Best Practices in Poverty Reduction

Preface 1. A Methodological Approach to "Best Practices" - Else Oyen -Best practices and evaluation -Best practices as a process -Replicability and transfer -Vested interests in best practices -Who should be the judges of a best practice? -Best practices as a limited poverty reducing measure -What is a best practice for poverty reduction? 2. Enabling Environments and Effective Anti-Poverty Programmes - Anuradha Joshi and Mick Moore -Introduction -Predictability in theoretical context -The centrality of the implementation stage -The conceptual framework -Credibility and concordant collective action -Programme stability, formal entitlement and discordant collective action -Predictability and contemporary policy 3. Best Practices: Scepticism and Hope - S. M. Miller -Why "best practices?" -The questions -Transferability -Case studies -Peer mentoring -Alcoholics anonymous -The message 4. Some Methodological Issues in Determining Good Practices in Social Policy - Santosh Mehrotra -The criteria for choice of high-achieving countries -The content of the longitudinal studies -The optimal context for a good practice -Reflections on replicability of good practices -Can the historical approach be replicated? 5. Best Practices in Poverty Reduction in Argentina: Toward the Identification of a Selection Method - Alberto Cimadamore, Erika Vidal, Fabiana Wertheim and Michel Fultot -Introduction -The search for a selection method -Results of the expert panel -Evaluation matrix for poverty reduction practices -The final selection of two best practices -Conclusions Annex: Best Practices as Found on the Internet - Joachim Hvoslef Kruger -A general search for the BP -Who is who? The visual rhetoric of the BP-databases -Knowledge-tools: Uniformity or diversity? -BP programmes, databases, awards and linking resources -General knowledge initiatives and IK networks -IK organisations and databases -Appendix