scholarly journals Public Engagement and the Nunavut Roundtable for Poverty Reduction: Attempting to Understand Nunavut’s Poverty Reduction Strategy

2016 ◽  
pp. 69-96
Author(s):  
Maggie Crump

The 2009 Government of Nunavut Report Card, a review of the first ten years of Nunavut’s existence, recommended the development of an anti-poverty strategy to help address severe social inequality in the territory. Between October 2010 and November 2011, the Government of Nunavut (GN), jointly with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI), oversaw an extensive poverty-reduction public engagement process that resulted in the creation of the Nunavut Roundtable for Poverty Reduction and the territory’s poverty reduction strategy. The strategy suggests that the tension that exists between Inuit forms of governance and the model of public governance used today is the root cause of poverty. However, it does not offer an official definition of the term. Knowing the way in which poverty is perceived in Nunavut is key to understanding the direction of the territory’s poverty reduction strategy. Drawing upon interviews conducted in Iqaluit and in Ottawa in 2015, as well as on records from the Nunavut Anti-Poverty Secretariat, this article examines how the territory’s poverty reduction strategy was developed. It argues that the roundtable’s participatory methods, closely aligned with principles of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, have fostered a politicized discussion about poverty that has resulted in Nunavut’s poverty reduction strategy’s focus on collaboration and healing.

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 100-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Benbow ◽  
Carolyne Gorlick ◽  
Cheryl Forchuk ◽  
Catherine Ward-Griffin ◽  
Helene Berman

This article overviews the second phase of a two-phase study which examined experiences of health and social exclusion among mothers experiencing homelessness in Ontario, Canada. A critical discourse analysis was employed to analyze the policy document, Realizing Our Potential: Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, 2014–2019. In nursing, analysis of policy is an emerging form of scholarship, one that draws attention to the macro levels influencing health and health promotion, such as the social determinants of health, and the policies that impact them. The clear neo-liberal underpinnings, within the strategy, with a focus on productivity and labor market participation leave little room for an understanding of poverty reduction from a human rights perspective. Further, gender-neutrality rendered the poverty experienced by women, and mothers, invisible. Notably, there were a lack of deadlines, target dates, and thorough action and evaluation plans. Such absence troubles whether poverty reduction is truly a priority for the government, and society as a whole.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Smith-Carrier ◽  
Andrea Lawlor

We examine the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) launched in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Using corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, we explore the dominant discourses that emerge in a genre chain produced by the Government of Ontario, including the initial 2008 PRS, annual reports and the 2014–2019 recontextualised PRS. Six key discourses surfaced: social exclusion, social inclusion, economic benefit or social investment, expert knowledge, community engagement and requisites for the PRS’ success – typically involving investments from the federal government and a favourable economic climate. No discourse of human rights, or of the rights to food, housing and an adequate standard of living is present in the PRS texts, absolving the government from its responsibility to ensure these rights. Without the accountability mechanisms attached to a rights-based approach, the PRS has little chance of ‘breaking the cycle’ of poverty, and will not likely ‘realise its potential’ to do so.


2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay Whitfield

The World Bank and IMF launched the Poverty Reduction Strategy Initiative in the context of longstanding criticisms of their structural adjustment programmes. This article examines the process of formulating Ghana's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) from two perspectives. From the perspective of reforming the Bretton Woods institutions, it assesses the extent to which the PRSP approach alters the lending practices of these institutions in Ghana. From the perspective of understanding policymaking in highly indebted, aid-dependent African countries, it reveals the multiple interfaces of politics in such countries produced by relations among and within donors/creditors, the government and non-governmental actors. Its conclusions echo the growing body of literature critiquing PRSPs, and emphasise the constraints which the foreign aid regime places on democratic governance.


Author(s):  
Durokifa Anuoluwapo ◽  
Dominique Uwizeyimana

There is no gainsaying the fact that one of the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals is to end poverty in all its form by 2030. However, the continuous increase in poverty level has generated a lot of debates among policymakers and scholars while government keeps formulating policies to avert the situation. Thus, with SDGs in view, the study took into cognizance the MDGs before it and what hindered it from the full actualisation of its goal, specifically MD Goal 1a “eradicate extreme poverty”. Using quantitative data, the study examined the implementation of MDGs and pinpointed the factors that affected the implementation of the MDG poverty reduction strategy. These factors include corruption, lack of awareness, politics of poverty, non-poor targeted, etc. On this basis, the paper suggests that, if Ogun State will achieve SDG1 by 2030, factors such as good leadership, identification of the poor, awareness and infrastructural opportunities will need to be addressed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitri Gugushvili

Between 2004 and 2012, Georgia implemented one of the most comprehensive packages of neoliberal economic reforms ever. These reforms have certainly helped to spur growth, but their social effects remain under-researched. To narrow this gap, this article investigates the effects of growth on poverty in Georgia using the official household survey data. The analysis shows that contrary to popular expectations, poverty has decreased only slightly throughout this period and remains high despite a number of progressive measures adopted by a successor coalition government. These findings provide further evidence on the inappropriateness of the neoliberal model as a poverty reduction strategy.


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