Social Capital and Institutions of Poverty Reduction in Africa

There have been many books written about the issue of poverty in Africa. Most of them look at failed policies and criticize what does not work. This text looks at what does work, and outlines how to implement these effective policies. Strategic behaviors in institutions of poverty reduction is an ar [...]
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There have been many books written about the issue of poverty in Africa. Most of them look at failed policies and criticize what does not work. This text looks at what does work, and outlines how to implement these effective policies. Strategic behaviors in institutions of poverty reduction is an area that is addressed in this book. In the academic literature on designating effective institutions of poverty alleviation programs and policies in sub-Saharan Africa, it is rare to find direct assessments of the success of particular social policies and programs. In country after country, one is much more likely to see research on the failure of poverty reduction programs. Very often, contributors to the literature gravitate towards the presentation of raw numbers and figurers indicating that these policies and programs have failed and thus call for the discontinuation of such policies. Curiously, the most straightforward questions that many people outside of the development circle seem to want answered - such as, on what criteria are these conclusions reached, or what particular policies and programs have made a dent in poverty, are less popular in the discipline.This study focuses on the preconditions for success in poverty reduction programs. It proposes a framework which incorporates a mixture of social and political, as well as economic relationships, which these programs embody. Using evidence from original surveys of two micro-finance programs in Southern Nigeria, this policy evaluation study attempts from the standpoint of institutional and social capital theories to accomplish two goals: first, to fill the gaps in the literature by developing an evaluation framework emphasizing institutional design features and a strong network of relationships which lower costs for beneficiaries and providers; and second, to provide critical input for the policy task of designing effective institutions of poverty reduction programs.