Focus on global poverty

This page will assist in disseminating helpful information, facts, publications, articles, research materials, web links and events relevant to better understanding and combating global poverty.

One Campaign launches Global Call to Action Against Poverty

USA is among many countries supporting the Global Call to Action against Poverty. Click for more details

Poverty in Millennium 2000

Extracts from Millenium Development Goals, World Bank, UNDP Poverty Report,

Poverty is and has been a human condition that has been with us since the beginning of time. Natural scarcities and calamities still account for its immediate cause, which in poor countries, is compounded by the absence of safety nets to protect vulnerable people living in marginal areas swept by natural disasters. But never in the history of mankind has poverty become an acute human condition as Millennium 2000 began.

People living in absolute poverty total 3 billion people, or half the world population. They live on less than US$2/day, and about 40% of these, or 1.2 billion, remain mired in "extreme consumption poverty" or the equivalent of living on less than US$1/day, an income level below which a family cannot survive, and over 900 million are women.

	map at left shows people living on less than $1 a day, (1984-2001) which, in the deep red areas represents 50% or more of the population from the UNDP report.

The rural poor live in remote areas that are often great distances from centers of commerce and social services provision. This contributes to difficulties in accessing market opportunities and health care as well as high levels of illiteracy. In the urban areas, 924 million people, or 31.6% of the world's urban population, live in slums, the majority in the cities of the developing world.

Some Causes of Poverty:

• Millions are displaced/dislocated economically and socially, because of civil wars or local conflicts caused by poorly managed transitions to democracy.
  
  
• Inequitable distribution of land and wealth from a rural or feudal social system, which with population growth, aggravates assets/wealth reduction per capita.
  
  
• Man-made policies compound the situation like inadequate or no access to micro-credit assistance, or adoption of new technology without regard to environment and traditional ways of life, and no insurance mechanism for livelihood security.
  

The information technology revolution that created a more inter-connected and inter-dependent world, a phenomenon commonly referred to as globalization, is generating new wealth and rapid technological improvements, but has largely marginalized 4/5 of humanity that must survive on only 20% of global production.

The trends in global policies lead to a rise in global interest rates and trade liberalization; a global decline in world market demand for agricultural and primary products, the poor man's source of income; terms of trade for agriculture that are unfavorable to low-income producers. All these make serious the economicdislocations /dispossessions on the poorest segments of the society, pushing a larger percentage below the poverty line. This accelerated globalization process of market-oriented economy added to the poverty population by the emergence of the "modern poor." World Bank, UNDP.

Some Helpful Web Links

www.developmentgateway.org	The Development Gateway
www.weingart.org	Weingart Center Association
www.icpr.org	Joint Center for Poverty Research
www.aworldconnected.org/category.php/44.html	Globalization and Povery

Recent Publications

David S. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich And Some So Poor, (New York: W.W. Norton, 1998). Andr* Gunder Frank, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). Martin W. Lewis and Karen E. Wigen, The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik, The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present, (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999). Sheldon Watts, Epidemics and History: Disease, Power, and Imperialism, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997).

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time Jeffrey D. Sachs New York, The Penguin Group, 2004 212-366-2814 or ashwini.ramaswamy@us.penguingroup.com

Earth Institute News posted 03/01/05

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
Jeffrey D. Sachs writes a realistic blueprint for worldwide economic success

"Extreme poverty can be ended, not in the time of our grandchildren, but our time." Thus forecasts Jeffrey D. Sachs, whose twenty-five years of experience observing the world from many vantage points has helped him shed light on the most vital issues facing our planet: the causes of poverty, the role of rich-country policies, and the very real possibilities for a poverty-free future.

Deemed "the most important economist in the world" by The New York Times Magazine and "the world's best-known economist" by Time magazine, Sachs brings his considerable expertise to bear in the landmark The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, his highly anticipated blueprint for world-wide economic success — a goal, he argues, we can reach in a mere twenty years.

Marrying vivid eyewitness storytelling with concrete analysis, Sachs provides a conceptual map of the world economy and the different categories into which countries fall, explaining why wealth and poverty have diverged and evolved as they have and why the poorest nations have been so markedly unable to escape the cruel vortex of poverty.

The End of Poverty does not deliver its worldviews from on high: Sachs plunges into the messy realities of economies, leading his readers through his work in Bolivia, Poland, Russia, India, China, and Africa, and concludes with an integrated set of solutions to the tangled economic, political, environmental, and social issues that most frequently hold societies back.

Writes singer Bono in the forward, "[Sachs] is an economist who can bring to life statistics that were, after all, lives in the first place. He can look up from the numbers and see faces through the spreadsheets." Rather than a sense of how daunting the world's problems are, Sachs provides an understanding of how solvable they are — and why making the effort is both our ethical duty and a self-interested strategic necessity.

Available for pre-order from Barnes & Noble
Available for pre-order from Amazon

TESTIMONIALS:

"...A landmark book...combines [Sachs'] practical experience with sharp professional analysis and clear exposition...If there is any one work to put extreme poverty back onto the global agenda, this is it." Publisher's Weekly starred review

"Sachs proposes a many pronged, needs-based attack...that is eminently practical and minimally pipe-dreamy...A solid, reasonable argument in which the dismal science offers a brightening prospect for the world's poor." — Kirkus reviews

"Jeffrey Sachs is that rare phenomenon: an academic economist famous for his theories about why some countries are poor and others rich, and also famous for his successful practical work in helping poor countries become richer. In this long-awaited, fascinating, clearly and movingly written book, he distills his experience to propose answers to the hard choices now facing the world." — Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Prize-Winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse

"Yes, Jeff Sachs is a dreamer, but one whose dreams flow not only from idealism but also from good analysis and impressive experience. If you care about development, and more importantly about poor people, in the developing world, this volume is a must." — President Ernesto Zedillo

"Professor Sachs has provided a compelling blueprint for eliminating extreme poverty from the world by 2025. Sachs' analysis and proposals are suffused with all the practical experience of his 20 years in the field—working in dozens of countries across the globe to foster economic development and well-being." — George Soros

"Poverty eradication is a feasible and realistic goal. The primary responsibility must lie with the people and governments of developing countries. This book of Professor Jeffrey Sachs provides a deep insight into the success achieved in this regard in many developing countries and provides useful lessons for all practitioners of policy making for poverty eradication and economic development. The insights are incisive and are placed in the larger global context of economic change and enable readers to convert these into effective policy instruments."  — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

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