This briefly examines some considerations when designing safety nets: a) local needs; b) financial and political sustainability; c) cost benefit analysis; and d) approach at targeting needy groups. Furthermore, it emphasizes that the poor must be included in productive activity, so that safety...

The authors examine how the food stamp program affected measures of poverty during devaluation of the Jamaican dollar in the early 1990s. They find that without the food stamp program, the poverty gap in Jamaica would have been much worse, especially in 1990 and 1991. For the country as a whole,...

Considerations of risk and vulnerability are key to understanding the dynamics of poverty. This study conceives vulnerability as expected poverty and illustrates a methodology to empirically assess household vulnerability using pseudo panel data derived from repeated cross sections augmented...

This report describes Namibia's social safety net and issues and options for reform. In Namibia, the extended family is a big shock absorber: informal sharing arrangements between and within households are Namibia's unique sources of strength. Grandparents contribute enormously to the...

The authors explore the strength of female secondary education relative to, and in combination with, family planning and health programs in reducing fertility and infant mortality. They find that family planning and health programs do influence fertility and mortality, but that the impact of...

The study begins by stressing three points. First, the number of orphans is growing at an alarming rate, and therefore the vulnerabilities associated with orphanhood require immediate attention. Second, because resources are limited and not all orphans are in need of assistance, there is an...