2011, Vol.20, No.2

Journal of Regional Studies and Development 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.4

pISSN : 1738-3846 / eISSN : 2765-4028
https://journal.kci.go.kr/jrsd_ipaid

This study reviews economic development, reform programs, and poverty reduction strategies in Ethiopia. The country remains amongst the poorest in the world. Compared to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia is performing relatively well in economic growth and expansion of basic services, but the country's economy is highly dependent on agriculture and foreign assistance. Recently, with the expansion of infrastructures, hotels, and tourism, the service sector is taking the lead in economic growth. Resource mobilization and human capital development need to be the priority policy areas in Ethiopia. It is also important to improve both the access to and the quality of each service. Moreover, it is mandatory for Ethiopia to develop strategies to control the alarming increase in population growth.

This study reviews the causes of poverty in Kenya as a interaction between politics and economy, and illustrates the aspects of everyday life of poverty through the over-urbanization of Kenya. Kenya achieved political stability and economic development through the successful Africanization and practical capitalist policies since independent to mid-1980s. However, corruption and ethnic disputes in political sector hindered economic growth after mid-1980s, because these political situation reduced foreign investment and aid. In 2000s, rapid economic growth was accomplished, but economic polarization was occurred at the same time. Therefore, both absolute and relative poverty problems were occurred simultaneously especially in urban informal sectors. Eventually the cycle of poverty in Kenya was formed among politics, economy, and everyday life in urban informal sectors.

This paper provides an overview of women’s political participation in rural India. The 73rd India Constitutional Amendment of 1993 gave a local government, or Panchayat Raj, a constitutional status and introduced the quota-based seats reserved for women. This study tries to answer whether the reservation in Gram Panchayat has enabled women to articulate and advance their interests by reviewing the results from the previous research on women participation in Panchayat Raj, and examining the potential causes and barriers that affect women’s political participation. It is found that such constraints as institutional design, the social inequalities in gender and caste system, and personal factors limit their effective participation in political process. The quota-based seats have positive effects on the women representatives, while the speed of the change in women representation is moving at a slower pace. It is concluded that seats reservation is not sufficient to ensure the positive representation of women in political participation.