Date of Award

Fall 2025

Language

English

Embargo Period

12-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

School of Social Welfare

Program

Social Welfare

First Advisor

Dr. Loretta Pyles

Second Advisor

Dr. Cheng Ren

Third Advisor

Dr. Tara Nair

Keywords

Poverty, Financial Inclusion, Microfinance, Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, Mutual Solidarity Organizations, Canonical Correlational Analysis, Social Welfare, International Development, Haiti

Subject Categories

Civic and Community Engagement | Other Economics | Social Justice | Social Work

Abstract

Scholars, policymakers, changemakers, and social workers have attempted to define, understand, and eradicate poverty. Its endurance raises the prospect that these efforts may be incomplete or faulty. This thesis will probe this concern by examining poverty and poverty alleviation programs through the lens of a holistic intervention-based framework known as the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF). The first paper introduces the SLF and uses it to undertake a conceptual analysis comparing demand and supply driven poverty alleviation interventions that are based on financial inclusion. Next it uses the SLF as a methodological tool to compare financial inclusion programs, as operationalized by solidarity-based organizations in Haiti. Understanding poverty in Haiti requires examination of the country’s history, geography, and apparatus of state institutions in the context of neoliberal, post-colonial globalization. In this complex landscape, solidarity-based organizations, which center lived experiences, collaboration, and collective agency of impacted people, have led poverty alleviation interventions. The second (qualitative) and third (quantitative) paper of this thesis investigates people’s experiences with financial institutions, what they perceive as critical elements that support their well-being, how different types of institutions and processes serve those elements, and how these efforts impact poverty and well-being. These questions have broad conceptual and practical implications for social and economic development practice, which faces many challenges that are the direct or indirect consequences of poverty.

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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