Journal articles on the topic 'Poverty perspective of Ghanaian women'

AbstractAimsWomen show higher frequency of most painful disorders. This is usually explained that endogenous pain modulation pathways, which affect incoming nociceptive signals, act differently in women and men, but psycho-social factors are likelytoinfluence as well. Ghanaian women suffer different disabilities that may lead to severe pain. The hard climatic conditions and the hard physical toil in work exert untold injuries. How do women in Ghana cope with painful disorders, and do they show certain behavioural pattern during diagnosis and treatments?MethodsThe study used in-depth interviews with health care providers to accomplish its aim. The “snowball effect” was added by which those interviewed aided us to find other prospective interviewee. In qualitative methodology, such an approach can be adopted to enable the researcher acquire relevant data with help from respondents.Practitioners were askedtoreflectontheir experiences from meeting women with severe pain as their patients. Seven practitioners, four female and three male, were interviewed.ResultsBy talking spontaneously about pain, women cope with painful disorders. This ensures easy diagnoses and treatments. The majority of women report their severe pain disabilities freely as against a smaller group who behave differently.The other group has explored other practitioners and have been unsuccessful. They are afraid to reveal their situations openly. Others test the skills of the practitioners whether they could perform efficient diagnoses. This strengthens patients’ faith and ability to be cured. In behavioural terms, inability to report severe pain stem from comorbid depressive symptoms (timidity-shyness, over-worried/confusion, distraction), lack of trust-expectant faith, thought of practitioner’s omniscient power, threat of practitioner’s knowledge (patient’s wrongs and evil thoughts), religious affiliation-constraints, etc. Women cope and show more positive attitudes than men; they expect practitioners to be in careful control.ConclusionsGhanaian women deal with their severe pains in meaningful manner by talking spontaneously about them. They show their willingness to be helped during diagnosis. Only few patients are not spontaneous, and are due to the condition of the mind and uncertainty with previous treatment encounters.

The study seeks to explain role of Rural Development Bank (RDB) for empowering women from poverty alleviation perspective. More so, this study was conducted in Shankarnagar located in Rupendehi District. Under quantitative case study methodology, necessary data are collected from 120 respondents selected randomly. The results show that Shankarnagar area office of RDB has played remarkable role in reducing poverty in the study area. The social and financial programmes implemented this bank has helped to alleviate poverty in some extent. It has also contributed to increase family income, self employment opportunities, better health and hygiene, better living standard, saving and credit activities and access to quality child education. Hence, better to make further social/financial plans/programmes for reducing poverty in general and empowering women in particular.

Background: Temporal changes in anthropometric indices of Ghanaian adults have not been thoroughly researched. In this study, we present results and projections of mean BMI, underweight and obesity prevalence among women (15-49 years) in Ghana. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of the mean BMI, underweight and obesity prevalence data reported in the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) studies in Ghana between 1993 and 2014. Using a simple linear change (regression) model approach, we determine the rate of change of the anthropometric measures and project estimates for the years 2020, 2025 and 2030. Results: Between 1993 and 2014, the mean BMI among Ghanaian women increased by 3 kg/m2 and by 2030, the average Ghanaian woman will have a BMI of around 27.3 Kg/m2. Underweight prevalence has decreased by about 45% from 11.3% in 1993/1998 to 6.2% in 2014 and projected to reach 2.2% by 2030. Obesity on the other hand has seen significant increase of over 400% from 3.4% in 1993 to 15.3% in 2014. By 2030, nearly 23% of Ghanaian women are projected to be obese. Conclusions: Among Ghanaian women, obesity has now outstripped underweight in terms of public health significance. Greater emphasis and urgent measures to address the rising obesity in this country are needed. While the observed trends should inform future healthcare planning and resource allocation, this should in no way undermine undernutrition prevention efforts, as preventing undernourishment is still a good investment for this country. Rather, a broader perspective that seeks to address both undernutrition and overnutrition healthy individuals should be rigorously pursued.

Purpose The incentive to strengthen university governance is espoused by a number of implications but among these three are very conspicuous: improve quality of university education system, and thus provide students and the general public value for money; enhance the utilization of resources invested in university education; and nevertheless contribute significantly in human capital formation, guaranteeing effective and efficient public leadership and services to society. However, there are dearth studies on how this can be realized in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Ghana. The purpose of this paper is to explore pertinent issues for desirable university governance and how it can be achieved in the sub-region drawing from the Ghanaian perspective. Design/methodology/approach This is a qualitative study seeking to explore the questions: what is needed to ensure desirable university governance? And how can it be achieved? Data were collected from primary sources and bolstered with secondary sources. In-depth interviews (structured and semi-structured guides) and documentary evidence were used to collect data from 19 participants in selected public and private universities in Ghana. Findings The study examines key governance issues such as funding, accountability, infrastructure, trust, and regulation. The paper further identifies and discusses dilemmas (weakness in legislative instruments, quality assurance, increased enrollment and self-regulation) institutions of higher learning have had to contend with in the discharge of their duty. Social implications In an effort to make a difference between poverty and wealth, knowledge becomes an indispensable means and university education is at the center of such knowledge. The call for public universities to be managed like businesses continuous to be as contentious as an issue, as the term governance and the discussion might not end any moment soon. For the proponents of this idea, public universities are no longer getting the needed resource support from the state and by implication the state does no longer view university education as a social good and, therefore, they must find their own way of operating by introducing reasonable fees to generate revenue. However, the school of thought that is against this idea thinks that university education must continue to be treated as a social good because it is geared toward the development of the country and is expensive and if not subsidized, who can afford. The poor and disadvantaged will be marginalized and so the state must directly or indirectly continue to fund university education in return for accountability. Originality/value This explorative study is a contribution to the discourse of university governance. It primarily focuses on issues that could serve as a catalyst in enhancing university education. This has important implications for equipping universities in Ghana and within the African sub-region with similar challenges for a better output to meet the development needs of its ailing economies and reposition it as a major firebrand to instill competition on the global arena of lifelong learning.

This paper challenges recent findings from quantitative studies of poverty in post-communist countries which deny the existence of gender differences in poverty in post 1989 Poland. The author uncovers hidden forms of the feminization of poverty by studying it from the micro-perspective of the family and the household. This perspective highlights gender differences in the division of labor, leisure time, as well as the fact that it is women’s primary responsibility to secure the basic needs of the family. This study presents strong evidence for a variety of ways in which men and women experience and endure poverty differently in an impoverished area in Poland, a fact which is associated with the role of culture, history and tradition in shaping gendered patterns of reaction towards poverty and hardship. The paper is based on the content analysis of in-depth interviews collected during a field research conducted within the project “Old and new forms of poverty in Poland” (1997–1998) and “Poverty, Ethnicity, and Gender inTransitional Societies (1999–2000).

This article focuses on the gender dimension of poverty in Morocco. It questions the inadequate parameters relied on in the existing studies on the subject and underlines their blindness to the complex causes and effects of poverty among the female population in the country. The article then approaches female poverty from its multidimensional perspective in order to underline the social, cultural, legal as well as economic aspects and implications of poverty. The final section of the article gives a critical reading of some of the strategies currently adopted to reduce the incidence of poverty in Morocco.

Poverty among women and girls remains a prevalent social justice and health issue that stunts the life potential and freedom of females throughout the globe. Through referencing four published articles, this text explores the incidence of poverty among women and girls due to gender discrimination, sexist ideologies and practices, and oppression on the basis of gender. Due to the presence of mechanisms that disproportionately generate poverty among females, many girls and women are automatically confined to a life that uniquely strips them of their inherent rights to dictate their future, and are instead forced into a life of perpetual suffering, violence, social exclusion, and ultimately, impoverishment. Examining this issue from a feminist lens is imperative in understanding the inner complexities of how women and girls in different areas of the world experience disadvantages on the basis of gender, especially from a social, political, cultural, and economic perspective. This can allow healthcare providers, such as nurses, to be able to examine such issues from a critical thinking lens, and become increasingly politically active and involved in female advocacy efforts and policy reform. Through nurses becoming increasingly involved in such efforts, dramatic positive change in the lives of women and girls throughout the globe can occur.

The objective of this qualitative study was to get to know poor Mexican women's experience of poverty in relation to health care. Forty-nine interviews were carried out with poor adult women in Mexico (between 35 and 65 years old). Three central elements were detected in relation to the women's experience of poverty and health care: their socio-economic dependence on their family; the notion of social belonging in their experience with health care rights, reflected in the idea and acceptance that, due to their poverty, they can only be attended at philanthropic institutions; and the existence of survival mechanisms when facing an illness. In recovering the experience of poor women in relation to their health care, we identified that there is a clear idea that, if women had had economic resources, their health problem would have been solved differently. They are also convinced that, due to being poor, they have to content themselves with bad-quality medical care. This conformity finally makes them resign to the fact of either loosing a part of their own body, or even just waiting for death.

The aim of this study is to provide an evidenced-based psychological and economic perspective on the rising level of poverty among women in Nigeria. The rationale for the study is anchored on the latest reports by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that Nigeria is now home to the largest number of poorest people in the world. Women constitute over 60% of the poorest people in Nigeria and going by the IMF statistics that Nigeria has over 87 million people in extreme poverty translates to approximately 52 million women on the clutches of extreme poverty. Although there have been efforts by successive governments in Nigeria to improve the livelihood of women in Nigeria and lift them out from poverty, the facts on the ground are not encouraging as a large number of women continues to wallow in extreme poverty. With the benefits of inter-disciplinary research that intersects at the boundaries of finance and psychology, this study investigated possible psychological factors such as job involvement, self-efficacy and goal orientation that could be implicated in this scenario. The study used survey design in two states in South Western Nigeria namely: Lagos and Ogun. 600 women (400 in Lagos and 200 in Ogun) were sampled. The sampling was cross-sectional and respondents were selected through a multi-stage purposive sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was scaled and a step-wise multiple regression was used for testing the hypothesis. Results of the analysis showed that all the explanatory variables namely: self-efficacy, goal orientation and job involvement were significant predictors of women pre-disposition to engaging in productive activities. The result showed that women who are cognitively goal oriented strives to develop skills and are more disposed to take up productive investments (job oriented). Based on these findings, the study recommended, amongst others, that efforts should be made to re-tool the approach to women development in Nigeria through skill acquisition and value reorientation.

Dealing with crime is everyone's business. It demands a clear law enforcement response combined with significant efforts to address the root causes of crime, particularly poverty, racism, and overwhelmed families. As a society, we are spending the bulk of our resources on the most expensive response: incarceration. Traditional approaches to crime need to address the differences between men and women as these differences translate to appropriate reactions by the criminal justice system. For example, the Rockefeller drug laws in New York were meant to incarcerate high-level drug pushers for long terms. Instead, women in financial or family crises have been easy dupes for dealers who never handle their own drugs. These women do not dispute their guilt, but is their crime worth a 15-year minimum? Certainly, the public needs to make informed decisions about which women should be in prison and for how long and which women might be dealt with differently.

Innovation is fast becoming a crucial factor in enterprise performance, growth and survival. In recent years, a growing number of studies have demonstrated how innovation leads to success in larger enterprises. Literature addressing innovation in small enterprises in developing countries is limited; most studies in this field are from developed countries. This study therefore aimed at filling the gap by firstly, exploring the innovations introduced in the Ghanaian women-owned small enterprises, and secondly finding out the relationship between these innovations and the women's business success. The innovative practices explored were the introduction of new products and processes, identification of new sources of raw materials and new markets. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are combined in data collection and analysis. Data has been obtained from a survey of 421 Ghanaian women entrepreneurs and interviews conducted with 50 of those women. The results in the study indicated that the small enterprises engaged in various types of innovative practices such as the adoption of fuel efficient processing methods, diversification of product line, improved packaging and opening of new market outlets. These innovative practices have contributed to the success of the enterprises. Their success factors include self-fulfillment, wealth creation and positive impact on the Ghanaian economy. These findings have policy implications for improved technology and funds allocation to enhance women's role in economic development. Keywords: Innovation; Business growth; Women-owned small enterprises; Schumpeter's entrepreneurship perspective.

Islam has encouraged women to participate in entrepreneurial activities for economic prosperity and social growth. Nevertheless, their participation in economic activities is very lesser than men globally. Previously, the field of entrepreneurship has been regarded as a male dominant sector. Entrepreneurship flourishes due to economic, social, ethical, and environmental factors while the practice of Sharia principles works as a catalyst in this process. Women entrepreneurship helps in alleviating poverty and unemployment that leads to socio-economic prosperity in a country. The motivation of starting women businesses varies in different cultures and geographic regions. Women engagements in different business activities can not only empower them socially and financially but can also share the household economic burden with men. Furthermore, it will also help them to make their decisions independently. Their entrepreneurial income can be used for their children’s education, health, and the betterment of society. They can also use the option of partnership within the family for the financial and social network. The challenges faced by these women entrepreneurs can be handled with their family support. This review provides a general overview of concepts, motives, challenges, and the prospects of women entrepreneurship from an Islamic perspective.

This article overviews the second phase of a two-phase study which examined experiences of health and social exclusion among mothers experiencing homelessness in Ontario, Canada. A critical discourse analysis was employed to analyze the policy document, Realizing Our Potential: Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, 2014–2019. In nursing, analysis of policy is an emerging form of scholarship, one that draws attention to the macro levels influencing health and health promotion, such as the social determinants of health, and the policies that impact them. The clear neo-liberal underpinnings, within the strategy, with a focus on productivity and labor market participation leave little room for an understanding of poverty reduction from a human rights perspective. Further, gender-neutrality rendered the poverty experienced by women, and mothers, invisible. Notably, there were a lack of deadlines, target dates, and thorough action and evaluation plans. Such absence troubles whether poverty reduction is truly a priority for the government, and society as a whole.

This Paper describes the poverty of women at the border of Entikong. The reality of poverty in rural women (border areas) today is still in severe situations. There has been no significance of the welfare development of the community, that in fact there are still many poor women's lives in the country boundary region. It is concluded that the community development program on the border is still loaded with interest and is vulnerable to being politicized by the elites, as a result the development of society is not up to the target. Method of research uses the feminist ethnographic approach as a stand point that research about women comes from a female's own perspective. The data collection techniques are observations, in-depth interviews, documentation studies, and live-in with the community to obtain precise and accurate information. The poverty of women on the border is due to women's limited access to resources. Then, on this paper the empowerment-based vocational skills become a strategic bid in the poverty-alleviation of women at the border.

The paper is an attempt at contributing to the on-going debate on feminization of poverty by discussing the concept of feminization poverty in Nigeria. Women in Nigeria cannot be seen as a minority group and anything (as poverty is the case here) that is a challenges to them as a group should not be neglected as it has and will continue to have tremendous negative effects on the development of the country. Prior to this time, many poverty alleviation programs which are highlighted in the work have been initiated by several governments and they achieved some successes although to a larger extent due to poor implementation and corruption they failed as is evident in the level of poverty in Nigeria. The research elucidates the causes, effects and consequences of women's poverty in Nigeria. Some of the causes discussed include limited access to resources that help women escape from poverty; low income and work discrimination; lack of access to good health care services and socio-cultural exclusions. While some of the effects include poor health and health care access; inadequate food and poor nutrition; lack or poor quality of education; limited access to information and technological development. Several remedies such as increasing the productive capacity of women through access to Economic resources, information and technical assistance, which will increase their income and improve nutrition, education, health care and status within the household were also brought into perspective. Recommendations were made to all concerned groups - the women, men and government agencies and apparatuses, one of which includes: the availability of skill acquisition programs, which should be free and accessible for women especially those in the rural area should be organised, by the government, non-governmental agencies, and well-meaning philanthropists. It was concluded that the structure of the Nigeria society gives room for female poverty.

This article examines the impact of austerity policies on gender inequality in Mexico and Brazil. More specifically, it seeks to discuss the need to reconcile public expenditure with a development strategy that actually includes a gender perspective. The feminization of poverty is of particular interest, as it is the basis upon which we try to outline the socioeconomic conditions in which Mexican and Brazilian women live with regards to progress, setbacks, and challenges. Thus, a brief explanation of the term austerity is provided with the purpose of reflecting on the limitations and opportunities that public expenditure might have in terms of gender inequality. Then, basic economic statistics concerning the dynamics of economic growth and public expenditure are included and certain key variables revolving around gender gaps in both countries are examined. Finally, we offer a diagnosis of the consequences of poverty on the female population in order to identify the leeway that public expenditure focused on gender should have for the most vulnerable population sector. The purpose is to promote development policies based on greater equality. In summary, as a result of the study, we observe that public expenditure intended at fighting against poverty (female-male) had considerable success in the case of Brazil, but not in the case of Mexico. However, in both countries, the recent deepening of austerity policies could limit the efforts of public expenditure on the feminization of poverty in particular, and on gender inequalities in general.

Jakarta still faced many social problems. One of them related to urban settlement so that rusunawa was created to be a solution. In the beginning-unfortunately-the government’s policy had resulted in rejection among people living under the poverty line. It was caused by the difficulty of changing old habits from the previous location to a new situation. Besides that, phycological and economic burdens added serious problems for marginalized people. It happened until some women were aware of such a situation and put effort into the community. As a critical paradigm, this article discussed the Feminist Communication Theory to seek the role of voice in the construction of inequality and oppression. By using qualitative research, the results showed that through feminine transformative leadership, the informants were pushed to have abilities to communicate, dialogue, persuade, and influence the community to lead the community for having a new life world.

AbstractThe theme of integrity in mission from an Asian woman's perspective is explored by Korean theologian, Chun Chae Ok who identifies two important characteristics of women's mission. First, women's mission is usually exercised by poor women to other poor women. Second, women often console and comfort other women, a particularly important quality in Asia given the poverty and suffering that many women experience. Chun argues that the often marginalized or ignored story of women's mission needs to be told.

AbstractWelfare policy discourse plays an important role in shaping how marginalised groups are identified and how poverty is addressed. Research on welfare policy discourse has mostly adopted a top-down perspective, examining how marginalised groups are constituted through interrelated discourses that are produced and enacted by powerful actors. However, little attention has been given to understanding how welfare policy discourse is used and enacted by marginalised groups themselves. This article focuses on asset-building discourse, a newly ascendant discourse which suggests that poverty can be alleviated through savings and building wealth. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 24 poor single mothers of colour participating in a matched savings programme, the article explores how poor women rely on asset-building discourse to make sense of their poverty challenges and how to overcome them. The study finds that the women express neoliberal ideals as they seek to portray themselves as committed to becoming self-sufficient, financially literate, disciplined savers and entrepreneurs. The findings indicate that the women feel empowered and see themselves as worthy citizens, irrespective of whether their economic situation has actually improved or whether they ultimately come to resist asset-building discourse's individualisation of their predicament.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on gender equality can be achieved by mainstreaming a gender perspective and promoting women's economic empowerment. Punjab has almost become synonymous with the low status of women, patriarchal society, feudal customs and values, social polarization along caste lines, high illiteracy, and poverty. The secondary status of women in Punjab coupled with an oppressive caste system and grinding poverty has robbed the women of their rights and a life of dignity, which were envisaged by the framers of the Constitution. The issue of gender equality has acquired a global character, and therefore, there is a need for the Civil Society to actively participate and enable the women to fight for their rights. The United Nations has included the issue of gender mainstreaming in the Millennium Declaration and 'promoting gender equality and empowerment of women' is one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Improved gender sensitivity could be achieved by adopting a proactive approach towards achieving gender economic justice. Therefore achieving gender equality requires two complementary approaches--mainstreaming a gender perspective and promoting women's economic empowerment.

This paper aims to portray the overall picture of poverty in the world and mentions the key solution to overcome poverty from a critical perspective. The data and figures were quoted from a number of researchers and organizations in the field of poverty around the world. Simultaneously, the information strengthens the correlations among poverty and lack of education. Only appropriate philosophies of education can improve the country’s socio-economic conditions and contribute to effective solutions to worldwide poverty. In the 21st century, despite the rapid development of science and technology with a series of inventions brought into the world to make life more comfortable, human poverty remains a global problem, especially in developing countries. Poverty, according to Lister (2004), is reflected by the state of “low living standards and/or inability to participate fully in society because of lack of material resources” (p.7). The impact and serious consequences of poverty on multiple aspects of human life have been realized by different organizations and researchers from different contexts (Fraser, 2000; Lister, 2004; Lipman, 2004; Lister, 2008). This paper will indicate some of the concepts and research results on poverty. Figures and causes of poverty, and some solutions from education as a key breaker to poverty will also be discussed. Creating a universal definition of poverty is not simple (Nyasulu, 2010). There are conflicts among different groups of people defining poverty, based on different views and fields. Some writers, according to Nyasulu, tend to connect poverty with social problems, while others focus on political or other causes. However, the reality of poverty needs to be considered from different sides and ways; for that reason, the diversity of definitions assigned to poverty can help form the basis on which interventions are drawn (Ife and Tesoriero, 2006). For instance, in dealing with poverty issues, it is essential to intervene politically; economic intervention is very necessary to any definition of this matter. A political definition necessitates political interventions in dealing with poverty, and economic definitions inevitably lead to economic interventions. Similarly, Księżopolski (1999) uses several models to show the perspectives on poverty as marginal, motivation and socialist. These models look at poverty and solutions from different angles. Socialists, for example, emphasize the responsibilities of social organization. The state manages the micro levels and distributes the shares of national gross resources, at the same time fighting to maintain the narrow gap among classes. In his book, Księżopolski (1999) also emphasizes the changes and new values of charity funds or financial aid from churches or organizations recognized by the Poor Law. Speaking specifically, in the new stages poverty has been recognized differently, and support is also delivered in limited categories related to more specific and visible objectives, with the aim of helping the poor change their own status for sustainable improvement. Three ways of categorizing the poor and locating them in the appropriate places are (1) the powerless, (2) who is willing to work and (3) who is dodging work. Basically, poverty is determined not to belong to any specific cultures or politics; otherwise, it refers to the situation in which people’s earnings cannot support their minimum living standard (Rowntree, 1910). Human living standard is defined in Alfredsson & Eide’s work (1999) as follows: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” (p. 524). In addition, poverty is measured by Global Hunger Index (GHI), which is calculated by the International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI) every year. The GHI measures hunger not only globally, but also by country and region. To have the figures multi-dimensionally, the GHI is based on three indicators: 1. Undernourishment: the proportion of the undernourished as a percentage of the population (reflecting the share of the population with insufficient calorie intake). 2. Child underweight: the proportion of children under age 5 who are underweight (low weight for their age, reflecting wasting, stunted growth or both), which is one indicator of child under-nutrition. 3. Child mortality: the mortality rate of children under 5 (partially reflecting the fatal synergy of inadequate dietary intake and unhealthy environments). Apart from the individual aspects and the above measurement based on nutrition, which help partly imagine poverty, poverty is more complicated, not just being closely related to human physical life but badly affecting spiritual life. According to Jones and Novak (1999 cited in Lister, 2008), poverty not only characterizes the precarious financial situation but also makes people self-deprecating. Poverty turns itself into the roots of shame, guilt, humiliation and resistance. It leads the poor to the end of the road, and they will never call for help except in the worst situations. Education can help people escape poverty or make it worse. In fact, inequality in education has stolen opportunity for fighting poverty from people in many places around the world, in both developed and developing countries (Lipman, 2004). Lipman confirms: “Students need an education that instills a sense of hope and possibility that they can make a difference in their own family, school, and community and in the broader national and global community while it prepare them for multiple life choices.” (p.181) Bradshaw (2005) synthesizes five main causes of poverty: (1) individual deficiencies, (2) cultural belief systems that support subcultures of poverty, (3) economic, political and social distortions or discrimination, (4) geographical disparities and (5) cumulative and cyclical interdependencies. The researcher suggests the most appropriate solution corresponding with each cause. This reflects the diverse causes of poverty; otherwise, poverty easily happens because of social and political issues. From the literature review, it can be said that poverty comes from complex causes and reasons, and is not a problem of any single individual or country. Poverty has brought about serious consequences and needs to be dealt with by many methods and collective effort of many countries and organizations. This paper will focus on representing some alarming figures on poverty, problems of poverty and then the education as a key breaker to poverty. According to a statistics in 2012 on poverty from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), nearly half the world's population lives below the poverty line, of which is less than $1.25 a day . In a statistics in 2015, of every 1,000 children, 93 do not live to age 5 , and about 448 million babies are stillborn each year . Poverty in the world is happening alarmingly. According to a World Bank study, the risk of poverty continues to increase on a global scale and, of the 2009 slowdown in economic growth, which led to higher prices for fuel and food, further pushed 53 million people into poverty in addition to almost 155 million in 2008. From 1990 to 2009, the average GHI in the world decreased by nearly one-fifth. Many countries had success in solving the problem of child nutrition; however, the mortality rate of children under 5 and the proportion of undernourished people are still high. From 2011 to 2013, the number of hungry people in the world was estimated at 842 million, down 17 percent compared with the period 1990 to 1992, according to a report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) titled “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013” . Although poverty in some African countries had been improved in this stage, sub-Saharan Africa still maintained an area with high the highest percentage of hungry people in the world. The consequences and big problems resulting from poverty are terrible in the extreme. The following will illustrate the overall picture under the issues of health, unemployment, education and society and politics ➢ Health issues: According a report by Manos Unidas, a non- government organization (NGO) in Spain , poverty kills more than 30,000 children under age 5 worldwide every day, and 11 million children die each year because of poverty. Currently, 42 million people are living with HIV, 39 million of them in developing countries. The Manos Unidas report also shows that 15 million children globally have been orphaned because of AIDS. Scientists predict that by 2020 a number of African countries will have lost a quarter of their population to this disease. Simultaneously, chronic drought and lack of clean water have not only hindered economic development but also caused disastrous consequences of serious diseases across Africa. In fact, only 58 percent of Africans have access to clean water; as a result, the average life expectancy in Africa is the lowest in the world, just 45 years old (Bui, 2010). ➢ Unemployment issues: According to the United Nations, the youth unemployment rate in Africa is the highest in the world: 25.6 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. Unemployment with growth rates of 10 percent a year is one of the key issues causing poverty in African and negatively affecting programs and development plans. Total African debt amounts to $425 billion (Bui, 2010). In addition, joblessness caused by the global economic downturn pushed more than 140 million people in Asia into extreme poverty in 2009, the International Labor Organization (ILO) warned in a report titled The Fallout in Asia, prepared for the High-Level Regional Forum on Responding to the Economic Crisis in Asia and the Pacific, in Manila from Feb. 18 to 20, 2009 . Surprisingly, this situation also happens in developed countries. About 12.5 million people in the United Kingdom (accounting for 20 percent of the population) are living below the poverty line, and in 2005, 35 million people in the United States could not live without charity. At present, 620 million people in Asia are living on less than $1 per day; half of them are in India and China, two countries whose economies are considered to be growing. ➢ Education issues: Going to school is one of the basic needs of human beings, but poor people cannot achieve it. Globally, 130 million children do not attend school, 55 percent of them girls, and 82 million children have lost their childhoods by marrying too soon (Bui, 2010). Similarly, two-thirds of the 759 million illiterate people in total are women. Specifically, the illiteracy rate in Africa keeps increasing, accounting for about 40 percent of the African population at age 15 and over 50 percent of women at age 25. The number of illiterate people in the six countries with the highest number of illiterate people in the world - China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Bangladesh and Egypt - reached 510 million, accounting for 70 percent of total global illiteracy. ➢ Social and political issues: Poverty leads to a number of social problems and instability in political systems of countries around the world. Actually, 246 million children are underage labors, including 72 million under age 10. Simultaneously, according to an estimate by the United Nations (UN), about 100 million children worldwide are living on the streets. For years, Africa has suffered a chronic refugee problem, with more than 7 million refugees currently and over 200 million people without homes because of a series of internal conflicts and civil wars. Poverty threatens stability and development; it also directly influences human development. Solving the problems caused by poverty takes a lot of time and resources, but afterward they can focus on developing their societies. Poverty has become a global issue with political significance of particular importance. It is a potential cause of political and social instability, even leading to violence and war not only within a country, but also in the whole world. Poverty and injustice together have raised fierce conflicts in international relations; if these conflicts are not satisfactorily resolved by peaceful means, war will inevitably break out. Obviously, poverty plus lack of understanding lead to disastrous consequences such as population growth, depletion of water resources, energy scarcity, pollution, food shortages and serious diseases (especially HIV/AIDS), which are not easy to control; simultaneously, poverty plus injustice will cause international crimes such as terrorism, drug and human trafficking, and money laundering. Among recognizable four issues above which reflected the serious consequences of poverty, the third ones, education, if being prioritized in intervention over other issues in the fighting against poverty is believed to bring more effectiveness in resolving the problems from the roots. In fact, human being with the possibility of being educated resulted from their distinctive linguistic ability makes them differential from other beings species on the earth (Barrow and Woods 2006, p.22). With education, human can be aware and more critical with their situations, they are aimed with abilities to deal with social problems as well as adversity for a better life; however, inequality in education has stolen opportunity for fighting poverty from unprivileged people (Lipman, 2004). An appropriate education can help increase chances for human to deal with all of the issues related to poverty; simultaneously it can narrow the unexpected side-effect of making poverty worse. A number of philosophies from ancient Greek to contemporary era focus on the aspect of education with their own epistemology, for example, idealism of Plato encouraged students to be truth seekers and pragmatism of Dewey enhanced the individual needs of students (Gutex, 1997). Education, more later on, especially critical pedagogy focuses on developing people independently and critically which is essential for poor people to have ability of being aware of what they are facing and then to have equivalent solutions for their problems. In other words, critical pedagogy helps people emancipate themselves and from that they can contribute to transform the situations or society they live in. In this sense, in his most influential work titled “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” (1972), Paulo Freire carried out his critical pedagogy by building up a community network of peasants- the marginalized and unprivileged party in his context, aiming at awakening their awareness about who they are and their roles in society at that time. To do so, he involved the peasants into a problem-posing education which was different from the traditional model of banking education with the technique of dialogue. Dialogue wasn’t just simply for people to learn about each other; but it was for figuring out the same voice; more importantly, for cooperation to build a social network for changing society. The peasants in such an educational community would be relieved from stressfulness and the feeling of being outsiders when all of them could discuss and exchange ideas with each other about the issues from their “praxis”. Praxis which was derived from what people act and linked to some values in their social lives, was defined by Freire as “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it” (p.50). Critical pedagogy dialogical approach in Pedagogy of the Oppressed of Freire seems to be one of the helpful ways for solving poverty for its close connection to the nature of equality. It doesn’t require any highly intellectual teachers who lead the process; instead, everything happens naturally and the answers are identified by the emancipation of the learners themselves. It can be said that the effectiveness of this pedagogy for people to escape poverty comes from its direct impact on human critical consciousness; from that, learners would be fully aware of their current situations and self- figure out the appropriate solutions for their own. In addition, equality which was one of the essences making learners in critical pedagogy intellectually emancipate was reflected via the work titled “The Ignorant Schoolmaster” by Jacques Rancière (1991). In this work, the teacher and students seemed to be equal in terms of the knowledge. The explicator- teacher Joseph Jacotot employed the interrogative approach which was discovered to be universal because “he taught what he didn’t know”. Obviously, this teacher taught French to Flemish students while he couldn’t speak his students’ language. The ignorance which was not used in the literal sense but a metaphor showed that learners can absolutely realize their capacity for self-emancipation without the traditional teaching of transmission of knowledge from teachers. Regarding this, Rancière (1991, p.17) stated “that every common person might conceive his human dignity, take the measure of his intellectual capacity, and decide how to use it”. This education is so meaningful for poor people by being able to evoking their courageousness to develop themselves when they always try to stay away from the community due the fact that poverty is the roots of shame, guilt, humiliation and resistance (Novak, 1999). The contribution of critical pedagogy to solving poverty by changing the consciousness of people from their immanence is summarized by Freire’s argument in his “Pedagogy of Indignation” as follows: “It is certain that men and women can change the world for the better, can make it less unjust, but they can do so from starting point of concrete reality they “come upon” in their generation. They cannot do it on the basis of reveries, false dreams, or pure illusion”. (p.31) To sum up, education could be an extremely helpful way of solving poverty regarding the possibilities from the applications of studies in critical pedagogy for educational and social issues. Therefore, among the world issues, poverty could be possibly resolved in accordance with the indigenous people’s understanding of their praxis, their actions, cognitive transformation, and the solutions with emancipation in terms of the following keynotes: First, because the poor are powerless, they usually fall into the states of self-deprecation, shame, guilt and humiliation, as previously mentioned. In other words, they usually build a barrier between themselves and society, or they resist changing their status. Therefore, approaching them is not a simple matter; it requires much time and the contributions of psychologists and sociologists in learning about their aspirations, as well as evoking and nurturing the will and capacities of individuals, then providing people with chances to carry out their own potential for overcoming obstacles in life. Second, poverty happens easily in remote areas not endowed with favorable conditions for development. People there haven’t had a lot of access to modern civilization; nor do they earn a lot of money for a better life. Low literacy, together with the lack of healthy forms of entertainment and despair about life without exit, easily lead people into drug addiction, gambling and alcoholism. In other words, the vicious circle of poverty and powerlessness usually leads the poor to a dead end. Above all, they are lonely and need to be listened to, shared with and led to escape from their states. Community meetings for exchanging ideas, communicating and immediate intervening, along with appropriate forms of entertainment, should be held frequently to meet the expectations of the poor, direct them to appropriate jobs and, step by step, change their favorite habits of entertainment. Last but not least, poor people should be encouraged to participate in social forums where they can both raise their voices about their situations and make valuable suggestions for dealing with their poverty. Children from poor families should be completely exempted from school fees to encourage them to go to school, and curriculum should also focus on raising community awareness of poverty issues through extracurricular and volunteer activities, such as meeting and talking with the community, helping poor people with odd jobs, or simply spending time listening to them. Not a matter of any individual country, poverty has become a major problem, a threat to the survival, stability and development of the world and humanity. Globalization has become a bridge linking countries; for that reason, instability in any country can directly and deeply affect the stability of others. The international community has been joining hands to solve poverty; many anti-poverty organizations, including FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), BecA (the Biosciences eastern and central Africa), UN-REDD (the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), BRAC (Building Resources Across Communities), UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), WHO (World Health Organization) and Manos Unidas, operate both regionally and internationally, making some achievements by reducing the number of hungry people, estimated 842 million in the period 1990 to 1992, by 17 percent in 2011- to 2013 . The diverse methods used to deal with poverty have invested billions of dollars in education, health and healing. The Millennium Development Goals set by UNDP put forward eight solutions for addressing issues related to poverty holistically: 1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. 2) Achieve universal primary education. 3) Promote gender equality and empower women. 4) Reduce child mortality. 5) Improve maternal health. 6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. 7) Ensure environmental sustainability. 8) Develop a global partnership for development. Although all of the mentioned solutions carried out directly by countries and organizations not only focus on the roots of poverty but break its circle, it is recognized that the solutions do not emphasize the role of the poor themselves which a critical pedagogy does. More than anyone, the poor should have a sense of their poverty so that they can become responsible for their own fate and actively fight poverty instead of waiting for help. It is not different from the cores of critical theory in solving educational and political issues that the poor should be aware and conscious about their situation and reflected context. It is required a critical transformation from their own praxis which would allow them to go through a process of learning, sharing, solving problems, and leading to social movements. This is similar to the method of giving poor people fish hooks rather than giving them fish. The government and people of any country understand better than anyone else clearly the strengths and characteristics of their homelands. It follows that they can efficiently contribute to causing poverty, preventing the return of poverty, and solving consequences of the poverty in their countries by many ways, especially a critical pedagogy; and indirectly narrow the scale of poverty in the world. In a word, the wars against poverty take time, money, energy and human resources, and they are absolutely not simple to end. Again, the poor and the challenged should be educated to be fully aware of their situation to that they can overcome poverty themselves. They need to be respected and receive sharing from the community. All forms of discrimination should be condemned and excluded from human society. When whole communities join hands in solving this universal problem, the endless circle of poverty can be addressed definitely someday. More importantly, every country should be responsible for finding appropriate ways to overcome poverty before receiving supports from other countries as well as the poor self-conscious responsibilities about themselves before receiving supports from the others, but the methods leading them to emancipation for their own transformation and later the social change.

Abstract This article aims to analyze how the reality of criminalized abortion reinforces inequalities of gender, race/ethnicity, and class, which are co-produced within the context of sexage, understood here as the appropriation of women by men, reducing them to the status of thing. The bibliographic and documentary research was carried out, from the perspective of materialistic, historical and dialectical analysis. The main conclusion is that criminalization reinforces the logic of social inequalities in Brazil and the world. This is because poor and black women are the most affected, those who die the most, and because almost all unsafe abortions in the world occur in the peripheric economies. Thus, the consequences of criminalized abortion, whether moral, health or economic, mainly impact poor, black, young women living in peripheral economies.

<p><em>Definitions and attributes of poverty has been too much attached to the economic aspects, especially measured by the level of income per capita, whereas the root of poverty is lack of access for poor people to participate in determining their own destiny in the decision making process for the purpose of policy formulation in various fields of life. Poverty should also include a lack of understanding and awareness of the law, mechanisms of assistance and legal assistance and access to the political process in decision making. If the poor are involved, then they will get p</em><em>rotection of</em><em> law. This is where the view on poverty from a legal perspective is becoming increasingly important. Poverty experienced by most women in Indonesia, especially women living in rural areas so that poverty limits the capacity of women to access justice. Poor access to justice is then further leads to further women trapped in poverty. Various studies and reports have revealed various obstacles that women face in accessing justice. The main obstacle is the general lack of awareness and understanding of their legal rights. To overcome these obstacles, one of the strategies to improve women's access to justice is legal empowerment or the empowerment law. In general, legal empowerment or the empowerment law is an effort aimed at strengthening the marginalized people, including in this case is a group of women, in order to improve their control over their lives, by making use of legal resources in the community and development activities related and not solely relying on legal institutions (formal). If women are empowered legally, then they get legal protection.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords:</em></strong><em> Legal Empowerment, Acess to Justice, Poverty, Women.</em></p>

In one of the first and best-known collections of cultural criticism in America, Civilization in the United States (1922), Harold Stearns begins his chapter on “The Intellectual Life” with this widely quoted passage:When Professor Einstein roused the ire of the women's clubs by stating that “women dominate the entire life of America,” and that “there are cities with a million population, but cities suffering from terrible poverty – the poverty of intellectual things,” he was but repeating a criticism of our life now old enough to be almost a cliché. Hardly any intelligent foreigner has failed to observe and comment upon the extraordinary feminization of American social life, and oftenest he has coupled this observation with a few biting remarks concerning the intellectual anaemia or torpor that seems to accompany it.

Summary The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the meanings Israeli women who frequent soup assign to this experience. The study is based on participant observation and 16 recorded interviews with women in eight soup kitchens in Israel. The study adopts a gender-mainstreaming approach to food security that privileges the life knowledge of women living in poverty. The grounded theory method was employed in the collection and analysis of the data-field notes and interviews. Findings Four main categories regarding women’s constructions of motivations for frequenting soup kitchens emerged: (1) nutritional needs, (2) feeding others, (3) overall economic strategy, and (4) social needs. The issue of dealing with shame is also explored from a humanist and cultural perspective. Applications The findings indicate the need for social workers to consider food security, and eating arrangements when making assessments, evaluating interventions and developing programs and policies in all practice settings. Social workers need to provide information about community food services that are accessible and user-friendly for their women clients who deal with food insecurity and social isolation. Soup kitchens should be structured to allow for active participation of the service users in the administration and operation of food security programs. Finally, social workers should adopt a critical, feminist position regarding women’s use of soup kitchens as an oppressive survival strategy that stems from inequality in gender and class power relations.

Background: Poverty in Korea is not gender neutral. Both male headed and female headed households experience poverty in distinct ways. This research discusses poverty and how it has evolved in Korea from a gender perspective. Methods: It describes the characteristics of poverty among the working population based on gender and other household attributes. It measures poverty relative to the mean and median incomes of the population in three ways: headcount, poverty gap, and poverty severity. The study uses the probit model to estimate the incidence of poverty and the Heckman sample selection model to analyze poverty’s gap and severity. Our empirical results are based on an unbalanced household level panel covering the period 2006–2016. Results: Our results indicate that multiple factors including issues related to the labor market and demographic characteristics contribute to women’s poverty. Within the working population, women are less likely to be poor than men because they share their partners’ incomes. However, single female workers with children are the poorest demographic group. Conclusion: “Part-time jobs” are a critical factor in determining women’s poverty status, while “work years” and “the quality of occupation” have a crucial impact on the incidence and severity of poverty.

Bidirectional relationship between economic development and women's empowerment is one of the issues in this relationship. Economic growth and prosperity is necessary to improve gender inequality by reducing poverty. Another argument assumes that women could play a fundamental role in development. Thus, equality is valuable. Capacity of women is crucial for changing their live positively. This paper explores the scopes, and opportunities provided by the government policies for Nepalese women and analyzed the constraints in implementing the policies based on this authors' two previous studies -- Effectiveness of Gender Responsive Budgeting in Nepal, 2019; and Women's Contribution in Family Economy in Nepal, 2010. Although more than NRs 500 billion of budget is allocated in the programs directly benefitting women, results are not observed as expected. Sustainable economic development is possible only if the women are capable to utilize the resources; capable to control and reap the benefits of economic opportunities; and capable to make strategic decision for changing their lives positively, once they have access to the resources. Once women are capable, there would be no limitation to be involved in economics. Result Based Budgeting (RBB) systems has proven to be a compatible framework for the institutionalization of gender budgeting.

This paper approaches the issue of sexual assault against women of color from an intersectional perspective. By analyzing the current body of research on the subject, I argue that women of color's experience of sexual assault is fundamentally different from that of White women for multiple reasons. While the available research does explain certain aspects of women of color's experiences, additional research is necessary in order to improve our understanding of and the care we provide for women of color who have been sexually assaulted. Because women of color have been subjugated to a long history of racism and socioeconomic forces, such as poverty and lack of services, in the United States, a better, more refined technique is needed that can address their multi-faceted and complicated experiences. This paper also outlines how this technique can be achieved and what it would look like in practical and professional applications.

Postpartum depression is a serious and common psychiatric illness. Mothers living in poverty are more likely to be depressed and have greater barriers to accessing treatment than the general population. Mental health utilization is particularly limited for women with postpartum depression and low-income, minority women. As part of an academic-community partnership, focus groups were utilized to examine staff practices, barriers, and facilitators in mental health referrals for women with depression within a community nonprofit agency serving low-income pregnant and postpartum women. The focus groups were analyzed through content analyses and NVIVO-8. Three focus groups with 16 community health workers were conducted. Six themes were identified: (1) screening and referral, (2) facilitators to referral, (3) barriers to referral, (4) culture and language, (5) life events, and (6) support. The study identified several barriers and facilitators for referring postpartum women with depression to mental health services.

Most single-parent families in China are headed by women, and single mothers represent one of the fastest-growing groups living in poverty. Yet few studies have examined this group. This article seeks to better understand how (and why) single mothers are disadvantaged in China. Based on in-depth interviews conducted in Zhuhai, Guangzhou Province, it demonstrates that single mothers are left behind in four respects: lower income and worse economic conditions, lower employment and career development opportunities, worse physical and mental health, and poorer interpersonal relationships and less chance of remarriage. The causes of these disadvantages include Chinese family beliefs, a culture of maternal sacrifice, the traditional division of labour between men and women and social stereotypes about single mothers. The article highlights the impacts of Chinese familism culture on single mothers and advocates incorporating a gender perspective into the agenda of family policy and other relevant social policies in China.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine female labour force participation (FLFP) and their employment choice between the formal and informal sectors after several institutional and social reforms such as Millennium Development Goal 3 aimed at promoting gender equality and empowerment of women by 2015, using data from Ghana’s 2010 Population and Housing Census. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, logit regression and multinomial logit techniques were employed. Findings The results show that FLFP has declined marginally from the 2005 figures; education remains the important factor in determining women’s participation in the formal sector. Strikingly 91 per cent of the FLFP is engaged in the informal sector of the Ghanaian economy, a sector with a very low contribution per head. Practical implications Interventions such as encouraging female education and retraining of self-employed females to improve upon their efficiency ought to be pursued vigorously; whiles developing rural areas for females to get equal labour opportunities and many others aimed at enhancing the efficiency and by inference earning per head of the informal sector is highly recommended. Originality/value The literature on the FLFP is thin in Ghana. The current study uses a census data unlike the previous studies and as such employed a huge sample size that reflects the reality in Ghana. The study contributed immensely to policy having established that 91 per cent of the female labour force is engaged in the informal sectors of the economy, and therefore any intervention targeting at reducing poverty and meeting the MDG 3 should be targeted at the informal sector of the Ghanaian economy.

Between 2008 and 2016, more than 50,000 Chinese citizens migrated to Ghana to mine gold on small-scale concessions. This is particularly surprising given that small-scale mining is an activity reserved for Ghanaian citizens. Foreign gold mining is mediated by various intersecting political economic and geopolitical shifts, including unprecedented gold demand, economic crisis, and informal conditions to Chinese loans. Based on long-term, mixed-methods fieldwork, and drawing from feminist geopolitics research, we argue Ghana’s recent gold rush portends gendered implications for bodies in rural areas. We center our discussion on bodies to demonstrate the ways extractive practices increase vulnerability among women and children, including teen pregnancy and mercury exposure. Yet, women also contest foreign mining and its myriad implications (e.g., refusing to sell land and entering sites while menstruating despite being “forbidden” to do so). A feminist geopolitics perspective allows the tracing of specific political economic processes (Chinese monetary policies, informal loan conditions) to other sites (Pokukrom, the pregnant teen), thereby enabling a clearer understanding of how supportive interventions might occur.

Pakistan is a large and an important West Asian country which came into being in the name of Islam and therefore Islamic tenets remain the core of its constitution. The laws of the state have to conform to Islamic law so that they can have a positive impact on the society. Unfortunately, in Pakistan today not all men enjoy the rights and facilities to which they are entitled and women are doubly disadvantaged by poverty and gender. With their own political agendas, various governments have promulgated laws which affect the society in various ways. The laws which directly influence women's rights merit mention, as women comprise more than 50% of the population of Pakistan and are still kept on the sidelines by the male dominant society. The Muslim Family Law Ordinance, 1961, and the Hudood Ordinance, 1979 were both promulgated by military dictators with different visions. The former codified the rights of women bestowed by Islamic law; the latter repealed laws for sexual offences according to the injunctions of Islam and had a negative impact. Both laws need the assistance of forensic medicine as age estimation and medical examinations are necessary if they are to be followed in the right perspective. However, a legal need for an examination by an expert in forensic medicine is sadly lacking in both laws. This has happened due to lack of training of forensic physicians and therefore a lack of research in important areas of forensic medicine in the country. This paper examines these laws and the interaction they have with forensic medicine and proposes that the laws need revision in accordance with modern science, incorporating forensic sciences as well as the injunctions of Islam.

It is often forgotten that child labor is part of a multi-generational problem due in part to the failure to educate girls. Although the literacy rate for women has improved over the last two decades, in many countries it is less than half that of their male counterparts. This in turn leads to nutritional deficiencies, poverty, and poor health. While many researchers address the immediate health effects of child labor on the child laborers, this article addresses the issue of child labor from a broader perspective, one that identifies child labor as a contributor to inter-generational poverty, malnutrition, and limited educational attainment. Child labor and nutrition are important issues in both educational attainment and health status.

Many more Americans experience working poverty than unemployed poverty, a situation that was only exacerbated by the Great Recession. The consequences of working poverty for later career workers, who should be at their highest earning ages, are particularly dire. The authors expect that later career workers are especially vulnerable in terms of the risk and duration of working poverty and that those who have accumulated disadvantages over their life courses, in terms of the intersecting dimensions of race/ethnicity, gender, early-life disadvantage, and educational attainment, will suffer disproportionately. The authors use incidence-based Markov-chain multistate models to analyze the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, which is representative of the U.S. population aged 50 years and older. The results reveal that Black women and men, Latinx, those who experienced more early-life disadvantages, and people with lower education have higher risk and longer durations in working poverty over the period from 2002 to 2012. The findings also suggest that when confronted with economic hardship (the Great Recession) later career workers who originate in lower socioeconomic statuses, especially Blacks and Latinx, are in more precarious economic positions. Important from a policy perspective, educational attainment only partially mediates the association between race/ethnicity and working poverty; disparities persist.

ABSTRACTThe concept of ‘parenting skills’ features large in professional, political and popular discourse on the role and responsibility of parents. This article explores what constitutes skills of parenting from the perspective of community health and social service providers, working with families deemed to be ‘in need’. It shows how the concept is drawn on to describe both the needs of women with whom they work and their own role in fulfilling some of those needs. It argues that ‘parenting skills’ are not only gendered, insofar as it is women as mothers who are more likely to be perceived as needing them, but that a lack of them might also be associated with marital status, age and place of residence. In looking at ‘parenting skills’ from the perspective of service providers in the context of their working lives, it is clear however that service providers, predominantly women, formulate a role for themselves in the face of poverty and poor housing which they feel powerless to change.

The present work aims to describe and analyze the results of the interventions carried out in the Barcelona pilot site of the EmpowerMed project. The overall objective of EmpowerMed is to tackle energy poverty and to help improve the health of people in coastal areas of Mediterranean countries, with a particular focus on women. The main support approach implemented in Barcelona is Collective Advisory Assemblies (CAA), in the framework of Alliance against Energy Poverty. CAA is an innovative, collaborative empowering engagement tool that offers an alternative to the more traditional one-off individual household advice and support approaches. CAAs take place together with a monitoring campaign where: electricity consumption is analyzed to optimize the supply contracts, and indoor environmental comfort to provide recommendations for wellbeing improvement. Through the different approaches, a characterization of the people that have participated in the Barcelona pilot site was completed, from a socioeconomic, energy, thermal comfort and air quality perspective. Additionally, it was compared with a group of energy poverty non-affected households, which are involved in the monitoring campaign. Finally, the impact was quantified in terms of empowerment of energy poverty population and, potential economic savings.

Social inclusion of women with disabilities is currently an extremely complex challenge, an educational emergency, which mainly involves Special Education. The development of the international normative framework did not help the majority of women with disabilities, who are still socially underprivileged and are often victims of multi-discrimination, which is part of an extensive process of feminization of poverty.&nbsp; Starting from the above mentioned daunting overview, the article aims at contributing to the debate on the need to reinforce a theoretical and methodological framework of interpretation. Such framework should be able to link the conditions of gender and disability together, thus pursuing an emancipating perspective. The article aspires to reflect on potential perspectives of social development, combining and balancing social protection elements with educational and employment opportunities through empowerment processes designed for women with disabilities. Such reflection will move its steps from the case-study on a journey of social and employment inclusion embraced by women with disabilities living in the difficult context of Gaza Strip

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the “Energía, la justa” program, aimed at reducing energy poverty in the city of Barcelona, from the point of view of the target population and the workers involved in the intervention. METHODS: A qualitative, descriptive and exploratory pilot study was carried out, with a phenomenological approach. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted: to three users, three energy agents who performed interventions in the homes, and six professionals who participated in the program coordination. A thematic content analysis was carried out using Atlas-ti software. Interviews were conducted between October 2016 and March 2017. RESULTS: Trust in a contact person (e.g. social workers) facilitated the participation, although there were difficulties reaching people who had illegal energy supplies, immigrant women or immigrants who subrent properties. Regarding implementation, home visits, energy efficiency advice and the relationship with energy agents were the best assessed aspects. However, not being able to carry out reforms in deteriorated dwellings was considered a limitation. The program also contributed to raise awareness on energy rights, to save on utility bills and to generate tranquility and social support. CONCLUSIONS: Programs such as this one can promote energy empowerment and improve psychosocial status. However, strategies with a gender and equity perspective should be considered to reach other vulnerable groups.

Preterm birth (PTB) is a final common outcome resulting from many interrelated etiological pathways; of particular interest is antenatal psychosocial distress (i.e., stress, anxiety, and depression). In LMI countries, both exposure to severe life stressors and rate of PTB are on average greater when compared with high-income countries. In LMI countries women are exposed to some of the most extreme psychosocial stress worldwide (e.g., absolute poverty, limited social resources). High prevalence of antenatal stress and depression have been observed in some studies from LMI countries. We propose a psychosocial, biological, and behavioral model for investigating the complex multisystem interactions in stress responses leading to PTB and explain the basis of this approach. We discuss ethical considerations for a psychosocial, biological, and behavioral screening tool to predict PTB from a LMI country perspective.

Since 1990, microfinance has gained universal recognition as an essential and useful tool to address the economically productive poor and provide them with a way to come out of the vicious circle of poverty, by delivering loans and credit on flexible terms in contrast to commercial banks. Many studies from different parts of the world have shown significant economic and social uplift of recipients (both men and women) of microfinance programs. However, in recent years, some studies argue against the positive influence of microfinance and stresses that microfinance is commercialized, and it has become more of a profit generation activity than uplifting of the economically productive poor, which is one of many core objective of microfinance organizations. Many empirical studies have been done to know the effects of microfinance on the welfare of households. They are well documented, e.g., in Bangladesh and India, but only a few studies assess the microfinance effect on rural female entrepreneurs of Pakistan. The present study was carried out to empirically analyze the outcome of microfinance on Pakistan’s female entrepreneurs. Women’s empowerment is gauged using income and consumption as welfare indicators. The difference in difference method is applied to investigate the effects of microfinance on its recipients, which is considered a useful tool to tackle the selection bias problem. Our study result shows that microfinance programs that target women not just only increase income and consumption of female borrowers, making them financially stable, but in fact, many local stakeholders also get benefited from it, and in turn, it creates opportunities for the whole local community. However, our results also show that it does not reach to the poorest of poor women (extremely poor) and thus does not serve the purpose of many of its core objectives, i.e., poverty reduction of extremely poor and henceforth should not be relied upon in this perspective.

Abstract The outbreak of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic altered the social, economic, and public health landscape across the world, and unleashed a plethora of negative psychosocial impacts on society. This qualitative study used an online based case study design to explore the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 among a few selected citizens of Zimbabwe. The study was conceptualized around an orienting question stated as: What are the psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe? Participants for the study were purposively selected, and data was collected through in-depth interviews, which were hosted online. The study returned findings that the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe was concomitant with a range of psychosocial impacts including inter alia, exposure of people to mental health problems such as severe distress, phobias, anxiety, development of psychosomatic symptoms, as well as increase in social ills such as poverty, and domestic and sexual violence perpetrated against women and children.