MAPP502 American Public Policy Brief on Poverty Reduction Policy Paper

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I need a Policy Brief written on Poverty Reduction Policy. Must be two pages in length and is due by 11:59p eastern time on 26 May 2019 that is very convincing to pay attention to this policy. Consider layout and please make it attractive.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, 2010, 45 (5), 376–380 SPECIAL SECTION COMMENTARY Decent work and decent pay: Dual salary systems and poverty reduction policy Raymond Saner Sciences Po, Paris, France, University of Basle, Basle, and Centre for Socio-Economic Development, Geneva, Switzerland REMUNERATION DISCREPANCIES AND POVERTY REDUCTION: ELEPHANT SALARIES IN THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PARLOUR Context for the research This special issue is a very timely and most relevant contribution to current policy discussions on aid effectiveness. These are being held at various international institutions, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Council for Trade and Development (UNCTAD). They include donor agencies from developed and industrialized countries such as the United States Aid and International Development (USAID), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Department for International Development (DFID), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), but also numerous organizations in the ‘‘developing’’ countries and ‘‘least developed countries.’’ Whether or not disparities in remuneration between expatriate and local staff undermine or even jeopardize the achievement of poverty reduction or, worse, prevent the achievement of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (to reduce poverty by 2015) concerns all actors in the field of international cooperation, i.e., governments, technical cooperation agencies (state and private foundations), and nongovernment organizations, national and international. As stated by the lead author of the introductory article (Carr et al., 2010 this issue, p. 323), ‘‘Not surprisingly perhaps, discussion around remuneration differences between expatriate and local workers is taboo; a sentiment that has left the topic almost completely unresearched’’ (emphasis added). I agree with this statement and extend my thanks to the researchers and their organization, ADDUP, for taking on the formidable challenge of looking into this taboo topic through a scientific lens, without falling prey to either doctrinaire righteousness or opportunistic softening of the key findings. A practice perspective Having been active in the field of technical cooperation for the past 25 years in various functions ranging from project designer to programme manager, technical expert, evaluator, trainer, and educator in all continents of this world, I had to face the challenge of remuneration differences on a personal level. I was highly paid as a western expert, compared to local staff; but also had to take management decisions regarding recruitment and salary payments of foreign and Correspondence should be addressed to Raymond Saner, CSEND, C.P. 1498 Mt Blanc, 1211 Geneva 1, Switzerland (e-mail: saner@csend.org). ß 2010 International Union of Psychological Science http://www.psypress.com/ijp DOI: 10.1080/00207594.2010.491989 COMMENTARY local staff. Hence I will make my comments from personal experience, with reflections based on my own research combined with case examples. These will hopefully provide food for thought in regard to the larger discussion about the validity of the research findings described in the four papers. As a caveat, I would like to clarify that my comments do not focus on the methodology used by the researchers. The research methodology used in the four papers, the soundness of the hypotheses developed and operationally defined through the studies, as well as the various statistical means used to verify or disprove the hypotheses, appear very robust and sound. Reviewers have already given their inputs covering content and research methods. Thus I will focus in the commentary on external validity. The authors have been able to confirm some of their hypotheses; others were disconfirmed and a number of hypotheses were neither confirmed nor disconfirmed, leading to suggestions for future research. In light of this, I would like to build on the results already achieved, by outlining possible avenues for future additional hypothesistesting. Remuneration differences and povertyreduction through economic and social sciences policy-making There is no agreement in the development field as to what causes poverty or what should be done to help ‘‘developing’’ countries and ‘‘least developed countries’’ get out of poverty. The first article cites Reddy and Pogge (2005), who offer very valuable leads as to how ‘‘not to count the poor.’’ As the title suggests, different schools of development studies have their own views on what causes poverty and how to understand it. They all agree, however, that poverty is a multicausal phenomenon. It cannot be reduced to simple definitions. The same holds for remedies offered to ‘‘developing’’ countries and ‘‘least developed countries’’ about to how to get out of poverty. The International Financial Institutions, known as the Bretton Woods Institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund), tried to reduce poverty using their Structural Adjustment Programs in the 1970s. When they realized that the adjustments failed, a new generation of advice and conditional help was developed, called ‘‘Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.’’ The results of these country-based strategic plans for poverty 377 reduction, however, are mixed. It is not clear whether they have helped ‘‘least developed countries’’ move out of poverty, or indeed why they have worked in a few cases where a least developed economy was able to reduce poverty. What seems to be mainstream thinking is that the original remedy for poverty-reduction, called the Washington Consensus, is dead. Yet there is no clear succession in development policy so far. The International Monetary Fund has learned its lessons from the 1980s, when it tended to link financial support to the Highly Indebted Poor countries with prescriptions (‘‘conditionalities’’) based on the Washington Consensus formula. Still, some of the damage has been done (Saner & Guilherme, 2007). What most scholars of development studies can agree is that current trade conditions are skewed in favour of industrialized countries and poorer countries cannot generate sufficient supply (goods or services) at competitive prices, nor sell them successfully into the ‘‘developed’’ country markets. The current Doha Round at the World Trade Organization is trying to find remedies to this imbalance though an extension of Aid-for-Trade, and other technical cooperation mechanisms, called Trade Related Technical Assistance. While valuable, the quantity and quality of such assistance to poorer countries remains inadequate (Saner & Paez, 2006). Alternatives to the above disconcerting cacophony of poverty analysis and poverty reduction strategies have been put forward by various scholars. An extreme case is represented by advocates suggesting discontinuity of assistance, on the grounds that western aid has led to corruption, inaction, and paralysis in most lower-income counties. The most vocal advocate of this radical position is Dambisa Moyo, in her book entitled Dead Aid (Moyo, 2009). Looking at some of the lower-income countries’ dependence on foreign aid and how this has generated dependency and corruption, Moyo makes some valuable points. On top of this, a large number of foreign aid projects are in fact examples of lower-income countries’ governmental failures to provide basic services to their own people—which instead end up being provided by foreign aid programs, for example in health and education services. However, to stop the flow of aid to lower-income countries would mean that the poor had to suffer even more deprivation than they do at present. 378 SANER Faced with such complexities and policy ambiguities, aid experts providing policy advice will be under great strain to explain the soundness of their work in and through organizations. In addition, a growing number of citizens in lowerincome countries have studied development theory in western universities. Indigenous graduates who join foreign aid programs can be intellectually more demanding, requesting from western expatriates high levels of excellence when providing their development analyses and policy advice. One could hence propose the following hypothesis: H7: Local staff with high academic degrees in development studies of a more recent date will show a higher sense of injustice when faced with western expatriate ‘‘superiors’’ with (a) lower academic achievements and (b) more distantly dated qualifications, who are also paid higher remuneration for equal work. Relatedly, I anticipate that foreign experts working in fields of more concrete activities such as road construction, power plants, or medical research will be less challenged by local staff if their competency in the field is evident to all personnel participating in the projects. Hence: H8: Local staff working in physical infrastructure and natural sciences will report less injustice, even if their foreign superior is paid a higher salary, provided the expatriates are judged to be (a) competent and (b) performing on the job. Remuneration differences in aid projects involving developing country expatriates representing international organizations International organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund have recently increased their recruitment of personnel from ‘‘developing’’ countries. This has been done partly as a response to criticisms that they practise a ‘‘soft’’ form of colonialism, namely employing too many experts from mostly ‘‘Western, developed’’ countries. As a consequence, an increasing number of international civil servants have been hired from lower-income countries, and paid on international rates. Local staff of lower-income countries, facing superiors from other lower-income countries, express in confidence doubts about the competency of non-western experts—sometimes inadvertently succumbing to a form of south–south racism or prejudice. As an example, the International Labour Organization has come up with a proposal of ‘‘Decent Work for All and Employment Creation’’ as an alternative to the Washington Consensus. This policy suggestion has had mixed success since most lower-income countries have a predominantly informal economy, and hence cannot easily create decent jobs for their own people. Creating decent jobs would mean in fact increasing the formal sector in their economies (Bacchetta, Ekkehard, & Bustamante, 2009). While this could be achieved with extensive external support, such substantive support cannot be guaranteed. On a personal basis, the International Labour Organization experts stationed in lower-income countries are not above criticism. Besides proposing better gender justice in remuneration (a traditional International Labour Organization theme) their own experts receive higher pay and better remuneration packages than their local staff. Even if such International Labour Organization experts are themselves from a lower-income country, their higher remuneration leads at times to intense feelings of injustice from their local staff, especially if the international civil servants in question do not perform as expected. The following hypothesis could hence be proposed: H9: Remunerative comparison between international organisation experts from lower-income countries and their local staff will result in a high sense of injustice, especially if international organisation representatives are not delivering on performance at work. Labor turnover of local staff in commercial sectors will be linked more to career strategy than to remuneration differences alone Labor turnover in Asian countries has been studied in detail in Saner and Yiu (1993, pertaining to Taiwan) and in Yiu and Saner (2008, pertaining to India). Leaving aside periods of economic downturn with consequently lower labor turnover due to COMMENTARY limited job alternatives, these studies of labor turnover in East Asia and India showed that locals tend to leave their jobs for reasons other than perceived injustice in remuneration differences. For instance, East Asian employees left a company for better-paid jobs elsewhere. In addition, and much more surprisingly for Westerners, employees from Asian nations leave their companies if they consider that their respective local or foreign boss has been acting in an authoritarian manner. This leads us to the following hypothesis: H10: Labor turnover will be high in Asia-based organizations when young local employees have to work for local and foreign bosses who practise authoritarian and paternalistic management styles. Young Chinese and Indian employees are most of the time well aware of glass-ceiling-like limitations that are typically practiced by foreign multinationals. They often know in advance that once they have reached a certain management level in the foreign company, no more promotion will be possible, with higher-level jobs being reserved for expatriates from the mother-company’s homeland. They therefore benefit as much as possible from what they can get in regard to training and remuneration, which most of the time is better than in comparable local companies. Once they have reached the glass ceiling, they leave the company. The next hypothesis would hence be: H11: Labor turnover in foreign owned enterprises in China and India will be linked to personal career plans rather than to feelings of injustice about remuneration differences. Related to the above and applied to internationalizing enterprises from emerging countries, similar behavior can be expected by employees of Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, etc. companies recruiting staff in African, Latin American, and Pacific lower-income countries. Hence: H12: Labor turnover in subsidiaries of enterprises from emerging economies such as India, China, Brazil, and Singapore established in African, Latin American, and Pacific countries will be linked to glass-ceiling-limited career options for local professional workers. 379 Reducing remuneration differences through abolishment of dual pay systems in countries with multi-ethnic composition will be difficult As described in the second article, countries such as the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea practice a dual-pay system favouring foreign experts. Recommendations have been made that such discriminatory pay systems be abolished, coupled with introducing and implementing localization policies and the establishment or strengthening of existing salaries commissions to move towards a more merit-based recruitment and selection process, including fairer remuneration practices. While the reasons for such intentions are understandable, their implementation will probably be more difficult. Several lower-income countries in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa practice nepotism along ethnic lines of tribal communalism. Each time multiethnic lower-income countries change government along ethnic lines, incumbent job-holders lose their job and often less competent persons from the new government team get hired at remuneration levels that are neither merit-based nor more equal. This leads to the following hypothesis and prediction: H13: Abolishing dual pay system in multi-ethnic lower-income countries will be no guarantee for sustained merit based remuneration and nondiscriminatory recruitment practice. In closing, it might be better in such situations to bring respective countries into regional trade and economic associations, with legally binding rules against discriminatory recruitment and pay practices. This would give their citizens recourse options in cases of blatant human resources discrimination. First published online July 2010 REFERENCES Bacchetta, M., Ekkehard, E., & Bustamante, J. (2009). Globalization and informal jobs in developing countries. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Organisation. Carr, S. C., McWha, I., MacLachlan, M., & Furnham, A. (2010). International-local remuneration differences across six countries: Do they undermine poverty reduction work? International Journal of Psychology, 45, 321–340. 380 SANER Moyo, D. (2009). Dead aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa. New York: Macmillan. Reddy, S. G., & Pogge, T. W. (2005). How not to count the poor. New York: Columbia University. Retrieved July 8, 2009, from www.socialanalysis.org. Saner, R., & Guilherme, R. (2007). The International Monetary Fund’s Influence on trade policies of low-income countries: A valid undertaking? Journal of World Trade, 41, 931–981. Saner, R., & Paez, L. (2006). Technical assistance to least developed countries (LDCs) in the context of the Doha Development Round (DDR): High risk of failure. Journal of World Trade, 40, 467–494. Saner, R., & Yiu, L. (1993). Coping with labour turnover in Taiwan. American Asian Review, XI, 163–194. Yiu, L., & Saner, R. (2008). India employee turnover study: Research report. Retrieved from www. adequate.org/Page%20Files/file/20080127-Saner-Yiu %20Research%20Paper_Turnover%20in%20India %2027.01.08%20(Final).pdf. Copyright of International Journal of Psychology is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
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P

overty reduction is one of the current issues that is highly discussed in various debates as an issue of

concern. Various organizations such as the USAID, WTO, and other international organizations have held
discussions with an aim of coming up with several solutions in aid of ensuring poverty reduction. As a matter
of fact, poverty is caused by many socio-economic factors that escalate the impacts of poverty hence calling
for an international attention. Also, the issue of poverty found in many countries is taken as an aspect that
emerge as a result of human actions and activities among one another or other activities. For instance, poverty
caused by salary disparities in various organizations is an example of poverty caused by human interaction
activities. Disparities in salary is viewed to result to escalated rates of poverty since the people receiving
underpayments for a certain amount of work done become subjected to low living standards. Therefore, in
order to solve the issue of poverty it is essential to come up with poverty reduction policies that will provide
solutions to the issue.

The poverty reduction policies
a. Differences in remunerations and reduction of poverty through
social and economic sciences policy-making

V

arious schools of development have different understandings of the causes of poverty but consider

poverty as a multi-causal phenomenon. In the early 1970s, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank tried in vain using a SAP (Structural Adjustment Program) to reduce the aspects of poverty.
When the strategy failed, a development of new generation advice and a conditional help were developed in
an attempt to help reduce poverty. Moreover, it is difficult to tell which of these early strategies helped
reduce poverty but they all agree that most of the current trade situations are carried out in favor of the
already industrialized nations. Most of the low-income countries get viewed to highly depend on foreign aid
from the high-income countries and thus an imbalance in trade is experienced (Reddy, 2009. Thus, the
growth of these disparities called for scholars to carry out various investigations on how to balance between
the high and low income earning countries in an attempt to reduce dependency and poverty. As years went
by the scholars who had obtained western education began to provide advises on the policies to be
implemented in an attempt to reduce p...

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