C. Moser 1 Key Socio-economic and Political Issues: Getting Assets Right in Macro Social Analysis Caroline Moser Visiting Fellow Brookings Institution Conference on Making Macro Social Analysis Work for Policy Dialogue World Bank Social Development Department Washington DC May

C. Moser 2 Background: Why are assets important?  Objective: To identify the importance of understanding individual, household and collective asset accumulation in macro social analysis  Recognition of the importance of institutions in CSAs  But where do institutions ‘fit’ in terms of assets  Widely referenced but multiple meanings?  CSA have huge agendas.  Need to identify relevance in terms of poverty reduction strategies  Workshop opportunity – work in process on asset accumulation policy  Current research project on intergenerational asset accumulation and poverty reduction in Guayaquil, Ecuador  Assets / livelihoods review presented at Arusha

C. Moser 3 Structure of presentation  Why are assets important?  To identify the importance of understanding individual, household and collective asset accumulation in macro social analysis  Assets or livelihoods?  To distinguish among livelihood, social protection and asset accumulation strategies  Can micro data contribute to understanding macro processes?  To show how micro-level studies can assist in moving from static poverty ‘snapshots’ to identifying longitudinal asset accumulation processes  The assets-opportunities-institutions nexus: what questions to answer?  To explore the data needed to identify the broader institutions and opportunities that facilitate or constrain asset accumulation  Do we need to distinguish between first and second generation asset accumulation contexts?  To recognize the data implications of different asset accumulation contexts

C. Moser 4 Assets or livelihoods: concepts?  What is an asset?  A stock of financial, human, natural or social resources that can be acquired, developed, improved and transferred across generations. It generates flows or consumption, as well as additional stock (Ford 2004)  Assets are not simply resources that people use to build livelihoods: they give them the capabilities to be and act (Bebbington 1999)  Commonalities in asset-related concepts  Roots in poverty alleviation / reduction debates of 1990s  Influenced by work of Sen, Chambers and others on entitlements, assets and capabilities risk and vulnerability  Consensus around a number of concepts particularly capital assets  Physical, financial, human, social and natural capital

C. Moser 5 Sustainable livelihoods, social protection or asset accumulation: Is it useful to distinguish among different asset-related frameworks?  Common concepts but differences in emphasis between frameworks  Implications for focus of data collection, institutions and policy recommendations  1. Sustainable livelihoods  Livelihoods comprise the capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of living with a range of assets needed to achieve positive outcomes (Carney 1998)  2. Social protection  Public interventions to assist individuals, households and communities in better managing risks..by preventing, mitigating and coping with risks and shocks’ (World Bank 2000; Holtzmann and Jorgensen 1999)  3. Asset accumulation  Specifically concerned with assets, and long-term sustainable accumulation strategies. Closely linked to capabilities and power, with managing risk relating to proactively identifying and investing in opportunities.

C. Moser 6 Summary of policy approaches Policy ApproachObjectives Social protection Provision of protection for the poor and vulnerable against negative risks and shocks that erode assets Sustainable livelihoods approach Sustaining activities required for a means of living Asset accumulation policy Creation of positive opportunities for asset creation

Can micro data contribute to understanding macro processes? Asset building over time in Guayaquil Ecuador

C. Moser 8 The contribution of micro data: Research results on the accumulation of capital assets  Physical Assets: Housing  Housing consolidation is a priority in the first stages of settlement  There was greater consolidation between than from   Human capital: Education  Parents make trade-offs between their own consumption and their children’s education  Gender and human capital: Girls are better educated than sons; but both are better educated than their parents  Community and household level social capital:  Community social capital essential for contestation with the state for physical and social infrastructure: once consolidated and community-based services cancelled this declined  Household social capital increased between with increasing reliance on extended family support and migration remittances  Intergenerational asset transfers  Children benefit from their parent’s physical asset accumulation: More than half still live on the family plot  Children have far higher expectations than their parents in terms of consumer durables: meet the need by credit (86%); selling drugs; house and street robbery and public transport attacks

C. Moser 9 Strategies Opportunities Assets Institutions Framework for Asset Accumulation Asset-institutions-opportunities nexus

C. Moser 10 The assets – opportunities – institutions nexus What questions do we need to ask?  To explore the data needed to identify the broader institutions and opportunities that facilitate or constrain asset accumulation : This provides the rationale identification of:  Institutions  The law, norms and regulatory frameworks that block, provide access or facilitate asset accumulation. Mediating structures include:  State, private sector, civil society, households  Opportunities  The formal and informal context / enabling environment within which actors operate  Life cycle, macro-political, macro-economic environment  Strategies  The means by which social actors transform asset endowed into accumulated assets  Process is determined by individual and collective agency

C. Moser 11 Do we need to distinguish between first and second generation asset accumulation contexts? To recognize the data implications of different asset accumulation contexts and associated institutions First’ generation policy  Provision of social and economic infrastructure essential for accumulation of assets such as: human capital (health and education) Physical capital (housing) Financial capital (Productive durables)  Assumption: once provided wellbeing improves and development occurs  BUT: Does not necessarily create conditions for further asset accumulation

C. Moser 12 Second generation asset accumulation  Moves beyond traditional sectors and institutions  Incorporates both new opportunities and risks  Globalization, global warming and natural disasters, conflict and ‘fragile’ states, accelerated urbanization, inequality, violence  Incorporates citizenship as basis for turning rights into assets  Recognition that assets are not static  Constant revalorization and renegotiation over value of assets influenced by:  Changing macro-economic and spatial environment  Incorporation of international migration  Transnational asset accumulation opportunities associated with remittances  Changing state structures:  Insecurity associated with fragile, conflict and post –disaster contexts  Changing household and individual aspirations  Impacts of increasing alienation, exclusion and inequality

C. Moser 13 Second generation asset accumulation policy Designed to strengthen accumulated assets and ensure their further consolidation rather than erosion Citizen rights and accountable institutions  Strengthening social justice through accountable legal systems  Empowering communities to access and contest asset-based rights  Labor rights Gender-based rights of working women  Pre-school education  Adequate childcare facilities Human security and development  Incorporating human security into productive asset building Financial institutions  Access and insurance: to ensure financial capital further accumulates