Antipoverty Transfers in Developing Countries: A quiet revolution?
Armando Barrientos, Brooks World Poverty Institute
Since the turn of the century, antipoverty transfer programmes have emerged as one of the fastest growing interventions in international development policy and practice. Large scale social assistance programmes in middle income developing countries providing direct transfers make an important contribution to the reduction of poverty and vulnerability, and to knowledge on poverty and its remedies. Increasingly, antipoverty transfer programmes and social protection are seen as an essential component of an effective development strategy, combining growth, basic service provision, and social protection. However, research on their rationale and conceptual basis is lacking; and their design, effectiveness, and political effects are strongly contested. The paper examines the foundations of antipoverty transfers and assesses their future evolution in low and middle income countries.
About the speaker
Armando Barrientos is Professor and Research Director at the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI). He is also a Senior Researcher with the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, leading research on Insecurity, Risk and Vulnerability. Before joining BWPI in 2007, he was Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and Senior Lecturer in Public Economics and Development at the Institute of Development Policy and Management, Manchester. His work has been published widely, including articles in World Development, Applied Economics, The Manchester School and Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance. His most recent books are 'Social Protection for the Poor and Poorest' (2008, edited with D. Hulme, Palgrave); 'Just Give Money to the Poor' (2010, with J. Hanlon and D. Hulme, Kumarian Press); 'Demographics, Employment and Old Age Security: Emerging Trends and Challenges in South Asia' (2010, edited with Moneer Alam, MacMillan); and 'Social Assistance in Developing Countries' (Cambridge University Press, 2013). He has acted as an adviser to the ILO, the World Bank, DFID, UNRISD, IADB, WIEGO, UN-DESA, UNICEF, and the Caribbean Development Bank.
Date: 27 June 2013
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CET
