Effect of population dynamics on Livelihood Security in rural Sri Lanka

Out of 20.82 million total population of Sri Lanka, 81.70% of the population lives in rural areas (Quandl, 2015). From 2005 to 2016 government expenditure for agriculture based actions shows the trend of decreasing while the development policy gradually changes the path from agricultural based economy to an industrial based economy over last few decades. However, poverty head count measures in 2006/2007 of Sri Lanka indicate that the percentage of people living in poverty in the rural sector is significant and the percentage of underweight children in rural areas is 38.3%, which is considerably higher than that of urban areas (29.9%). Thus, this status brought about the primary research question of how does the country achieve livelihood security. Thus, the objectives of this research are, to examine the factors affecting livelihood security and to understand the view of rural communities’ population dynamics on livelihood security. The research was carried out in mixed research design. The results show that access to livelihood resources also was not affected by gender, age, education and household income. However, in the analysis, both males and females were dissatisfied with the access to livelihood resources. Thus, in forming and implementation of development policies Sri Lanka needs to ensure community livelihood security.

Incidence, depth and severity of food insecurity among farming households in Sokoto State, Nigeria

The paper examined the incidence, depth and severity of food insecurity among farming household in Sokoto, Nigeria. Data was collected with aid of questionnaire from a total of 440 farming households comprising of (220 beneficiaries and 220 non-beneficiaries of BOA) were randomly selected using four multistage sampling techniques. The data generated was analysed using FGT index. The result for the incidences of food insecurity as indicated by head count ratio shows that 39.55% and 48.18% of food insecure farming households beneficiary and nonbeneficiary respectively were not able to meet their recommended daily allowance (RDAs) which is 2,250 kcal valued at N278.40/person equivalent to 0.87 USD. The coefficient of food insecurity depth (gap) shows that 19% of beneficiary and 44% of non-beneficiary food insecure farming households are below the recommended daily calorie requirement. The severity of food insecurity shows that 3.6% of beneficiaries’ food insecure farming households are most food insecure in the study area as compared with 19% non-beneficiaries’ food insecure farming households. High incidence, depth and severity of food insecurity among non-beneficiary food insecure farming households, indicated that BOA has impacted on beneficiary farming households by increasing their food security status. Therefore, this study recommends financial policies that ensure financial support to farming households most especially non-beneficiary in the study area.

Oil Price Hike, Debt Burden and Poverty in Pakistan

Hiked oil prices have always heightened debt burden of an economy and poverty too. Pakistan as a developing country has also been facing this crisis since its inception. Therefore, in this study the data of the probed variables has been collected from the period ranging 1972-2019. Auto-regressive Distributive Lag Model has been employed as a methodology, for throwing light on the results of the short run along with the long run. For inspecting the research, head count ratio is used as the dependent variable. Whereas, factors such as gross domestic product, foreign direct investment, infant mortality rate, literacy rate, unemployment rate, external debt, oil prices and investment are used as the independent ones. The results of the study disclose that the coefficient of all independent variables have a positive association with poverty in both the long and short run except GDP and investment. However, the GDP and investment coefficients are found to be significant in short run and insignificant in the results of long run. The study depicted several trends with the passing years and suggested some policy measures which, if adopted, might lead to clear the bleak picture of economy.

Gender Poverty Gap: A Comparative analysis of India and Pakistan

This paper attempts to estimate gender poverty gap in Pakistan using multidimensional poverty approach and compares it with India. Pakistan data have been used to compute multidimensional poverty. Findings of the paper suggest that there is gender poverty gap in Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan are suffering from poverty. Head count poverty is high in both countries but India has managed to lift more people out of multidimensional poverty. The paper recommends to design targeted oriented policies reduce gender poverty.

Assessing the Efficacy of Budget in Controlling Fraudulent Personnel Cost Figure in Borno State Civil Service, Nigeria

The Borno State Government in its effort to rid the state civil service of the ghost worker syndrome made a lot of efforts such as verification of staff by consultants and physical head count of staff by committee. The present administration and its predecessors have all made that effort, but the syndrome seems far from over. It is in light of the above that this study seeks to investigate the Personnel Cost Budget of the state government in respect of education and health sectors to see if it assisted in controlling fraud in personnel cost. Both primary and secondary data were used for this research. Closed ended questionnaire was administered to personnel depart of the education and Health sectors, while the Borno state budget figure for these sectors are extracted from the State budget document of 2015 to 2019. These data were analysed by the use of Benford’s Law. The study found out that budget is being prepared annually on incremental basis using the previous year’s budget figure as basis. It also found out that the budgeted figure is always higher than the actual giving rise to favourable variance, and do not usual follow the pattern of Benford Law in which figures are supposed to appear in a numeric data setup in line with its rule.

MEMODELKAN TINGKAT PENGANGGURAN TERBUKA DI INDONESIA

Unemployment is one of the problems in the field in economic development. To determine the development of open unemployment in a region, an indicator of the open unemployment rate is used. The highest of open unemployment rate is Aceh Province and Maluku Province in 2015 at 9,93 percent and the lowest Bali Province in 2018 at 1,37 percent. The purpose of this work is to modeling and determine the significant factors that affect the open unemployment rate in Indonesia by applying spatial panel data regression. The results show indicate that there is no effect of spatial dependence on the model, so the model chosen to model the open unemployment rate in Indonesia is a panel data model with a fixed time effect and significant affect by head count index, the percentage of illiterate people, the provincial minimum wage, and the number of the workforce.

Demographic Evolution of Pakistanis in America

According to the last head count in 1981 the total population ofPakistan was 83.782 millions. In addition, “there are two millionoverseas Pakistanis, more than one million left behind families and halfa million returnee migrants.” Let us assume that out of the 1.5 millionPakistanis who are working abroad at agiven time, 33.3 percent have anaverage of three dependents with them overseas. This brings the totalnumber of persons of Pakistani origin and their offspring abroad tothree million.It is estimated that over two-thirds of the working Pakistanis abroadare in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, UAE, Libya, Kuwaitand Iraq. The rest of the total are working all over the world. After theMiddle East, their largest concentration points are England, the U.S.A.,Canada and Germany. Among the other countries with relativelysmaller-but significant numbers-of persons of Pakistani origin areBahrain, Oman, Qatar, Denmark, Singapore, Nigeria, Kenya, HongKong and Malaysia.Today Pakistan is one of the leading countries in exporting itsmanpower to the rest of the world. It is not an exaggeration of facts to saythat the foreign exchange sent home by the overseas Pakistanis iskeeping Pakistan afloat economically in these uncertain times. In 1983,close to three billion dollars were sent by overseas Pakistanis to theircountry. This is, again, one of the largest amounts sent by workers ...

Financing Sustainable Development in Africa

Actualizing sustainable development in Africa will require enormous economic resources. This implies that there must be a clear balance of prioritization of financing options on what works best for development in this region without further escalating other societal problems. The authors argue in the chapter that though there has been some benefit from the traditional means of financing development in Africa, some drawbacks still exist considering the rising rate of inequality and poverty head-count in the region. On this note, this present study examines financing options that have previously been advocated for in financing development in the African region (i.e., taking stock), such as development assistance and foreign investment, by considering its implication on development outcomes like poverty, inequality, and aggregate human development indicator in the region.

Assessment of the Food Security Status of Households Belonging to different Regions of Himalayan Belt

India has not only achieved self-sufficiency in food production but also enhanced its ability to deal with inter year fluctuations in production. Despite the much commended economic growth of the country, the average calorie consumption in India has declined over the years and has been low in comparison to international standards. Hilly states in particular, confront multiple food insecurity risks owing to many reasons like dominance of traditional agriculture, low yields of food and cash crops, and lack of market incentives, etc. Three northern hilly states namely; Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand constitute the Himalayan belt of India. Out of the three hilly states Uttarakhand was purposively selected for the study due to higher below poverty line (BPL) percentage (RBI, 2012) and the higher rank (6th rank) in the development disability index (NIPFP report, 2013) than the other two states. The present study assessed the existing food security status of the state over the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) rounds and measured inequality in calorie intake across various income groups. The study utilized unit record data on household consumption expenditure surveys extracted from CDs for two rounds viz., 61st round (2004-05) & 68th round (2011-12) conducted by NSSO. The state was first categorized into two regions viz., hill and plain region. Households in either region were further classified into different quartiles on the basis of their monthly per consumer unit expenditure and across these quartiles the information was obtained. To assess the incidence, depth and severity of food insecurity Foster, Greer and Thorbecke-FGT (1984) class of poverty measures was used Inequality in calorie intake among different expenditure class was calculated through Gini coefficient. Results revealed that despite a noticeable decline in the share of food expenditure till 68th round it was still more than 50% among people of lower income group (LIG) in plains and LIG and lower middle income group (LMIG) in hills. At an overall level hilly region fared well in terms of calorie intake than plain region of the state in each round. The head count index of food insecurity showed that the incidence of food insecurity in plains came down to 52% in 68th round from 61% of 61st round and 39% from 46% in hills during the same period. A considerable difference in dietary pattern when viewed in terms milk and milk products consumption, edible oils, fruits, vegetables and sugars was observed across income groups. The head count index of food insecurity in 61st round showed that 61% households in Plains and 46% households in hills were food insecure, this incidence of food insecurity came down to 52% in plains and 39% in hill region till 68th round. Inequality in plain region was lower in each round, when compared to that in hilly region. A targeted monitoring to ensure food availability through PDS to lower income population can be done and range of food products can be increased for this particular target group