As part of IER’s ESRC-funded Impact Accelerator NGO data fund, Puja Marwaha, CEO of Child’s Rights and You (CRY), India, will be talking about ‘Malnutrition: the Grave Reality in India that Can be Changed’ at a workshop on 7th March, 11am to 3pm. The event will be held in room B0.41 Social Sciences building, University of Warwick. A sandwich lunch will be provided.

The workshop aims to bring together people from academia and outside of academia working in the development sector towards improving the lives of children. It will engage in discussions focusing on issues such as malnutrition among children in India, childhood poverty, child labour, child marriage, education, and children’s rights.

For further details please contact Sudipa Sarkar (S.Sarakar.2@warwick.ac.uk) and for registration Lynne Marston (L.Marston@warwick.ac.uk) by 4th of March.

IER's Gaby Atfield, Peter Dickinson, Erika Kispeter and Sally Wright have assessed the employment policy pledges made by the UK's major parties, focusing especially on how the manifestos address poverty. The analysis is part of the Election Manifesto Poverty Audit, which is organised by the UK chapter of the international organisation Academics Stand Against Poverty. Find the full report here.

Two further reports have been published by Professor Anne Green, Paul Sissons (Coventry University) and Neil Lee (LSE) from an ESRC-funded project on Harnessing Growth Sectors for Poverty Reduction.

The first report on employment entry finds that there is potential for using a well-targeted, sector-focused approach to increase employment entry and help reduce poverty. Social care and the hospitality industry offer opportunities for sector-specific training programmes for people who find it difficult to access employment. But because these sectors are characterised by low pay policies need to promote career progression as well as job entry. The construction sector is also well placed to provide employment and training opportunities for local residents, and the government could encourage this through procurement and planning policies. There is also growing interest in the potential role of social enterprises in providing local jobs – especially with regard to repairs and maintenance of social housing. Sector-focused work experience is an important way of getting young people and unemployed adults skilled up for work.

The second report examines aspects of job quality. It finds that while job quality should be a critical issue for policymakers there is a lack of empirical evidence from approaches seeking to enhance job quality. Pay and job security are important elements of job quality, as are flexible employment practices that enable people to balance work and caring responsibilities. Trade unions can play an important role in improving job quality outcomes. Where there is evidence from sector-focused approaches to job quality these have sought to link changes in employment conditions with service improvements for employers; utilised procurement as an opportunity to shape job quality; or sought to encourage changes in business models as a precursor to improving job quality. There is a need to pilot and trial different approaches to improving job quality in different sectors and for different types of employment.

A study by Anne Green, Neil Lee (LSE) and Paul Sissons (Coventry University) demonstrates that the sector which an individual works in has a significant impact on their pay, but that the level of local demand for labour is also important. The report is an output from an ESRC-funded project on ‘Harnessing Growth Sectors for Poverty Reduction’. It highlights that low pay is a key feature of the accommodation/food services, residential care, wholesale/retail, and the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors. Three of these sectors (accommodation / food services, residential care, wholesale and retail) are likely to have the highest employment demand in the medium term. Hence policies are needed which focus on upgrading skills and developing career in order to help reduce low pay and in-work poverty. Find out more in the Growth Sectors report.

Professor Anne Green talks about the importance of in-work progression in a recent Manchester Policy Blog. Anne draws on evidence from her IER work to highlight the importance of employment initiatives to help people in-work move out of poverty. To conclude, Anne draws out a number of policy challenges for city-regions to consider.