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How the New Poverty Agenda Neglected Social and Employment Policies in Africa

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  • Thandika Mkandawire

Abstract

This article argues that a shift towards issues of poverty is a welcome antidote to policy-making that had expunged poverty from the central agenda to focus on stabilization, debt management and static allocative efficiency. Unfortunately, in correcting a narrow policy agenda the new focus pushes a good point too far when it focuses attention only on the proximate causes of poverty and narrows the development agenda. Development was aimed at more than poverty and, significantly in countries that have successfully combated poverty, the most important policy measures were not explicitly directed at poverty. Indeed in many cases, other objectives — pre-empting social unrest, nation-building, 'human capital' developmental considerations — lay behind the policies that, ex post, can be read as poverty reducing. Eradication of poverty is always embedded in social and economic development. The determinants of human development goals are multiple and cut across sectors. The new challenge in Africa is to bring back development, but now one that is democratically anchored and socially inclusive.

Suggested Citation

  • Thandika Mkandawire, 2010. "How the New Poverty Agenda Neglected Social and Employment Policies in Africa," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 37-55.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:11:y:2010:i:1:p:37-55
    DOI: 10.1080/19452820903481400
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2006. "The Evolution of Top Incomes: A Historical and International Perspective," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 200-205, May.
    2. Bruno, Michael & Ravallion, Martin & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "Equity and growth in developing countries : old and new perspectives on the policy issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1563, The World Bank.
    3. Besley, Timothy & Kanbur, Ravi, 1990. "The principles of targeting," Policy Research Working Paper Series 385, The World Bank.
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    Cited by:

    1. Justyna Bandola-Gill, 2022. "Statistical entrepreneurs: the political work of infrastructuring the SDG indicators [The legitimacy of experts in policy: navigating technocratic and political accountability in the case of global," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 498-512.
    2. Rosina Foli & Daniel Béland, 2014. "International Organizations and Ideas About Poverty in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(1), pages 3-23, March.
    3. Ben Fine & Seeraj Mohamed, 2022. "Locating Industrial Policy in Developmental Transformation: Lessons from the Past, Prospects for the Future," Working Papers 247, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    4. Gbenga Akinlolu Shadare, 2022. "The Governance of Nigeria’s Social Protection: The Burdens of Developmental Welfarism?," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, February.

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