Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Perm Oblast's approach to reducing rural poverty

2007; Routledge; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13876980601145789

1572-5448

Raymond J. Struyk, Kirill Chagin,

Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare

Abstract Effectively addressing rural poverty is a challenge around the world and not less so in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In 2005 Russia's Perm Oblast implemented an innovative program with the objective of increasing the income of very poor rural families on a permanent basis. The principal tool is a one-time grant made to applicants who submit a credible plan for investing the grant funds in a way that is likely to lead to sustained higher incomes. This paper reviews the early experience with the program – both the application process and short-term outcomes associated with the program. Several outcome indicators were employed: self-rating by applicants of project success, reported improvements in living standards measured in several ways, and participants' stated intentions to continue with the activity in which the grant funds were invested. These indicators taken together suggest broad success in these terms – 39 per cent said that were fully successful in implementing their investment plans and 57 per cent said they were partially so; broad improvements in the quality of meals eaten were reported and 37 per cent of participants said that drugs and medical treatment were more affordable. The improvement cannot be strictly attributed to the program because of the lack of a control group. At least as important as the reported improvements in living standards is the extremely high share of participants that stated they would continue their activities: 93 per cent of those who invested in farm activities and 76 per cent of those who invested in self-employed activities said they planned to continue with the activities financed by the investment. Conditions necessary for implementing such a program elsewhere are discussed.