Conferences
Social Protection for Chronic Poverty
Risk, Needs, and Rights Protecting What? How?
A conference to be held at
IDPM, University of Manchester, UK
23-24 February 2005
Introduction
There is an e merging consensus around the view that social protection provides an effective policy framework addressing rising poverty and vulnerability in developing countries . This is evident from statements by multilateral organisations, bilateral donors, international NGOs; and increasingly by governments and national bodies in developing countries. Agreement on the need for social protection is welcomed, but a number of key issues remain in need of clarification, including its conceptual grounding, instruments, and conditions. Whether social protection can effectively address chronic poverty will depend, to an important extent, on how these issues are resolved.
The Conference aims to contribute to an improved understanding of these issues from the perspective of chronic poverty. Chronic poverty is understood as income or capability poverty persisting over time, or even a lifetime, and being passed on to the next generation.
There are at least three main conceptual approaches to persistent poverty and vulnerability capable of grounding social protection .
Some see chronic poverty and vulnerability as resulting from poor households' inability to cope with risks, in many cases reinforced by dysfunctional responses (deficient investment in human and physical capital), and argue for interventions that improve household risk management.
Social policy argues that chronic poverty is a consequence of the poor's inability to secure basic needs and argue for sectoral programmes tackling these (e.g. food security, primary health and nutrition, in-kind benefits).
Others see chronic poverty as arising from the exclusion of the chronic poor and their disempowerment, and argue for interventions that extend and strengthen rights. It is important to define the roles of risk, needs and rights in social protection.
A great deal of discussion on policy interventions addressing chronic poverty and vulnerability is episodic, focusing on specific programme which address specific issues, and work (or do not work) for specific countries. Social protection challenges us to think through interventions in a more integrated and sustained fashion, placing the emphasis on facilitating and strengthening the capacity of households and communities to invest in their future.
A range of interventions has been introduced in developing countries, fitting within a social protection framework. These include targeted human development interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean, conditional on sustained human capital investment by households; integrated programmes targeting the extreme poor, such as Chile Solidario ; and a range of welfare promotion programmes, including education and health subsidies, across the developing world. It is important to track these new developments and examine the extent to which these interventions address chronic poverty and vulnerability.
Perhaps the hardest question to tackle relates to the political, and political economy, conditions needed for countries to introduce, or strengthen, social protection programmes aimed at the chronic poor. How do countries introduce and sustain interventions aimed at chronic poverty?
This is a core issue as the chronic poor have little agency, and minimal voice. It is important to examine the political economy of social protection interventions directed at persistent poverty and vulnerability.
Call for Papers
The workshop will address three main questions:
- What are the roles of risks, rights, and needs in understanding chronic poverty and its remedies?
The workshop will assemble a panel of speakers from these perspectives with a brief to concentrate on chronic poverty. - What works, and does not work, in reducing chronic poverty in developed and developing countries?
We welcome papers providing meta-studies of social protection interventions, or evaluating specific social protection interventions targeted on chronic poverty and vulnerability; or considering the financing of such interventions. - What are the political economy conditions required for sustainable anti-chronic poverty interventions?
We welcome papers discussing the political economy of social protection interventions targeted on the chronic poor and vulnerable, the role of international organisations in fostering these initiatives, and evaluating the processes leading to the introduction of existing social protection interventions.
Abstracts should be received by the organisers by 1st August 2004 and full papers by 1st December 2004.
For further details on the submission of papers, please contact:
Armando Barrientos, IDPM
Email: armando.barrientos@manchester.ac.uk
Tel: 0161 275 2811
David Hulme, IDPM
Email: david.hulme@manchester.ac.uk
Tel: 0161 275 2806
For more info on the theme of the conference, you are warmly invited to read the following background paper by Barrientos, Hulme and Shepherd:
Can Social Protection Tackle Poverty? (PDF 273KB)
Abstract
Recent developments in social protection have shifted its focus on to risk and vulnerability. These contribute to poverty directly, but also indirectly through the response of poor households to risk. The extent to which social protection interventions could address chronic poverty is unclear. A hard and fast distinction between transient and chronic poverty suggests a bifurcation in anti-poverty policy, with social protection addressing the former, and asset transfer policies the latter. To the extent that factors behind chronic poverty extend beyond the direct and indirect impact of risk on households, social protection can at best constitute a partial response. The paper discusses these issues and concludes that 'broad' social protection can have an important role in interrupting risk and vulnerability among the chronic poor.
Further Information and Bookings
The conference will run across two days in Manchester with a maximum attendance of 80. It will centre on plenary sessions with a mixture of papers and discussion.
Funding will be sought to enable the involvement from groups unable to fund their own participation, particularly paper-givers from overseas.
Plans are already underway for a book and/or specialist journal that draws on a collection of papers presented at the conference.
In order to book a place, please print/download the following booking form and return it to the address provided therein.
Please Note
This event follows on from a Conference on "The Winners and Losers from Rights-based Approaches to Development" to be held on the 21st and 22nd February 2005 in the same venue.
Participants interested in attending both conferences should contact:
Debra Whitehead
Arthur Lewis Conference Administrator
Institute for Development Policy and Management
University of Manchester
Harold Hankins Building
Precinct Centre
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9QH
Email: debra.whitehead@manchester.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 2821