The Poor as Suppliers of Intellectual Property: A Social Networks Approach to Poverty Alleviation

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (1) ◽  
pp. 10940
Author(s):  
Sridevi Shivarajan ◽  
Aravind Srinivasan
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sridevi Shivarajan ◽  
Aravind Srinivasan

ABSTRACT:We extend the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) poverty-alleviation approach by recognizing the poor as valuable suppliers—specifically of intellectual property. Although the poor possess huge reserves of intellectual property, they are unable to participate in global knowledge networks owing to their illiteracy and poverty. This is a crippling form of social exclusion in today’s growing knowledge economy because it adversely affects their capabilities for advancement at several levels. Providing the poor access to global knowledge networks as rightful participants—as suppliers of intellectual property—leads to poverty alleviation as a result of their increased social inclusion, not only through economic benefits, but also through the poor’s improved well-being as a result of their increased self-esteem and dignity. Using concepts from social network theory, we develop a poverty-alleviation approach to harness and integrate the intellectual property of the poor into global knowledge networks through trust-based partnerships among the poor, non-governmental organizations, and multinational corporations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097300522110008
Author(s):  
H. S. Shylendra

As a new generation development programme, the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) has sought to promote collectives of the poor women as the corner-stone of its strategy for livelihood promotion. The livelihood enhancement is meant to be actualised through a multi-dimensional strategy of livelihood protection and promotion. The paper hypothesised that despite their avowed goal, the collectives of women are bound to face enormous challenges in the livelihood promotion in the absence of an integrated approach more so in the context of neoliberalism. The findings of the paper corroborate the hypothesis to a great extent. Contrary to the theoretical visualisation of institutionalists, collectives of poor have faced challenges in their self-reliant emergence. The intervention has emerged more as a minimalist microfinance with inherent limitations regarding poverty alleviation. The paper concludes that the collectives of NRLM have a long way to go before they can emerge as strong livelihood promoting agencies. Sustained support to build the capacities of the fledging collectives, a reversal of the top–down elements of their multi-tier structure and the strong need for greater role clarity for the collectives along with professional support are some of the policy suggestions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Katarina Pitasse Fragoso

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in discussions advocating in-cash programmes as a way to alleviate poverty. Indeed, this represents a leap forward in comparison to in-kind programmes. However, little progress, at least in developing countries, has been achieved in answering the question of how the state should transfer the means of redressing deprivation to those who are living in poverty. This article addresses this issue by challenging anti-poverty programmes through a social-egalitarian framework. My main argument starts from the perspective that in-cash transfers are a necessary but not sufficient mechanism for poverty alleviation. I acknowledge that cash alone does not guarantee the poor an equally active role in influencing the public-policy decisions that affect their lives. I then suggest a participatory device to complement the cash-transfer proposal in order to give institutional opportunities to the poor to decide, together with practitioners, what should be done at the level of local public services.


2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
M S Sriram

In recent times, microfinance has emerged as a major innovation in the rural financial marketplace. Microfinance largely addresses the issue of access to financial services. In trying to understand the innovation of microfinance and how it has proved to be effective, the author looks at certain design features of microfinance. He first starts by identifying the need for financial service institutions which is basically to bridge the gap between the need for financial services across time, geographies, and risk profiles. In providing services that bridge this gap, formal institutions have limited access to authentic information both in terms of transaction history and expected behaviour and, therefore, resort to seeking excessive information thereby adding to the transaction costs. The innovation in microfinance has been largely to bridge this gap through a series of trustbased surrogates that take the transaction-related risks to the people who have the information — the community through measures of social collateral. In this paper, the author attempts to examine the trajectory of institutional intermediation in the rural areas, particularly with the poor and how it has evolved over a period of time. It identifies a systematic breach of trust as one of the major problems with the institutional interventions in the area of providing financial services to the poor and argues that microfinance uses trust as an effective mechanism to address one of the issues of imperfect information in financial transactions. The paper also distinguishes between the different models of microfinance and identifies which of these models use trust in a positivist frame and as a coercive mechanism. The specific objectives of the paper are to: Superimpose the role of trust in various types of exchanges and see how it impacts the effectiveness of repeated transactions. While greater access to information fosters trust and thus helps social networks to reduce transaction costs, there could be limits to which exchanges could solely depend on networks and trust. Look at the frontiers where mutual trust cannot work as a surrogate for lower appraisal costs. Use an example in the Canadian context and see how an entity that started on the basis of social networks and trust had to morph into using the techniques used by other formal nonneighbourhood institutions as it grew in size and went beyond a threshold. Using the Canadian example, the author argues that as the transactions get sophisticated, it is possible to achieve what informal networks have achieved through the creative use of information technology. While we find that the role of trust both in the positivist and the coercive frame does provide some interesting insights into how exchanges with the poor could be managed, there still could be breaches in the assumptions. This paper identifies the conditions under which the breaches could possibly happen and also speculates on the effect of such breaches.


Author(s):  
Shilpa Deo*

The Government of India has been taking various steps towards identification of the poor (and vulnerable through the Socio Economic Caste Census) and measurement of poverty with the help of various Expert Groups right from the Task Force that was set up in 1962 to the Task Force on Poverty Elimination of the NITI Aayog. There have been many researchers as well who have been suggesting the ways in which the poor and vulnerable can be identified and poverty can be measured besides the suggestions given by the Expert Groups. However, it may be considered as a ‘national shame’ if we are unable to identify the needy even after 75 years of independence. Through the review of around 100 books, research papers and articles, an attempt has been to understand the strengths and shortcomings of suggested ways to identify the poor and vulnerable and suggest a comprehensive methodology to identify the needy. Unless we are able to identify the poor and vulnerable sections of society correctly, planning and implementing poverty alleviation programmes for “ending poverty in all its forms everywhere”1 would be a futile exercise!


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakhmawati

Zakat microfinance (ZMF) is an alternative to the limitation of zakat institution and microfinance institution in empowerment program. To make sure the zakat microfinance is on the track and to boost its performance and its benefit, evaluation is needed. This study aims to do an operational evaluation of productive zakat program formed in the micro-economic empowerment program named Sakofa (Madrasah Ekonomi Dhuafa/ School for Economics of the Poor) of Dompet Dhuafa Yogyakarta. Primary data were gathered from Sakofa beneficiaries in Sleman, Bantul, and Gunung Kidul. The findings show that all monetary aspects are better after running the program. Using ADePT software, headcount index, poverty gap, poverty severity, Watts index, and the average time taken to exit poverty are lower after doing the program. Altruism and saving behavior are better after Sakofa Program is implemented. Unfortunately, mustahiq were lack of discipline and desire to be independent. The effectiveness of counseling material on religiosity is the lowest. In short, Sakofa Program has a good performance in improving their prosperity. Keywords: productive zakat, zakat microfinance, poverty alleviation, empowerment, poverty index


Author(s):  
Fazal Muhammed

Microfinance is a powerful poverty alleviation tool. It implies provision of financial services to poor and low-income people whose low economic standing excludes them from formal financial systems. Access to services such as, credit, venture capital, savings, insurance, remittance is provided on a micro-scale enabling participation of those with severely limited financial means. The provision of financial services to the poor helps to increase household income and economic security, build assets and reduce vulnerability; creates demand for other goods and services; and stimulates local economies. A large number of studies on poverty however, indicate that exclusion of the poor from the financial system is a major factor contributing to their inability to participate in the development process. In a typical developing economy the formal financial system serves no more than twenty to thirty percent of the population. The vast majority of those who are excluded are poor.


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