Often, when experts talk about poverty, they use the measure of people who live on less than 1 US dollar a day. However, this measure has often been criticised. First of all, because currency exchange rates fluctuate continuously, it becomes difficult for individual countries to talk about poverty using the US dollar as a measure. But more importantly, when poverty is defined only by looking at the income an individual or a household receives (whatever currency is used), then a number of other factors are ignored.

Recently, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), in collaboration with the UNDP Human Development Report, announced the release of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). According to OPHI, the new measure recognises that people’s lives are affected by more than just their income, and so the MPI looks at individuals’ poverty as a combination of their education, health, and standard of living. The developers of the new index believe that this more complex measure will help policy-makers and development practitioners better understand the causes of poverty and then tailor their interventions accordingly. Go to the latest Wahenga Reporter for more.

RHVP has been working with the Centre for Social Protection (CSP) at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia (UEA-DEV), and the Social Protection Programme at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) to produce a group statement on the future of Social Protection in sub-Saharan Africa, challenging current practices within the research and donor community. To read the statement, which was released today, click here.

A number of donors and organisations are currently working together to try to persuade governments in southern Africa to adopt social protection programmes aimed at assisting the most vulnerable members of our society. In particular, these organisations would like to see child-sensitive social protection policies being adopted. See the latest Wahenga Reporter for more.

The Portuguese versions of the REBA Thematic Briefs are now available on wahenga.net. Click here to find them. The briefs provide a regional synthesis of findings of both the
12 thematic studies and the 20 individual case studies undertaken under
the REBA. The themes explored in these briefs are those addressed in the
respective REBA thematic studies, but include additional themes that
have emerged during the implementation of the REBA work as being of
particular interest and policy relevance.

International Journalism and Democracy, a new book set to hit shelves in the next few weeks, explores models of what has been dubbed ‘deliberative journalism’. The deliberative journalism models studied in this book include public journalism, citizen journalism, community media, the street press, social enterprise media, peace journalism and development journalism. The book also describes the underlying principles of deliberation, the media’s potential role in deliberation from a theoretical and practical perspective, and ongoing issues for deliberative media practitioners.

The book includes a chapter by RHVP’s own Brett Davidson entitled Public Journalism in South Africa: Experiences and Experiments with Local and Community Media.

As social cash transfers grow in popularity relative to other kinds of social transfers (such as food aid), there’s now an effort to investigate innovative ways of delivering cash to recipients effectively and efficiently. A number of public (government to person) cash transfer projects and programmes have experimented with the use of electronic delivery systems. The latest issue of the Wahenga Reporter summarises a new paper in RHVP's Frontiers of Social Protection series which examines various aspects some of these delivery systems.

Wahenga.net is currently sponsored by the Regional Hunger & Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), but funding for the Programme will end in mid 2010. If the website is to continue beyond the life of RHVP, a new source of funding will need to be identified and secured. The cost of continuing this service is approximately US$65 000 per year, but a little more would enable us to develop the site further, including the commissioning of regular contributions.

Help us secure the future of wahenga.net by sending us a message of support to rhvp@rhvp.org to aid us in convincing potential sponsors of the demand for and popularity of this website.