Abstract
During the last two decades the concept of social capital is being actively popularized by scholars, namely economists, sociologists, political scientists and policy makers. The notion is seen as an important factor explaining the development level of the nations, the wealth of individuals and households and welfare of communities. Some scholars have even found that social capital matters more for household welfare than human capital.
The objective of the brown bag seminar and related note is to empirically show that associational relationships, social norms and cohesion are important in partly explaining the poverty status of individuals. To achieve that objective we will discuss the importance and recent attention paid to the concept of social capital, cover some of the definitions and measurements of the concept and explain the mechanisms through which social capital can affect welfare and thereafter poverty.
Our discussion will therefore turn to the macro and micro evidence. The micro evidence is drawn from a background paper on the relationship between social capital and poverty in Senegal. We make use of the 2005 Senegalese Household Survey to construct an index of social capital and show that it is correlated with the economic situation of the households.
The presentation will also highlight the role of capacity building in the debate on the importance of social capital in Africa before drawing some lessons.
