COVID-19, chronic conditions and structural poverty: A social psychological assessment of the needs of a marginalized community in Accra, Ghana

In the African region COVID-19 infection and death rates are increasing (writing in May 2020), most deaths have occurred among individuals with chronic conditions, and poor communities face higher risks of infection and socio-economic insecurities. We assessed the psychosocial needs of a chronic illness support group in Accra, Ghana, within the context of their broader community. The community lives in structural poverty and has a complex burden of infectious and chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Between March and May 2020, we conducted interviews, group discussions, and surveys, with members of the support group and their caregivers, frontline healthcare workers, and religious and community leaders. Data was analysed through the social psychology of participation framework. Community members understood COVID-19 as a new public health threat and drew on eclectic sources of information to make sense of this. Members of the support group had psychosocial and material needs: they were anxious about infection risk as well as money, food and access to NCD treatment. Some community members received government food packages during the lockdown period. This support ended after lockdown in April and while anti-poverty COVID policies have been unveiled they have yet to be implemented. We discuss the impact of these representational, relational and power dynamics on the community’s access to COVID-19 and NCD support. We argue that strategies to address immediate and post-COVID needs of vulnerable communities have to focus on the politics and practicalities of implementing existing rights-based policies that intersect health, poverty reduction and social protection.

Covid-19 and Poverty Assessment in Nigeria – The Vulnerability Approach

The aim of the study was to abstract from the vulnerability theory to predict the likelihood of more people in Nigeria falling into the poverty trap as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The study used a parametric technique to obtain estimates of the mean and variance of one-period ahead log-consumption. In doing this, the study hypothesized that estimating household consumption function is important in making inferences about the future and in assessing the vulnerability of household to shocks. The simulation analysis shows that of the 82 percent of the households that are vulnerable to poverty, only about 13 percent are in transitory poverty while the rest are in structural poverty. The implication of this finding is that poverty situation in Nigeria is widespread, entrenched and inter-generational. The current coronavirus pandemic has merely worsened the poverty situation and is not the fundamental cause of poverty in Nigeria. The study recommended among others, that anti-poverty intervention measures of the government, going forward, must be forward-looking and aim largely to increase the productive capacity of the populace instead of merely aiming to alleviate their current state of poverty.

Cara Pandang Gereja terhadap Kemiskinan dan Pembangunan

Poverty is a social reality in the dynamics of human life in the world. This social reality is also part of the Church's concern. The Church pays attention, cares, and conveys its teachings about poverty and ways to overcome it through its dynamic structure, which includes Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium. This study is literature research, with Indonesian contextualization. By textual analysis, this paper shows that in reflecting on various realities related to poverty, especially by using the scalpel of Theology of Liberation, the Church has concluded that poverty, especially structural poverty, is the fruit of social sin. Social sin is an individual sin built in such a way with various kinds of conditioning to become a massive structure. This study recommends the need for personal and communal repentance to destroy this structure of sin and, at the same time, lift people out of structural poverty.

Community health workers’ efforts to build health system trust in marginalised communities: a qualitative study from South Africa

IntroductionCommunity health workers (CHWs) enable marginalised communities, often experiencing structural poverty, to access healthcare. Trust, important in all patient–provider relationships, is difficult to build in such communities, particularly when stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and now COVID-19, is widespread. CHWs, responsible for bringing people back into care, must repair trust. In South Africa, where a national CHW programme is being rolled out, marginalised communities have high levels of unemployment, domestic violence and injury.ObjectivesIn this complex social environment, we explored CHW workplace trust, interpersonal trust between the patient and CHW, and the institutional trust patients place in the health system.Design, participants, settingWithin the observation phase of a 3-year intervention study, we conducted interviews, focus groups and observations with patients, CHWs, their supervisors and, facility managers in Sedibeng.ResultsCHWs had low levels of workplace trust. They had recently been on strike demanding better pay, employment conditions and recognition of their work. They did not have the equipment to perform their work safely, and some colleagues did not trust, or value, their contribution. There was considerable interpersonal trust between CHWs and patients, however, CHWs’ efforts were hampered by structural poverty, alcohol abuse and no identification documents among long-term migrants. Those supervisors who understood the extent of the poverty supported CHW efforts to help the community. When patients had withdrawn from care, often due to nurses’ insensitive behaviour, the CHWs’ attempts to repair patients’ institutional trust often failed due to the vulnerabilities of the community, and lack of support from the health system.ConclusionStrategies are needed to build workplace trust including supportive supervision for CHWs and better working conditions, and to build interpersonal and institutional trust by ensuring sensitivity to social inequalities and the effects of structural poverty among healthcare providers. Societies need to care for everyone.

Uninhabitable Home: Portraits of Poverty in Cities

This research is a mixed study which aims to identify the factors that cause family members to survive in an uninhabitable house. The results of the research data used the direct interview method with a questionnaire to the head of the household regarding information on population, household size, age, gender, ethnicity, religion, employment status, income level, etc. This study uses direct observation, so as to obtain information about the availability and quality of infrastructure, facilities and services such as housing conditions, drinking water, supply, roads, drainage systems and solid waste disposal and management so that data is obtained that there are two houses that do not meet the standard of feasibility. Both in terms of size and design of the house, each house is inhabited by two nuclear families consisting of eight and seven people. Therefore, the subjects of this research are four heads of families who live in RW 5/RT 5 of Pattingalloang Village. The results showed that there were two factors that led to the fact that there were several nuclear families that chose to live in an uninhabitable house in Pattingalloang Village, namely cultural poverty and structural poverty experienced by residents of unfit for habitation.

Perencanaan Program Penanggulangan Kemiskinan dalam Rangka Memberikan Pelayanan Ekonomi Masyarakat (Studi pada Dinas Sosial Kabupaten Blitar)

Ponggok is the sub district with the largest poor people in Blitar Regency. According Ministry of Social Affairs data, there are 6,875 KPM BPNT programs. Geographically Ponggok is located in North Blitar which have fertile soil from Kelud eruption. Morphologically Ponggok is connect area between Kediri and Blitar regency so all area can be reached by transportation. Poverty at Ponggok is structural poverty because bad policies. This study aims to determine the process of poverty reduction program planning in Social Service of Blitar Regency. The research method used is qualitative method. Based on the research, the program planning in the Social Service has been suitable according to the stages in the planning theory, and according procedures regulated by Permendagri No.86 of 2017. Some factors that influence the planning process include: human resource planners, social cultural, and system used.

Poverty in the time of epidemic: A modelling perspective

We create a network model to study the spread of an epidemic through physically proximate and accidental daily human contacts in a city, and simulate outcomes for two kinds of agents—poor and non-poor. Under non-intervention, peak caseload is maximised, but no differences are observed in infection rates across poor and non-poor. Introducing interventions to control spread, peak caseloads are reduced, but both cumulative infection rates and current infection rates are systematically higher for the poor than for non-poor, across all scenarios. Larger populations, higher fractions of poor, and longer durations of intervention are found to progressively worsen outcomes for the poor; and these are of particular concern for economically vulnerable populations in cities of the developing world. Addressing these challenges requires a deeper, more rigorous understanding of the relationships between structural poverty and epidemy, as well as effective utilization of extant community level infrastructure for primary care in developing cities. Finally, improving iniquitous outcomes for the poor creates better outcomes for the whole population, including the non-poor.

From Socialism to Capitalism: Structural Poverty of Indigenous Women in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

The issue of indigenous women is closely related to the issue of poverty. Women who inhabit rural areas in Indonesia cannot separate from the conditions of life that are poor and completely limited. This paper tries to reflect Karl Marx's thoughts about poverty and injustice that occur in a country because of a structured system. This paper uses a qualitative approach by presenting primary and secondary data. Primary data collection through interviews and field observations, while secondary data through reading readings of scientific studies results in journal articles, policy papers, and government agencies' data. The results of this paper presents: 1) The concept of Marx that poverty is the expression of structural poverty; 2) Poverty among indigenous Dayak Benawan women in rural West Kalimantan, Indonesia, is not only cultural but also structural poverty that expressed limited access to education, health, and a decent standard of quality life; 3) From the era of classical philosophy to modern technology era today, the poverty that has occurred centuries ago today, indigenous women of Dayak Benawan in rural areas are still faced with.