One of J-PAL's studies tested the effectiveness of computer-assisted learning in certain Indian schools. Photo: niyam bhushan (flickr)

A research group thinks the best way to determine whether aid programs work is to evaluate them using the scientific method.

J-PAL, short for for the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, is a group of researchers - loosely affiliated with MIT - who help design and publish academic-quality studies of existing poverty alleviation programs in an effort to find out exactly what works and what doesn't. These researchers partner with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to evaluate their programs. They also offer courses for other researchers to share their methods. (Class materials are available here for free.)

As J-PAL's website explains, the key to their approach lies in randomization, which is an important part of a well-designed study:

Suppose we would like to see whether one thing (e.g. "schooling") really improves a life outcome (e.g. "health"). The natural instinct is to compare the health of those who have schooling to those who don't. But this would be like comparing apples and oranges: People who have been to school are different in so many ways from those who haven't. Perhaps they have more advantaged social backgrounds, greater access to government services and so better access to schools. And only a few of these factors can be measured and accounted for in a standard statistical analysis. So this simple comparison — those with schooling to those without — may tell us little about the effect of schooling: It may instead be the effect of any of these numerous other differences like social background. If policy are set on the basis of such apples and oranges comparisons, quite a bit of disappointment may result.

J-PAL uses this approach to evaluate existing programs. For example, J-PAL researchers cooperated with an NGO called Pratham to study how much weekly computer use could boost Indian students' academic achievement. They introduced computer-based learning only into randomly selected schools that Pratham was already serving. Students at these schools received basic computer skills training and two hours per week of independent computer time with educational software. After a year, J-PAL found that these students' math test scores had risen, but that their other skills hadn't changed significantly — and all for slightly more money than another effective Pratham program J-PAL had also evaluated.

What makes J-PAL's work innovative is that such randomized studies haven't typically been used in evaluating poverty-alleviation programs, or even in the wider field of economics.

Such data is designed to help aid organizations and governmental bodies decide the most effective way to allocate their funds. For the extra cost of designing an extra study now, J-PAL believes, more money can be directed toward the most effective programs for better poverty-alleviation strategies in the future.

October's comment of the month comes from James in Portland, Oregon. James commented on our story Poverty Isn't Always Ugly. He reminds us that poverty rears its ugly head in many forms — not just monetarily. For his efforts, we will make a $25 donation to a project of his choice on Global Giving.

There are definitely a few issues to consider and discuss relating poverty. In reading Muhammad Yunus' book "Creating a World Without Poverty". He felt, and I agree, that the definition of poverty isn't going to be the same from country to country. For Bangladesh the Grameen Bank developed there own definition of poverty for their internal purposes and to measure impact over time.

Many organization attempt to place a dollar amount of income/day to determine poverty, we've heard the $2.00 per day used frequently. Income isn't a solid method because it doesn't factor variables outside of money. Location and access to natural resources for instance are variables that change the need for money, or an individuals dependence upon it.

Bottom line, I think it's important to realize that poverty can't be defined the same way in every community we visit. Poverty includes physical need and extends into the mindset of individuals and how they view the world around them. It's also important to be culturally sensitive when working with people around the world. Sure, we have it pretty good here in the U.S. but we have problems too. We shouldn't seek to cookie cut our cultural values everywhere we go.

Keep writing in and share your though-provoking comments for a chance to win $25 towards the well-deserving charity of your choice!

* Lest anyone think $25 is not a lot, consider these figures from our affiliate Mercy Corps: $25 delivers clean, safe drinking water to 50 people in one of eastern Congo's sprawling displacement camps. $25 provides seeds to farmers in cyclone-devastated areas of Myanmar to plant five acres of rice. $25 gives traumatized children in Darfur 12 weeks of activities and psychological care to help them heal.

Poverty isn’t always ugly. But it is always real. I recently visited the small village of Beru in the southwest corner of Haiti. For this slightly out-of-shape professor, it’s a hard day-and-a-half hike into the mountains northwest of Les Anglais. I went up there seeking to learn more about the satellite churches that had been planted by our sister church in Les Anglais. In 20 years of sponsoring our sister church in Les Anglais, no one from our congregation had ever gone up there. I am told that I’m the third “blanc” ever to visit.

Beru perches on the ridge of a mountain peak. Its nearly 2,000 inhabitants live in a few dozen roughly 200 square foot thatched-roof or tin-roof huts that neatly line the one red clay path that is the only “road” in and out of the village. Homes here are a kind of wattle (woven wood) and daub made by combining cow dung and mud that is painted white. Some of the homes have designs drawn on the walls. All of them have little white rock borders filled with gravel around the outside. Most have some kind of flowering plants to decorate the outside. The floors are packed earth, neatly swept. As many as ten people occupy each home. No electricity. No plumbing. The nearest running water is a polluted spring that's a two hour’s walk down the mountain. Food is cooked in a community kitchen, a thatched hut with a charcoal fire constantly tended by two women.

My guide for the trip was Etienne Francois, a young Haitian man that our church had funded over a decade ago to attend school to learn agronomy and veterinarian science. Beru is part of the district that Etienne serves. As we approach the village, it is clear that Etienne is well known and well liked. By the time we enter Beru proper, Etienne is holding half a dozen softball-sized avocados — gifts from those too poor to offer anything else.

Etienne shows me the town’s two churches. The Catholic Church is an open pavilion with one crumbling wall. The rusted tin roof is held up by wooden poles. Part of the roof has collapsed. The church also serves as a community center. Kids and adults have a running game of dominoes going all day. In the evening it hosts our meeting with the town’s elders and farmer’s group. The Christian church, a satellite church planted by our sister church, is in relatively better shape. Its concrete block walls and rusted roof are intact. Inside, it is furnished with a couple of wooden benches and a rough wooden lectern that serves as a pulpit. We’re told that the preacher lives back in Les Anglais and walks ten hours every Sunday to preach a service.

Camera in hand, I was wandering around the village of Beru when I heard singing coming from around the corner. When I poked my camera around the corner of a house, the children spotted me and came running to put on an impromptu show. As the children sang, I wondered how many of them would be here on my next visit; how many would die from typhoid or dysentery caused by polluted water; how many would die of starvation; how many would be drawn to Port au Prince or Cap Hatien looking for work only to end up victims of the sex trafficking trade or lured into drug-related gang activity.

A little further down the road is the government-built school. I’m aghast at what is not there. It’s a scene right out of Greg Mortensen’s book, Three Cups of Tea. The tin roof pavilion is supported by concrete pillars and a partial wall. The floor is dirt. When I ask, I’m told that there are no materials, no books and no teachers for first through sixth graders. They simply sit by grade and talk to one another. The older children look after the younger.

That night I’m offered the master bedroom in the village leader’s house as my own. It’s roughly 12 feet square and Etienne tells me that it would be rude to refuse the honor. I feel guilty knowing that the rest of the family is doubled up somewhere else in town. A tarantula the size of my hand watches over me from a corner. I make sure that my mosquito netting is tucked in tight.

In the morning the village leader’s wife gives us a “walking farewell.” She walks us to the edge of the village, chattering all the way, giving Etienne messages to pass on to other people. Just before she turns back, she hands Etienne another of the huge avocados as a going-away gift. She takes my hand in the almost intimate way that Haitians do when friends chat, kisses me on the cheek European style — another Haitian custom — and through Etienne tells me, “we live in abject poverty. We know that. But when you have no choice, then you must choose to be happy.” As we head back down the mountain, I feel like I’ve just been blessed.

Boxing is opening new doors for some Muslim girls from India. Photo: flickr(slack12)

An article in Friday's Wall Street Journal looks at how boxing is giving Muslim girls in India an alternative to their "practically scripted" life.

For many of these girls, the Wall Street Journal says life goes like this: "they stay home, help their mothers, and get married so they aren't a burden to their families anymore."

Sabihal Hussain, a women's studies professor at a New Delhi university explains how boxing is opening up new doors for the girls.

They find (boxing) as a way of coming out from conservativeness. They have very limited role — poor Muslim women — in the public sphere. So thes women, these boxers, they find a way to come out and this is an outlet for them to fight poverty.

The boxers train hard and those that are good enough to compete internationally, fight for cash prizes. But for many girls, boxing can be a gateway into a job with the the police or land them a college scholarship for a spot on the university sports team.

"Greed is ok when you let others profit from it, but greed for oneself is bad, it makes you ill," the Dalai Lama said in an interview with Welt Online. Photo: Giandomenico Ricci (flickr)

At the beginning of July, two influential religious and spiritual leaders made statements within days of each other about the financial crisis and the responsibility of the wealthy to help the poor: Pope Benedict XVI and the Dalai Lama.

In the past month we have watched the world's wealthiest and most powerful meet to discuss the economic crisis and the future for the international community's poorest members. The WTO warned of the dangers of protectionism while meeting in Geneva. The UN announced that the number of hungry people now exceeds one billion worldwide. And the G-8 announced a $20-billion commitment to fight hunger when they convened in Italy for their annual summit. The comments by the Pope and the Dalai Lama seem particularly relevant considering these recent events.

On July 7, a letter written by Pope Benedict XVI was sent to all Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, entitled "Charity in Truth." In the letter the Pope questioned the value of today's corporations.

Today's international economic scene, marked by grave deviations and failures, requires a profoundly new way of understanding human enterprise. Without doubt, one of the greatest risks for business is that they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors, thereby limited in their social value.

Earlier in that same week, the Dalai Lama was interviewed by the German news site, Welt Online. In the interview the Dalai Lama talked about the role he sees for corporations and the wealthy to make a positive difference for the world's poor. When questioned about globalization, the Dalai Lama responded:

I am essentially a supporter of globalization. In the past societies and countries could seal themselves off from the rest of the world, but today this has become impossible. When we search for organizations that have the capacity and ability to improve our world, global companies are at the top of the list. In particular integrated global corporations are in an ideal position to support developing countries to close the gap to leading national economies.

He also talked about greed as a root cause of the financial crisis, but was careful to note that wealth on its own "is not necessarily a bad thing."

Wealth is not necessarily a bad thing when it has been earned in an honest manner and neither other individuals nor the environment suffered for it. As Buddhists we recognize that wealth is a basic prerequisite for a happy life. But a billionaire also only has ten fingers. He can fit three or four rings on each finger, but that would look weird. The satisfaction many millionaires who don’t share their wealth have in their heads is fictitious and not real. Rich people should help reduce poverty.

Amid the flurry of black suits, interpreters and diplomatic cordiality we might usually associate with discussions of trade and economic policy, the sentiments expressed by Pope Benedict XVI and the Dalai Lama offer additional views about wealth and responsibility that are worthy of reflection.

Urban overcrowding, like that seen here in Kampala, has lead many Ugandans to build on top of ecologically important wetlands. Photo: kloppster (flickr)

They arrive during the night with their construction tools. Some come with hired security guards. These are the wetland encroachers of Kampala, hoping to claim land before the watchful eye of the National Environmental Management Authority notices and evicts them.

Poverty is compelling many people to build on the wetlands as population growth and urbanization increase land competition. The construction destroys the land's ecological value, Uganda's The Monitor reports.

Uganda's wetlands filter water and prevent destructive flooding downstream. They are also a source of material for profitable products like papyrus. Wetlands provide employment for 2.7 million Ugandans in a country where just five percent of the total work force has a consistent income.

Uganda was the first African country to develop a national wetlands program. The government has spent millions of dollars and partnered with the World Resources Institute (WRI) to develop an information system to track wetland use. Also, Ugandans who build on wetlands without permits are subject to fines and evictions.

The WRI and the Ugandan government are concerned that the services and products wetlands provide, and on which many poor households depend, are at risk. But, despite Uganda's pioneering status in wetlands management, the country faces many trade-offs as it balances land needs with the desire to preserve the ecosystem and alleviate poverty.

Early childhood education could be the best way to raise a nation's collective I.Q. Photo: horizontal.integration (flickr)

Are we simply born with a predetermined IQ, or can it go up or down depending on what happens to us in life? This question of nature versus nurture is explored in a recent study that shows kids raised in poverty have statistically lower IQ's than middle- or upper-middle-class children.

A high IQ doesn't just translate to intellect, writes New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. It also means a better chance of succeeding in life. Several studies show that intensive early childhood education programs can raise children's IQ's over time.

So to close the intelligence gap, Kristof says U.S. parents and policymakers should fund school-based intervention programs in low-income communities.

The implication of this new research on intelligence is that the economic-stimulus package should also be an intellectual-stimulus program. By my calculation, if we were to push early childhood education and bolster schools in poor neighborhoods, we just might be able to raise the United States collective IQ by as much as one billion points.

Slum life might not be a dead-end for kids in Dharavi, India. Photo: lecercle (flickr)

Even before it cashed in on eight Oscars, Slumdog Millionaire had sparked a global conversation around the film's depiction of slum life in India.

Critics say Slumdog's dramatized images of destitution, squalor and prostitution send a distorted message to audiences. It also overlooks the resilience of India’s hardworking slum-dwellers, Gautaman Bhaskaran writes in the Japan Times:

Is this not what the developed West wants to see of India: its underbelly of crime, corruption and poverty that appears all black, dark and depressing, with little gray or goodness?

Meanwhile, economist Howard Husock draws a more hopeful message from the film: that slum life is not, in all cases, inescapable.

By finding a hero who rises from shacks and degradation, the film reflects a surprising new consensus that even as slums proliferate around the world at a greater scale than ever before, they could, with the right mix of policies, be the launching pads for upward mobility rather than dead-ends.

Over the last half-century, slums around the world have been transformed from temporary settlements into thriving urban centers, Husock writes in Forbes. In Mumbai’s Dharavi slum (where Slumdog was shot), small businesses are multiplying at a staggering rate.

But residents in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, are less concerned about entrepreneurship and infrastructure than they are about a redevelopment project that would demolish their community. A plan to convert shanties into upscale apartments and office towers would uproot Dharavi residents from homes where they’ve lived for years — in some cases, for generations.

"This city has always been about diversity of habitats," urban planner and activist Rahul Srivastava told India’s Economic Times. "We have low-rises and high-rises, villages and slums. Why can't we make slums acceptable living spaces?"

Kenya is looking to the jatropha tree as a way of reducing the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels and developing a biofuel industry.

A clean-burning oil can be extracted from the jatropha tree's seeds, which can be immediately used to power generators or be refined into biodiesel. The trees can grow even in the driest and most nutrient-depleted soils, so it doesn’t have to take up arable land needed to grow food.

Faith Odongo, a senior official at Kenya's Ministry of Energy, says that about 5,000 hectares of land are being set aside for cultivation and expects that the plant could help the country “reduce fossil fuel imports by 5 percent in the next four years” and give farmers a viable crop to grow.

Whether jatropha is a viable alternative to fossil fuels is debatable. But Continental Airlines powered a Boeing 737 for a two-hour test flight on jatropha oil mixed with algae and aviation fluid. The Los Angeles Times calls jatropha one of the "new generation of so-called sustainable biofuels that could help airlines cut fuel costs and reduce carbon emissions."

But there are drawbacks. One tree only produces two liters of fuel and the trees don't reach full maturity for four to five years.

Yet these drawbacks haven't stopped countries like India, which has set aside 100 million acres for jatropha trees and expects to use the yielded oil to "account for 20 percent of its diesel consumption by 2011," according to Time.

In this video, Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege explains how farmers in eastern Kenya are seeing their economic situation improve as a result of planting jatropha trees.

Photo: Atti-la (flickr)

Traditionally, government-sponsored social assistance programs usually follow a straightforward model of giving money to qualified citizens. But what if the programs asked for something in return?

Over the past decade, programs that offer funding to poor families based on certain conditions have sprung up all over the world, in countries like Brazil, Mexico, India, and Cambodia. These programs, called conditional cash transfers (CCTs), provide money to qualifying families only if the heads of household commit to certain requirements like sending their children to school or ensuring that their family members get regular health checkups.

According to a World Bank report released last week, CCTs have helped to reduce the number of families in poverty while increasing the rates of health clinic utilization and school attendance. Overall, this is good news. But the report also found that merely attending school or going for a checkup has not translated into better test scores, improved nutrition or more immunizations.

"To actually reduce child mortality or improve learning," the report says, "CCTs need to be complemented by higher-quality education and health services and a strong focus on giving children a head start, such as via better nutrition or preschool programs."

Paul Polak leads a talk on affordable technology design for developing areas KrisKrug (flickr)

"Most of us look at the 1 billion men, women and children in the world who live on less than a dollar a day and see poor people," writes BusinessWeek. "But Paul Polak sees market failure."

Paul Polak is a 75-year-old former psychiatrist who founded a non-profit called International Development Enterprises. He calls himself a "Global Poverty Fighter."

For the past 25 years, Polak has worked with small farmers in developing countries to provide low-cost products that support self-sufficiency — drip irrigation products for small farmers with limited access to water, rice fertilizer to increase yields, and water-storage products that can be used in extreme temperatures.

An entrepreneur at heart, Polak believes in approaching the poor as customers — not charity recipients. He says 17 million people have climbed out of poverty thanks to his inventions.

Watch to learn more about Polak's entrepreneurial approach to fighting poverty.

India's silk weavers are struggling to survive as demand for their skills is declining. Photo: Snikrap (flickr)

India’s silk weavers are struggling to survive. In the northern state of Varanasi, home to some 300,000 weavers, tradesmen and women are forced to find additional employment to make ends meet.

According to the Economist, western influences and globalization may help explain why demand for silk weavers is withering away. More and more Indian women are wearing western clothes and only wearing traditional Indian garments for special occasions. Since saris and other Indian clothes are cheaper and easily made by machines, customers can avoid waiting days or weeks for weavers to complete their hand-made garments.

Weavers with no other income often can't afford to send their children to school. Without an education, these children have limited options and often end up learning the family trade — which will continue the cycle of poverty.

It seems obvious that poverty and terrorism are closely interwoven. The search for answers in last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai has prompted the links between the two to be probed once again.

But how associated are they, really?

Back in 2002, the general consensus was that poverty relief efforts could be a leading tactic in the fight against terror. Since then, however, a number of researchers have taken issue with this correlation, starting with the fact that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by middle-to-upper-class men. (A 2003 paper suggests that terrorist groups may recruit well-educated, well-off members because they can blend into their Western targets.) Harvard professor Alberto Abadie ties the rate of terror events to a nation's political freedom as well as its size, elevation and weather — but not its economic status.

The rationale behind the idea that terrorism can be a by-product of poverty persists because it seems pretty logical. Poverty can surely lead to a sense of societal alienation, which could make people more likely to join a terrorist group. Assuming that is the case, extending the benefits of economic growth to marginalized communities could lessen the threat of terrorism. But is this perceived alienation actually a result of poverty, or something else entirely?

Anecdotally, poverty relief efforts — especially education — appear to be powerful antidotes to terror. A prime example is American Greg Mortenson's efforts to build dozens of schools in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which are documented in the book Three Cups of Tea. According to Mortenson, "Education in general is a powerful tool to provide alternatives to the illiterate, impoverished areas that are the recruiting grounds for terror."

With 14,000 terrorist events in 2007 alone, attempts to understand the roots of terrorism aren't mere academic exercises. Correctly determining the true causes of terrorist activity can mean the difference between a successful anti-terror strategy and thousands of lives lost.

Begging's no longer limited to a few stray beggars driven to seeking alms as a last resort, says the Times of India. Photo: Heavenhated (flickr)

Calcutta's Laxmi Das was stricken with polio as a child, and raised in a society where people with disabilities are looked upon with pity. After 40 years of begging on the streets, Das recently opened her first bank account with her saved coins worth a total of 30,000 rupees or $700.

"I saved for the days when I cannot beg," she told the BBC, "I knew one day I would grow old and have diseases, so I was prudent and saved for my pension."

BBC.com visitors responded to Das’ heartwarming story with pledges of financial support. And who can blame them? People like Das beg because they have few other options.

But others are getting into the begging business because it's apparently lucrative. A variety of people are turning to begging not as a last resort, but as a profession. Now there are beggar pimps that send out children, women and the disabled (like Das), but also college graduates that are making a living off of begging. As an editorial in The Times of India points out:

“Begging's no longer limited to a few stray beggars driven to seeking alms as a last resort. It has become a profession for some, a way of life for others, and more horrific still, a lucrative racket for unscrupulous and ruthless operators, who have spawned a virtual ‘beggar mafia', using raw materials we have in abundance; human beings; poor, destitute and helpless.”

According to the Executive Director of Dnyana Devi, a local Indian NGO that runs a 24-hour helpline for children in distress, begging is considered “serious business” for the street children of India, so much so that they “know exactly which brands of cars to chase, how to ‘dress up’ to evoke maximum sympathy and how to fix false plasters on the legs to give the impression of being crippled.”

So far, India's response has been insufficient. The country has chosen to criminalize beggars under the 1959 Bombay Beggary Prevention Act, where they can be can be picked up at random and locked in a "beggars' home" for up to three years.

And while our sympathy and compassion will spare them some change, it is only a short-term solution that fails to address deeper underlying socioeconomic issues.

For the children who beg, receiving alms means that their parents are less likely to send them to school. For others it can confirm begging as an easy and valid means of making money.

Most of us cringe at hearing the word inflation. It takes a toll on everyone's pocketbook, but for many Indonesians, it is also tearing families apart.

Many Indonesian parents are being forced to place their children in orphanages. In a country where 100 million people live on less than a dollar a day, skyrocketing costs of food and fuel are making it difficult for families to feed themselves. Childcare institutions offer the children not only food, but also an education and the chance at a brighter future.

"I know my children are angry with me, but I try to convince them that is the best choice for us.… As a mother I want to take care of my children but I cannot be selfish. I want the best future for them, so I have no choice," said Tinor Niang, a mother who brought her two sons to an orphanage in central Jakarta nine years ago.

Only 6 percent of the 500,000 Indonesian children in childcare institutions are orphans, according to a recent report released by Save the Children in conjunction with UNICEF and the Indonesian government. Many of the institutions were understaffed, the report found, with nearly half running on less than $10,000 a year. When not being schooled, the children were found cooking and cleaning while caring for themselves and those younger than them.

While rising costs put financial pressure on parents, the children bear the price emotionally. "I just want to be with my parents, even if it means I cannot get an education," says 13-year-old Yulianto who has spent half his life in an orphanage.

Some parents argue that education is worth the emotional toll. "I just want him to get a proper education," says one mother who had to take her 11-year old to an orphanage. "I hope that one day he'll do something useful for this country and help his brothers, because we are living in poverty."

Photo: sektordua (flickr)