Article

Assessing poverty-alleviation outcomes of an enterprise-led approach to sanitation

Wiley
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
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Abstract

Inadequate sanitation negatively affects the lives of billions of people in the base of the pyramid (BoP) in the developing world, and has a particularly substantial impact on the well-being of millions of young children. Given the magnitude of the challenge and the limitations of existing approaches, enterprise-led approaches to providing public goods are generating growing interest. Emphasizing convergent innovation, enterprises targeting the BoP are presented as potentially sustainable and scalable interventions that generate positive poverty-alleviation effects. Yet our understanding of who is affected, and how, remains limited. To begin to address this gap, we apply a multidimensional framework to an urban-based, sanitation-oriented BoP enterprise, focusing on its poverty-alleviation effects on young children. Our analysis indicates that the enterprise's effects include changes in capability, economic, and relationship well-being and that these changes can be positive or negative. We also find that the impact varies depending on the role of the stakeholder in the business model and the age of the child. Our results contribute to a better understanding of how to assess the effectiveness of a sanitation intervention and how to evaluate the poverty-alleviation implications of an enterprise-led approach.

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... General VDG [83] Channels_Franchising VDC_F [27,32,42,[141][142][143][144] Channels_Stores VDC_S [135,145] Channels_Independent shop keepers VDC_ISK [135] Channels_Associations VDC_A [135] Channels_Networking with established institutions (NGOs, dealerships, other companies) VDC_NEI [123,137] Channels_Optimizing the distribution network with several products VDC_ODN [110] Value Creation (VCr) General VCrG [63,146] Operational or cost efficiency VCr_OCE [117] [ 145,147] Volume (scale) gains [145] Leverage price/performance ratio [52] Outsourcing non-core operations [148] Specialization [27,148] Standardization [117] Modular design [63] Optimize transactional costs [123,150] Demonstrations, door-to-door campaigns, product trials, Field-based experimentations [150] Social media campaign [133] Training ...
... Affordability-Payment methods VO_APM [130,153] [ 46,144,145,151,154] Microfinancing [145] Simplified credit [135,155] Consignments [135] Time payments [142] "Pay as you go" (pre-pay + recharge) [156] Renting [38] Exchanging (accepting products for payment) ...
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Foreign aid is now a $100bn business and is expanding more rapidly today than it has for a generation. But does it work? Indeed, is it needed at all? Other attempts to answer these important questions have been dominated by a focus on the impact of official aid provided by governments. But today possibly as much as 30 percent of aid is provided by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and over 10 percent is provided as emergency assistance. In this first-ever attempt to provide an overall assessment of aid, Roger Riddell presents a rigorous but highly readable account of aid, warts and all. Does Foreign Aid Really Work? sets out the evidence and exposes the instances where aid has failed and explains why. The book also examines the way that politics distorts aid, and disentangles the moral and ethical assumptions that lie behind the belief that aid does good. The book concludes by detailing the practical ways that aid needs to change if it is to be the effective force for good that its providers claim it is.
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This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies-from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.
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The base of the pyramid (BoP) literature is grounded in the proposition of mutual value creation, an important but not yet well-tested relationship between business development and poverty alleviation. This paper begins to address this gap by assessing how business ventures serving BoP producers address local constraints and create mutual value. Using a case study methodology, sixty-four ventures are analyzed to identify the constraints faced by BoP producers. These are classified into productivity and transactional constraints. While the former set of constraints inhibits local value creation, the latter severely diminish the value capture potential of BoP producers. An in-depth analysis of eleven agricultural ventures provides insight into the strategies that ventures use to address constraints and enhance value creation and capture by BoP producers. The findings also indicate that alleviating constraints creates value not only for local producers, but also for the ventures themselves.
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From 2009 (English) and 2008 (French and Spanish): Online document
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This report focuses on the dimensions of poverty, and how to create a better world, free of poverty. The analysis explores the nature, and evolution of poverty, and its causes, to present a framework for action. The opportunity for expanding poor people's assets is addressed, arguing that major reductions in human deprivation are indeed possible, that economic growth, inequality, and poverty reduction, can be harnessed through economic integration, and technological change, dependent not only on the evolvement of markets, but on the choices for public action at the global, national, and local levels. Actions to facilitate empowerment include state institutional responsiveness in building social institutions which will improve well-being, and health, to allow increased income-earning potential, access to education, and eventual removal of social barriers. Security aspects are enhanced, by assessing risk management towards reducing vulnerability to economic crises, and natural disasters. The report expands on the dimensions of human deprivation, to include powerlessness and voicelessness, vulnerability and fear. International dimensions are explored, through global actions to fight poverty, analyzing global trade, capital flows, and how to reform development assistance to forge change in the livelihoods of the poor.
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This book is a sequel to the author's 'Rural development: putting the last first', and attempts to identify the mistakes made by professionals working in nongovernmental organisations, governmental organisations, and universities in their approaches to promoting rural development. Through analysing mistakes of the past and commonly held myths, the author argues that development professionals now need new approaches for interacting, learning and knowing. The role of methodological innovations such as participatory rural appraisal is stressed. It is argued that personal, professional, and institutional change is essential if the realities of the poor are to receive greater recognition. Self-critical awareness and changes in concepts, values, methods and behaviour must be developed by development professionals to promote local participatory approaches and empowerment.
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Incl. bibl. notes, index.
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Libro de metodología cualitativo para investigación en las ciencias sociales. La utilización de la computadora, el uso de datos y la recolección de los mismos. Se describen detalladamente numerosos métodos de datos y análisis.
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Many studies have reported the results of interventions to reduce illness through improvements in drinking water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene practices in less developed countries. There has, however, been no formal systematic review and meta-analysis comparing the evidence of the relative effectiveness of these interventions. We developed a comprehensive search strategy designed to identify all peer-reviewed articles, in any language, that presented water, sanitation, or hygiene interventions. We examined only those articles with specific measurement of diarrhoea morbidity as a health outcome in non-outbreak conditions. We screened the titles and, where necessary, the abstracts of 2120 publications. 46 studies were judged to contain relevant evidence and were reviewed in detail. Data were extracted from these studies and pooled by meta-analysis to provide summary estimates of the effectiveness of each type of intervention. All of the interventions studied were found to reduce significantly the risks of diarrhoeal illness. Most of the interventions had a similar degree of impact on diarrhoeal illness, with the relative risk estimates from the overall meta-analyses ranging between 0.63 and 0.75. The results generally agree with those from previous reviews, but water quality interventions (point-of-use water treatment) were found to be more effective than previously thought, and multiple interventions (consisting of combined water, sanitation, and hygiene measures) were not more effective than interventions with a single focus. There is some evidence of publication bias in the findings from the hygiene and water treatment interventions.
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Many children younger than 5 years in developing countries are exposed to multiple risks, including poverty, malnutrition, poor health, and unstimulating home environments, which detrimentally affect their cognitive, motor, and social-emotional development. There are few national statistics on the development of young children in developing countries. We therefore identified two factors with available worldwide data--the prevalence of early childhood stunting and the number of people living in absolute poverty--to use as indicators of poor development. We show that both indicators are closely associated with poor cognitive and educational performance in children and use them to estimate that over 200 million children under 5 years are not fulfilling their developmental potential. Most of these children live in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These disadvantaged children are likely to do poorly in school and subsequently have low incomes, high fertility, and provide poor care for their children, thus contributing to the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
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Urban poverty, ill health, and living in slums are intrinsically interwoven. Poverty is multidimensional and there is no agreement on a universal definition. UN-HABITAT has introduced an operational definition of slums that is restricted to legal aspects and excludes the more difficult social dimensions. The World Health Organization definition is more comprehensive and uses a health and social determinants approach that is strongly based on the social conditions in which people live and work. Health and improving the lives of people living in slums is at the top of international development agenda. Proactive strategies to contain new urban populations and slum upgrading are the two key approaches. Regarding the latter, participatory upgrading that most often involves the provision of basic infrastructure is currently the most acceptable intervention in developing countries. In urbanization of poverty, participatory slum upgrading is a necessary but not sufficient condition to reduce poverty and improve the lives of slum dwellers. Empowering interventions that target capacity development and skill transfer of both individuals and community groups--as well as meaningful negotiations with institutions, such as municipal governments, which can affect slum dwellers' lives--appear to be the most promising strategies to improve the slum dwellers' asset bases and health. Non-governmental organizations, training institutions, and international development partners are best placed to facilitate horizontal relationships between individuals, community groups, and vertical relationships with more powerful institutions that affect the slum dwellers' lives. The main challenge appears to be lack of commitment from the key stakeholders to upgrade interventions citywide.
Article
In recent years a group of researchers at Cambridge (UK) have (re)introduced conceptions of open and closed systems into economics. In doing so they have employed these categories in ways that, in my assessment, both facilitate a significant critique of current disciplinary practices and also point to more fruitful ways of proceeding. In an issue of this journal, Andrew Mearman has advanced three criticisms of the Cambridge position which, if valid, would seriously undermine this assessment. Below I defend the Cambridge position against Mearman's criticisms.
When is doing business with the poor good -for the poor? A household and national income accounting approach. In Business Solutions for the Global Poor: Creating Social and Economic Value
  • H B Leonard
Leonard, H.B. 2007. When is doing business with the poor good -for the poor? A household and national income accounting approach. In Business Solutions for the Global Poor: Creating Social and Economic Value. V.K. Rangan et al., Eds.: 362-373. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Water, Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Programme for Urban Poor
  • Wateraid
WaterAid. 2007. Water, Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Programme for Urban Poor. Kupondole: WaterAid, UN-Habitat.
Effects of Rural Sanitation on Infant Mortality and Human Capital: Evidence from India's Total Sanitation Campaign
  • D Spears
Spears, D. 2012. Effects of Rural Sanitation on Infant Mortality and Human Capital: Evidence from India's Total Sanitation Campaign. July 3, 2012. http://riceinstitute.org/ wordpress/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/07/ tsc-summer-2012.pdf.
Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis
  • Undp
UNDP. 2006. Human Development Report 2006. Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis. New York: UNDP.