Contents :
This book is the compilation of ten papers presented at aworkshop organized jointly by the Arab Planning Institute (API) in Kuwait, and theAfrican Training and Research Center in Administrationfor Development (CAFRAD) in Tangier, Morocco on December 1-3, 1998. Theworkshop aimed at discussing the means to build and sustain institutionalcapacity for social reforms, and analyzing the link between these reforms andpoverty alleviation policies.
Poverty is concerned with the relationship between minimum needsof people and their ability to satisfy these needs. Research on poverty isextensive due to the complexity of the problem, the proliferation andavailability of data from household surveys, and the interest of internationalagencies, governments, and scholars in poverty analysis. Despite the spread ofpoverty research worldwide however, empirical evidence on poverty in the Arabcountries is very sketchy and only few studies are available . Most of theresearch conducted on poverty in the ESCWA region is reported in the ESCWA(1997) publication.
Poverty constitutes one of the major social andeconomic problems. It reflects the malfunctioning of the social and economicsystems. It stems from different sources, i.e. social, economic, and politicalfactors, massive unemployment, low incomes, economic backwardness, social andeconomic exclusion and unequal income distribution, drought, environmentdeterioration, floods, civil wars, political instability and corruption. Italso reflects the neglect by the governments of the most unfavorable andvulnerable people in the society, such as the disabled, the elderly, andfemale-headed households. Poverty also spreads out due to lack of proper socialinstitutions (social security, pension funds, retirement plans, charities, etc.)and the lack of basic human rights and the proper laws and policies to protectthem.