State Responsiveness to Poverty: A Comparative Study of development interventions in the Indian States of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Abstract
This study examines pro-poor development initiatives in two Indian states that have, in general, been responsive to poverty. Each state has a chief executive who, supported by a core group of political leaders and civil servants, has devised and maintained a sustained commitment to programmes and institutional reforms ostensibly aimed at addressing the needs of poorer constituencies. The purpose of the study was to assess those political and institutional factors that assist in realising the promise of these innovations, as well as those factors that constrain the process of pro-poor change. This study consists of four components: two studies on Madhya Pradesh (one on agriculture and one on health); and two in Andhra Pradesh (one on agriculture and one on health). Part I reports on the agriculture-sector component of the study, which focuses on governance aspects of watershed development programmes. Part II reports on the health-sector component of the study, which focuses on programmes directed at improving the responsiveness of service-delivery. Part III addresses the remaining comparative dimension, examining the differences between health and agriculture programmes in the two states. It concludes by assessing whether these differences have been more marked in one or another of the two states, drawing on general variables associated with their respective political systems.
Citation
130 pp.
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