazakhstan

With the majority of poor people now living in middle-income countries and the post-millennium development goals framework taking shape, the issue of inequality has gained prominence in many policy debates. Although detailed assessments of poverty and well-being are crucial for formulating adequate policies, all too often such assessments focus on average outcomes. In this paper we present an analysis of child well-being for Kazakhstan that moves beyond averages in two ways: first, it explicitly reports on the situations of different socioeconomic groups of children in society; second, it applies a method that is diversified by age group and thereby accounts for differences among children across stages of childhood. Kazakhstan illustrates the need for more nuanced and in-depth analyses, given the significant but far from universal economic growth within the country. We find that there are large discrepancies in child well-being outcomes between different regions and that high levels of economic output do not necessarily go hand in hand with improved outcomes in terms of poverty and well-being. We argue that child well-being studies need to be more in depth, thereby ensuring that levels of inequity across socioeconomic groups and between children in different age groups are given due consideration.     

重构现场:新闻报道的空间叙事策略

新闻报道的空间建构是新闻报道有效叙事之重点环节,聚焦于现场的报道,是一种立足于深刻认知新闻现场和现场新闻之内在关联的选择性重构,现场既代表新闻报道的语境与情境还原,同时也是实现传受双方互动理解的一种审美超越。现场的报道空间建构不仅体现出新闻报道的时效要求对叙事策略选择的必然,更通过叙事设计的结构化、进入化策略来实践传受双方知觉场的共建,尤其在当代新媒体环境下,新闻报道的空间叙事策略将伴随社会空间的心灵感知而不断创新发展。重视并有效发掘、应用那些能够激发受众感知的想象力的空间要素,才是新闻报道未来创新的方向,空间的重构也绝非是媒介技术提供的拟态逼真,而是构建合乎受众认知需求与审美体验的空间实践,是叙事的社会参与,也是其心灵对话空间的共建。     

Transformations of Old Colony Mennonites: the making of a trans‐statal community

Through an analysis that combines the historical development of the Old Colony Mennonites, which covers their migrations from sixteenth‐century Europe to late twentieth‐century Latin America, with ethnographic field work in Bolivia and Argentina, I examine the genesis and maintenance of a religiously based trans‐statal community. I argue for the conceptual maintenance of a clear distinction between transnational and trans‐statal processes in understanding the cross‐border practices of Old Colony Mennonites. Mennonites do not move in and out of nations but between the territories over which different states claim sovereignty. I further show that the trans‐statal practices of Old Colony Mennonites are a strategic means of outmanoeuvring states in their imposition of national identities within a context of nation‐states being the dominant political formation. The case contributes to the call for a shift in emphasis from nations to faith communities in transnational and trans‐statal studies.