| Abstract: |
Abstract India has one of the highest underweight burdens in the world, with
signs of rising obesity. Coexistence of underweight and overweight women is
symptomatic of the double burden of malnutrition. The present study aims to
throw new light on the double burden of malnuThe uptake of microinsurance in
developing countries falls short of projections, which has recently made
stakeholders focus on client value. However, empirical research on what
constitutes client value in microinsurance has been limited. As a starting
point for further investigations, we draw a first conceptual sketch of the
dimensions of client value. Our analysis is based on qualitative data from
focus group discussions among both existing and potential clients of a micro
life insurance in southern Ghana. Using a multidimensional approach, we show
that client value is based on the perceived quality, costs and consumption
outcome, as well as the emotional and social value of micro life insurance. In
their value judgments, focus group participants particularly emphasize the
quality of customer service provision, the (expected) insurance benefits, and
positive emotions associated with insurance coverage. The evaluation of the
value of the microinsurance under study is mixed. We therefore also
investigate why clients form the value perceptions they do. This investigation
finds that large discrepancies between people’s expectations and experiences
reduce the perceived value of the insurance product. It shows that contextual
factors, such as clients’ knowledge about insurance, their interaction with
peers, and the availability and effectiveness of alternative risk management
options, largely shape whether they perceive high or low value in micro life
insurance.trition among Indian women in the age group 22-49 years. The
analysis is based on a nationally representative household survey, InAlthough
growth has improved substantially in most African countries in recent years,
poverty across the continent has fallen very little in the aggregate, even
though there have been outstanding performances by some countries. Indeed,
some African countries have slipped back, and exhibit higher poverty rates
than in 1990. This paper seeks to understand the reasons for this variance
between countries; the reasons why, certainly if one uses headcount poverty
data, there are ‘two Africas’, one with powerful ability to reduce poverty and
one without. We argue that some of the reasons for this difference are rooted
in colonial times, and those countries which developed dynamic exports of
smallholder cash crops, the ‘peasant export economies’, received a headstart
in relation to mineral- and large farm-based economies, because of the more
equitable income distribution which labour-intensive, smallholder-based
economies generate. However, in the post-colonial period, many peasant export
economies wasted this headstart, and some mine/plantation economies were able
to transcend the limitation of not having received one. The key reasons for
this evolution, we argue, lie in the motivation and ability of African elites
to form pro-poor coalitions, which in some cases were then able to implement
tax and expenditure policies with the ability to bring a pro-poor pattern of
growth into being. This story is tested both econometrically and by means of
four contrasted country case studies.dia Human Development Survey, 2005. The
results indicate that the factors underlying this burden include
socio-economic status (SES), location, marital status, age, education,
physical activity, media exposure, and dietary composition and frequency of
eating. We find that there is a socio-economic patterning of underweight and
overweight women, with a large concentration of underweight women among those
with a low SES and of overweight women among high SES. Given that the health
implications of being underweight and overweight are grim, it is imperative
that there is a simultaneous increase in the focus on the health needs of
overweight and obese people and on the needs of the large number of severely
undernourished people in society. For Indian women, the glaring
health/nutrition disparities are matched only by the grimness of their
existence and survival prospects. |