Similar case studies

REF impact found 10 Case Studies

Currently displayed text from case study:

Changing Public Discourse on Poverty

Summary of the impact

The primary beneficiaries of Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) research into media representations of poverty are people experiencing poverty themselves. Mediating beneficiaries are editors and journalists; television drama producers; politicians and political parties and third-sector organisations. The research has:

  • improved the quality of life of those experiencing poverty through a reduction in the stereotyping/stigmatising discourses to which they are often exposed
  • effected a change in the practice of journalists and television drama producers regarding representations of poverty
  • led politicians/political parties to commit to eradicating stigmatising language from their discussions of poverty
  • encouraged third-sector organisations to campaign against the use of such language

Submitting Institution

Glasgow Caledonian University

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Political Science
Studies In Creative Arts and Writing: Journalism and Professional Writing

Sustainable livelihoods and wellbeing

Summary of the impact

In Bangladesh, 50 million people live in poverty and around 28 million live in extreme poverty. To date, development agencies have focussed almost exclusively on the needs of the poor and ignored those of the extreme poor. Building on years of poverty research in Bangladesh, researchers at the University of Bath have played a key role designing and then developing a £65 million programme, which is the country's first national scale initiative focusing exclusively on extreme poverty. Impacts from the programme include improving the livelihoods of one million extreme poor people; helping NGOs design innovative programmes for the extreme poor; and embedding the discourse around extreme poverty in the polity.

Submitting Institution

University of Bath

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Economics: Applied Economics
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration

Multidimensional poverty measurement improves policy-making

Summary of the impact

Poor people define poverty to include a simultaneous lack of education, health, housing, mployment and income, among other factors. Recognising this, Sabina Alkire and James Foster developed an axiomatic methodology of measurement that incorporates multiple dimensions of poverty — the Alkire Foster method (AF). The AF method provides a robust, `open-source' measurement tool for policy-making. One key impact is an AF index covering 100+ countries, published annually in the UNDP's Human Development Reports. Another is national adoption by three governments and a multidimensional poverty peer network of 22 governments and agencies. The AF method is also incorporated into other internationally recognised well-being measures such as USAID's 19-country Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index, and Bhutan's Gross National Happiness index.

Submitting Institution

University of Oxford

Unit of Assessment

Anthropology and Development Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Economics: Applied Economics, Econometrics

SPSW04 - The Impact of Research on Child Well-Being

Summary of the impact

Jonathan Bradshaw and colleagues at York influenced UK and international measures of child poverty, child deprivation and child well-being. The multi-dimensional well-being measures have been adopted by UNICEF and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Office for National statistics (ONS) is now developing measures of child happiness based on our work.

Our research highlighted how badly children in Britain were doing. Informed by this evidence, a Government strategy was developed after 1999 and investment in children improved at least until 2010. As a result, child poverty and well-being improved in the UK. Our work contributed to moving the national and international discourse beyond a focus on income poverty.

Submitting Institution

University of York

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Economics: Applied Economics
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration

Direct Cash Transfers as an Antipoverty Instrument for the Extreme and Chronic Poor

Summary of the impact

Research undertaken at the University of Manchester (UoM) has made a major contribution to understanding the role and significance of direct cash transfers as financially and politically sustainable instruments, essential in addressing extreme and chronic poverty in low and middle income countries. Research findings, outputs and related uptake activities have: stimulated, supported and led global research on antipoverty transfers; shaped policy thinking within the development community (e.g. DFID, HelpAge International); influenced national governments (e.g. UK, Sweden) and informed practice in several countries (e.g. Uganda, Bangladesh).

Submitting Institution

University of Manchester

Unit of Assessment

Anthropology and Development Studies

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Economics: Applied Economics, Econometrics
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration

Changing how poverty is measured and understood

Summary of the impact

Essex research, conducted between 1994 and 2010, has provided a new way for the UK Government to measure income poverty, leading to a measure of persistent poverty being included in the Child Poverty Act 2010. The research has enriched policymakers' understanding of changes in inequality and provided a framework for the analysis of poverty dynamics. It has also changed the way in which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation approaches its research and policy work on poverty. A sub-strand of work, on how incomes change after couples separate, has informed policy development work by the charity Gingerbread.

Submitting Institution

University of Essex

Unit of Assessment

Economics and Econometrics

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Economics: Applied Economics, Econometrics

Influencing thinking and shaping practice about worklessness and poverty.

Summary of the impact

Funded by JRF and ESRC, a long-term series of qualitative studies with residents of very deprived neighbourhoods in Teesside has reached important conclusions about the realities of worklessness and poverty. Many of these run counter to prevailing thinking amongst politicians, policy makers and practitioners. Thus, the research has been used to influence the thinking and the practices of organisations (nationally and regionally) that seek to tackle problems of poverty and worklessness. The research has informed political debate in the UK and EU and has been used nationally and regionally to improve the way that problems of worklessness, poverty and `the low-pay cycle' are understood and responded to. Impact has come about as a consequence of the academic profile and reputation of the underpinning research and a subsequent planned and concerted set of dissemination, public engagement and knowledge exchange activities.

Submitting Institution

Teesside University

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Economics: Applied Economics
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Sociology

African States and Social Welfare in Africa

Summary of the impact

Research undertaken at the University of Manchester (UoM) confronts deficits in social policy in sub-Saharan Africa, emphasising the promotion of state capacities for the delivery of social welfare, The research has engaged with users (2003-present), and has contributed to demonstrable policy shifts towards strengthening social welfare systems. As a result, UNICEF, alongside donors such as USAID/ PEPFAR, are now placing an increased emphasis upon the importance of strengthening state social welfare systems, with less emphasis the on role of NGOs. The research also contributed to a renewed prioritisation on developing capacity for the implementation of social policy within the African Union Social Policy Framework (2008).

Submitting Institution

University of Manchester

Unit of Assessment

Anthropology and Development Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration

Improving global efforts to reduce child poverty and deprivation: the impact of the Bristol Approach and its contribution to identification, measurement and monitoring.

Summary of the impact

Research conducted by the Centre for the Study of Poverty and Social Justice (CSPSJ) led to a new way of assessing child poverty in developing countries. This novel method (termed the Bristol Approach) resulted in the United Nations General Assembly's adoption, for the first time, of an international definition of child poverty (2006). It also underpinned UNICEFs Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities (2008-10), which was run in over 50 countries. In the last ten years, the CSPSJ's work has put child poverty at the centre of international social and public policy debates. Its researchers have advised governments and international agencies on devising anti-poverty strategies and programmes that specifically meet the needs of children, and have significantly influenced the way child poverty is studied around the world. The Centre has developed academic and professional training courses for organisations like UNICEF on the issues of children's rights and child-poverty. Our work has also spurred NGOs such as Save the Children to develop their own child-development indices, and so has had a direct and profound impact on the lives of poor children around the planet.

Submitting Institution

University of Bristol

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Sociology

The human impacts of fuel poverty - assisting those most in need

Summary of the impact

The UK has some of the highest levels of fuel poverty worldwide, with Northern Ireland being worst affected (Liddell, 2012). As a psychologist, Professor Liddell has helped transform the issue of fuel poverty from one concerned with housing to one that focuses on human impacts. Her research led to a greater focus on infants and children living in fuel poverty, a group hitherto largely excluded from the literature. She was also the first to analyse the mental health benefits of tackling fuel poverty, which are now integral to the rationale of all the UK's regional fuel poverty strategies. Finally, new methods for targeting resources to those in most need have been implemented as a direct result of her research on area-based tools.

Submitting Institution

University of Ulster

Unit of Assessment

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Summary Impact Type

Economic

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Economics: Applied Economics
Law and Legal Studies: Other Law and Legal Studies

Filter Impact Case Studies

Download Impact Case Studies