Emily Aoki Coleman, "An Evaluation of Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives Implemented by Alcoa, Votorantim, and Vale as a Means to Aid in Poverty Alleviation in the Brazilian Regions These Mining Companies Operate", demonstrates how the policy sciences framework can be usefully applied to identify the limitations of standard appraisal functions with respect to the poverty-alleviation impacts of these huge mining companies. It demonstrates that in the hands of an undergraduate—albeit a very, very bright one—the framework can be applied to very good effect.

Sabina Alkire, "Multidimensional Poverty Measures as Relevant Policy Tools" does a good job of recounting the evolution of thinking with respect to recognizing that "poverty"--perhaps better put as "deprivation"--has dimensions beyond income and wealth. Her work (provided in highly detailed technical publications) makes some strides in broadening the definition of poverty to encompass other values, though not as broadly as the policy sciences framework would permit. It also suffers from a weakness that a policy scientist would recognize: her use in ranking different countries using the same weights across countries violates the contextuality principle—educational poverty is of greater or lesser importance for people of different countries, etc. Nevertheless, her initiatives open up a fruitful way of trying to incorporate value deprivation assessments in anti-poverty policy analysis.

Commentary: This article highlights two key policy sciences principles. First, the significance of context in the World Bank's program designs, with various examples illustrating its importance. Second, the decision framework is used to show how contextual analysis can be incorporated.

Commentary: This article uses the policy sciences' decision functions to identify issues in implementing and defending poverty alleviation policies. It demonstrates how a systematic examination of intelligence, promotion, etc., can address challenges in strengthening poverty alleviation efforts.