The positive relationship between human capital and income/wages has been supported by empirical research. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) enormously emphasize on human capital for curbing poverty. The economic development in East Asian countries is also linked with investment in education for the development of human capital. This study is designed to investigate the relationship of different levels of education and experience upon urban poverty at medium sized city in Pakistan such as Sargodha. A survey-based analysis was carried out on a sample of 330 households. Poverty status of the individual is defined by using adjusted official poverty line. Results show that education and experience is negatively related with the poverty status of individuals and this fact sustains even in separate gender estimates as well. This implies education of poor is necessary in breaking the vicious circle of poverty. Combined effort by public, private, community participation and NGO's with special focus on elementary (Primary and middle) education is suggested for reducing poverty by increasing the productivity of the poor through education.

In our predominant and cash-strapped agrarian sector, adequate credit provision is a definite buttress to implant technological advancements, achieve technical efficiency and hire efficient inputs to uplift agriculture output/income collectively and eradicate poverty eventually. In the midst of beleaguered informal credit sector and recent spurt in banking services in last decade diverted the attention to envisage the formal sector's optimum potential. In this backdrop, this study is going to explore the role of institutional credit in agricultural production using the time series data for the period of 1972 to 2008. Cobb-Douglas production function is estimated using OLS and all the variables are transformed to per cultivated hectare. Results show that agricultural credit, availability of water, cropping intensity and agricultural labor force are positively significantly related to agricultural production.

Background Immunization hesitancy is a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services. If people are not engaged appropriately via communication and social mobilization, doubts about the trade-offs between the benefits and potential side effects persist. The objective of this study was to explore strategies for improved social mobilization to reduce immunization hesitancy.Methods Mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches was applied to collect data from a diverse group of respondents in Sargodha and Khushab districts. Quantitative data were collected from 329 community health workers, including vaccinators, lady health workers and lady health supervisors, and school health and nutrition supervisors. In addition, qualitative data were collected from top management of Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) through key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with parents. Analysis has been done using SPSS software and detailed transcriptions. ResultsAdvocacy meetings with local influencers, community group sessions, door-to-door visits by community health workers and mosque announcements are considered the most relevant and appropriate interventions for social mobilization. Community Health Workers (CHWs), cognizant of local culture, are being trusted, though optimum performance is achievable with adequate redressal of hesitancy concerns. However, in some cases negative attitudes of people towards immunization hinder trust towards mobilizers or CHWs. Hence, they leverage active participation of local influencers, teachers and health department officials to convince such stubborn parents. Active community involvement through leveraging support from local religious and non-religious influencers in social mobilization activities increases its acceptance. Community engagement is most effective in rural and hard-to-reach areas when community health workers are skilled in interpersonal communication and information education communication.Conclusions Communication committees as oversight mechanism should be established or reactivated to regularly monitor and support mobilization activities through managing affairs like speedy liaison with local administration and local influencers, mobilizers' service related concerns, community-specific hurdles, and deficiencies of awareness-material provision that eventually improves mobilization performance. Resistant community' s needs can be redressed through rigorous conduct of men' s and women' s education sessions by CHWs while giving more time and space to mobilizers to take on board local religious and non-religious influencers to convince conservative/illiterate parents. Higher management should fix policy implementation slippages like training needs assessment of mobilizers and Civil Society Organizations' involvement framework.

This study explores the financial costs, time involved in migration and benefits at household level. A household survey has been conducted to investigate about characteristics of migrants, transaction costs and sources of financing by which overseas migration is financed. Results of PSM technique explored that overseas migration conveys worthwhile benefits as measured by their total expenditures, food expenditures, non-food expenditures, clothing expenditures, expenditures on pots and pans, expenditures on vehicles and saving levels. Establishment of technical training institutions, creation of micro-finance institutions and enhancing their functioning as well as sensitization about 'Pakistan Remittance Initiative' would be some of the policy options in order to tackle with the problem.

Poverty is a universal reality, and no one can deny the omnipresence of it all over the world. It is considered as the most harmful economic and social problem of human beings since their creation. It affects individuals as well as society as a whole in a very destructive way, and it is considered that poverty is the mother of all human rights violations. Perhaps no one would argue against the notion that microfinance can be a very useful apparatus in human, social, economic, political and national development. Microfinance has been established to fill the gap of a missing credit market for the poor. Among all other anti-poverty strategies, it has become one of the most important and successful tools for poverty elimination throughout the world. In this study, we investigate the impact of microfinance on poverty alleviation for the economy of Pakistan. The literacy is very poor for the area of Pakistan, so our research will help policy makers in making the right decisions in order to help the people that are living below the poverty line. Primary data of 300 households from Khushhali Microfinance Bank Limited were collected. The findings reveal that microfinance imparts a vital role in poverty eradication where the poverty level has decreased from 42.67% in comparison household (CHH) to 29.33% in the program household (PHH). Finally, it unveils the fact that there is a negative association between the provision of microfinance and poverty level of the household. The availability of micro financing facilities to the poor has declined the poverty rate from 42.67 percent to 29.33 percent. The Logistic Regression model implies that poverty has a negative association with the duration of microfinance, education and existence of a market in the locality, whereas it is positively related to family size and gender of the respondent.