Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Addressing poverty and improving livelihoods in Bedouin regions of Jordan

Auteur : Al-serhan, Muwafaq

Université de soutenance : University of Wisconsin - Madison

Grade : Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2010

Résumé
This research investigates the role of development assistance programs in poverty alleviation in Northern Badia of Jordan. This study also attempts to ascertain factors that explain the economic mobility into or out of poverty or lack thereof in the Badia for households of differing characteristics. This paper uses a panel dataset on 74 Bedouin households in three villages in the Northern Badia of Jordan interviewed in 2001 and 2009. The selected households were under the poverty line in 2001 and received assistance through development programs during the past decade. The sample of the selected households was divided into two groups : treatment households and comparison households. The treatment households consisted of the households that received assistance through the development assistance programs before 2006. The comparison households consisted of the households that were helped after 2006. The numbers of the treatment households and the comparison households are 49 and 25 respectively. The findings reveal that the economic conditions of the majority of the households in the three villages have not improved much when judged against some selected indicators, namely, income, food and non-food expenditure. The Foster Greer Thorbecke index shows that the majority of the development assistance programs’ beneficiaries remained below the poverty line. The differences-in-difference estimations and the binary probit model show that the main factors enabling household to escape poverty are remittances, shifting from agricultural to non-agricultural occupation, education of the head of the household, social networks, age of the head of the household, and the location of household. At the same time, both models show somewhat less support for the role of development assistance programs in poverty alleviations. Specifically evidence gathered from the data does not support claims that strategies adopted by the development assistance programs are broadly effective in alleviating poverty. More specifically, when we compare the livelihood strategies of the households who escaped poverty with the strategies adopted by the development assistance programs, we find them contradictory. Finally, this research demonstrates that there are active pathways out of poverty and highlights critical links that tend to impede the objective of achieving poverty reduction in the Badia region.

Mots Clés : Social sciences, Badia, Bedouin, Jordan, Livelihoods, Poverty

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