Community based micro insurance has aroused much interest and hope in meeting health care challenges facing the poor. In this paper we explore how institutional rigidities such as credit constraint impinge on demand for health insurance and how insurance could potentially prevent poor households...

Integrating information for the purpose of articulating social protection policies is hard work. It requires a combination of political will, capacity for institutional cooperation, software development and direct communication channels with citizens. Because of this complexity, countries that...

Competitive elections in many parts of Africa generate powerful incentives to presidential candidates (and to a lesser extent political parties) to brand themselves in ways that transcend regional or ethnic loyalties. In Malawi, Joyce Banda - President from 2012 to 2014 - sought to distinguish...

With rural extreme poverty officially eradicated in 2020, China is to move to measuring relative poverty in urban and rural areas. Relative poverty describes circumstances in which people cannot afford actively to participate in society and benefit from the activities and experiences that most...