GPAAC2 PROPOSAL: AYODELE SOKEFUN

TOPIC: MANAGING POVERTY: THE ROLE OF STATE REGULATION

Aim: Through the synergy of qualitative and quantitative research, participatory analysis and policy
research the study will investigate the roles, impact, and potentials of state and state regulation on
poverty, bringing context specific research linkages between regulation and poverty reduction and effects
of state and non-state actors on poverty especially as it relates to countries in sub Saharan Africa with
Nigeria and Ghana as case studies.

Objectives

1. To review existing literature and debates on social policy, especially linkages between social policy and social theory and
ethics, poverty and the regulatory role of state institutions in the battle against poverty.
2. To investigate within the scope of social policy and theory a framework to position the study, provisionally the study of
poverty theory and existing knowledge of non state actors and other specialist communities and their role in poverty
reduction
3. To develop a balanced opinion and position on the typologies of state regulation that would impact on poverty
4. To make recommendations on the available and appropriate metrics for poverty regulation through the use of various
informed by econometric, policy and social science insights
5. Further to this is a review of the administrative and regulatory capacities that exists in our case study and how this
capacities impact on the ability of states to tackle poverty.

Rationale: Contemporary criticisms of economic policies are directed to the absence of social dimensions as core elements as they
relate to poverty. This alongside the growing recognition that if economic reforms are to achieve their intended benefits of raising
economic growth and reducing poverty, there needs to be a commensurate improvement in regulatory governance especially as
inefficiency of state regulation has been identified as a primary cause of poor economic performance. Bearing this in mind the study
would trace the historical theoretical linkages between social welfare and economic performance as well as the institutional history
and the characteristics of national legislatures and how they have, and can impact on poverty and how they can be further
mainstreamed in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of regulatory policies that affect poverty.1

While globalisation and its effects have been researched rigorously in the paststudies on its offshoots of liberalisation especially as it
affects optimal timing and the extent of impacts of liberalisation policies would also be dwelled upon. Social policy on its own has
been seen as a policy framework employed to address poverty and vulnerability in developing countries however it would remain in
effective if it is insufficiently grounded in knowledge about the factors that produce and reproduce poverty and vulnerability and the
process that hinders social transformation. Situated within the public interest theory, and the five competing theories of poverty
identified by Bradshaw (2005) the study hopes that the analysis would bring to fore the need for more explicit consideration of the
policy implications of different actors on different social economic and political settings.

The Scope of coverage would be in the range of “policy research” as posited by Etzioni and coverage would include existing
policy and applied research in multilateral research organisations, the study also wants to move in incremental dimensions on going
research in Maastricht, UNRISD, and the Centre of Regulation and Competition of the Institute for Development Policy and
Management, University of Manchester and other cantres of social policy research.

Methodology: The study would take into consideration the unique methodology of policy research as propounded by Etzioni (2006),
for information gathering the study would employ the use of models proposed by Straf (2001) and four steps of information inquiry
in Ann Majchrak(1984). A combination of scientific insights, with subjective knowledge resources and an application of

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participatory methods Geurts, (2000) would be employed. Micro and macro studies involving a triangulation of multiple sources of
data, as well as empirical deducing from quantitative and qualitative surveys.

REFERENCES

Armando Barrientos, Social Protection and Poverty; Social policy and development Programme paper number 42, Thandika
Mkandawire; Social Policy in a Development Context. Social policy and development program paper number 7,World Bank Report
2004, Colin Kilpatrick and David Parker; Poverty and Regulation: How regulation can contribute to poverty reduction in developing
countries; Richard A. Posner, Theories of Economic Regulation NBER working paper series NOS 4; Ted K.Bradshaw, Theories of
Poverty Programs in Community Development, University of California, 2005. Amitai Etzioni cited in the Oxford Handbook of
Public Policy; Ann Majchrzak, Methods for Policy Research, Applied Social Research Methods Series, Volume 3, Sage Publications,
California. M Straf, Policy Information International Encyclopedia of the Behavioral Sciences, 2001, pg 11560-11563.