The Social Capital in Rural Poverty Alleviation

The paper aims to review the literature on social capital and the role of social capital in addressing poverty issues. The literature showed that social capital enhance public welfare and increase access to resources outside the community and hence reduce the poverty level. The dimension of social capital namely trust, social networks, social norms, and activities of the association are believed to be an important aspect of economic success. Networking, communications and information as a dimension of social capital are a bonding relationship that triggers to improve access to resources outside the community. Various studies found that households who actively participate in decision making and in local organization seem to be of higher social status. This social capital is inversely proportional to the poverty level; the higher the degree of social capital, the lower the levels of poverty and vice versa.