Best Practices in Poverty Reduction: An Analytical Framework(No. 4 Comparative Research Programme on Poverty: International Studies in Poverty Research)

Poverty reduction has come to be proclaimed as the core function of international development agencies, including the World Bank. This volume focuses on the key role of best practice on strengthening anti-poverty strategies. The authors explore how to transform best practice from impressionistic "success stories" into a more precise and reliable analytical tool. They explore the factors influencing the establishment of a particular anti-poverty project or strategy asbest practice. And they examine the critical policy-relevant aspect of the conditions under which a best practice, once identified, can be successfully transferred to other situations and countries. The book also includes a comprehensive guide to best practice sites on the Internet.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. A Methodological Approach to "Best Practices" - Else Oyen -Best practices and evaluation -Best practices as a process -Replicability and transfer -Vested interests in best practices -Who should be the judges of a best practice? -Best practices as a limited poverty reducing measure -What is a best practice for poverty reduction? 2. Enabling Environments and Effective Anti-Poverty Programmes - Anuradha Joshi and Mick Moore -Introduction -Predictability in theoretical context -The centrality of the implementation stage -The conceptual framework -Credibility and concordant collective action -Programme stability, formal entitlement and discordant collective action -Predictability and contemporary policy 3. Best Practices: Scepticism and Hope - S. M. Miller -Why "best practices?" -The questions -Transferability -Case studies -Peer mentoring -Alcoholics anonymous -The message 4. Some Methodological Issues in Determining Good Practices in Social Policy - Santosh Mehrotra -The criteria for choice of high-achieving countries -The content of the longitudinal studies -The optimal context for a good practice -Reflections on replicability of good practices -Can the historical approach be replicated? 5. Best Practices in Poverty Reduction in Argentina: Toward the Identification of a Selection Method - Alberto Cimadamore, Erika Vidal, Fabiana Wertheim and Michel Fultot -Introduction -The search for a selection method -Results of the expert panel -Evaluation matrix for poverty reduction practices -The final selection of two best practices -Conclusions Annex: Best Practices as Found on the Internet - Joachim Hvoslef Kruger -A general search for the BP -Who is who? The visual rhetoric of the BP-databases -Knowledge-tools: Uniformity or diversity? -BP programmes, databases, awards and linking resources -General knowledge initiatives and IK networks -IK organisations and databases -Appendix

About the Author :
Professor Else Oyen is the founder of the CROP poverty research network. She is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Bergen. Her co-authors are scholars, researchers and development practitioners from Argentina, India and the UK.