The Last Mile In Ending Extreme Poverty

Viewed from a global scale, steady progress has been made in reducing extreme poverty—defined by the $1.25-a-day poverty line—over the past three decades. This success has sparked renewed enthusiasm about the possibility of eradicating extreme poverty within a generation. However, progress is expected to become more difficult, and slower, over time. This book will examine three central changes that need to be overcome in traveling the last mile: breaking cycles of conflict, supporting inclusive growth, and managing shocks and risks. By uncovering new evidence and identifying new ideas and solutions for spurring peace, jobs, and resilience in poor countries, The Last Mile in Ending Extreme Poverty will outline an agenda to inform poverty reduction strategies for governments, donors, charities, and foundations around the world. Contents Part I: Peace: Breaking the Cycle of Conflict External finance for state and peace building, Marcus Manuel and Alistair McKechnie, Overseas Development Institute Reforming international cooperation to improve the sustainability of peace, Bruce Jones, Brookings and New York University Bridging state and local communities through livelihood improvements, Ryutaro Murotani, JICA, and Yoichi Mine, JICA-RI and Doshisha University Postconflict trajectories and the potential for poverty reduction, Gary Milante, SIPRI Part II: Jobs: Supporting Inclusive Growth Structural change and Africa's poverty puzzle, John Page, Brookings Public goods for private jobs: lessons from the Pacific, Shane Evans, Michael Carnahan and Alice Steele, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government of Australia Strategies for inclusive development in agrarian Sub-Saharan countries, Akio Hosono, JICA-RI The role of agriculture in poverty reduction, John McArthur, Brookings, UN Foundation, and Fung Global Institute

Sustainable Development Goal 1, ending poverty in all its forms, everywhere, is the most ambitious goal set by the 2030 Agenda. This Goal includes eradicating extreme poverty in the next 12 years, which will require more focused actions in addition to broad-based interventions. The question is: How can we achieve target 1.1 and overcome the many challenges that lie ahead? By gaining a deeper understanding of poverty, and the characteristics of the extreme rural poor in particular, the right policies can be put in place to reach those most in need. This report presents the contribution that agriculture, food systems and the sustainable use of natural resources can make to securing the livelihoods of the millions of poor people who struggle in our world.

The global development community is teeming with different ideas and interventions to improve the lives of the world's poorest people. Whether these succeed in having a transformative impact depends not just on their individual brilliance but on whether they can be brought to a scale where they reach millions of poor people. Getting to Scale explores what it takes to expand the reach of development solutions beyond an individual village or pilot program so they serve poor people everywhere. Each chapter documents one or more contemporary case studies, which together provide a body of evidence on how scale can be pursued. The book suggests that the challenge of scaling up can be divided into two solutions: financing interventions at scale, and managing delivery to large numbers of beneficiaries. Neither governments, donors, charities, nor corporations are usually capable of overcoming these twin challenges alone, indicating that partnerships are key to success. Scaling up is mission critical if extreme poverty is to be vanquished in our lifetime. Getting to Scale provides an invaluable resource for development practitioners, analysts, and students on a topic that remains largely unexplored and poorly understood. Contributors: Tessa Bold (Goethe University, Frankfurt), Wolfgang Fengler (World Bank, Nairobi), David Gartner (Arizona State University), Shunichiro Honda (JICA Research Institute), Michael Joseph (Vodafone), Hiroshi Kato (JICA), Mwangi Kimenyi (Brookings), Michael Kubzansky (Monitor Inclusive Markets), Germano Mwabu (University of Nairobi), Jane Nelson (Harvard Kennedy School), Alice Ng'ang'a (Strathmore University, Nairobi), Justin Sandefur (Center for Global Development), Pauline Vaughan (consultant), Chris West (Shell Foundation)

This book focuses on the ethical demands of extreme poverty and develops a political theory of practical change. Welding together political realism and moral aspirations, it argues that a re-imagined form of development NGO can help the global North break free from the dominant and persistent charity paradigm and drift towards a justice-based understanding of extreme poverty. It offers an original explanation of why the charity paradigm persists and why the “justice not charity” messages from development NGOs have changed few minds. The author argues that anyone concerned with a paradigm shift from charity to justice need to radically rethink the problem of political communication: who should communicate what messages about extreme poverty in what ways? Based on a rational choice critique of the competitive development NGO sector, the author calls for sector-wide reform and the emergence of a new political agent – the Avant-garde NGO - which transcends the charity frame that NGOs currently find themselves locked in. Further, inspired by literary theory and social psychology, he offers a fresh account of how the Avant-garde NGO could, through reflective public engagement, induce attitude change and lead genuine social and political reform.

In September 2015, world leaders adopted a new post-2015 development agenda, centered on 17 Sustainable Development Goals intended to transform the world. This report provides basic information about the new agenda—its content, aspirations, and global partnership approach. It describes the complex challenges to the agenda’s effective implementation, including the multiplicity of participants, the growing diversity of financing, the need for better knowledge, and the persistence of state fragility. Throughout, the emphasis is on the importance of new thinking and new behavior that will shift the conversation from a focus on aid to a more comprehensive paradigm of development partnerships, recognizing the crucial need to integrate sustainable development in coherent efforts to preserve our planet and enhance the well-being of all its inhabitants. The author concludes the report with suggestions about priorities for implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This book addresses the changes in education practices, especially basic education, necessitated by the global challenges of climate change and sustainable development and in a context characterized by increasing poverty and inequality, migration and refugees. Written by a range of international scholars, scientists and grassroots practitioners from Africa, Latin America, Asia (India, China, Malaysia) and Europe, the individual contributions focus on education policies and child development in various social contexts. Case-based experiences from both developed and developing countries provide inspiration and shed new light on the fundamental changes needed to adapt existing school systems and teacher training to face the challenges of the future. In this regard, the need to empower children themselves is emphasized. All contributions are based on a Workshop hosted in November 2015 by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican entitled “Children and Sustainable Development: A Challenge for Education” and follow three other significant events on sustainable development in 2015, namely the publication of Laudato Si’, the Encyclical Letter from Pope Francis, the release of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the COP21 Conference in Paris.

Comprehensive and interdisciplinary, this collection explores the complex, and often problematic, ways in which the news media shapes perceptions of poverty. Editor Sandra L. Borden and a diverse collection of scholars and journalists question exactly how the news media can reinforce (or undermine) poverty and privilege. This book is divided into five parts that examine philosophical principles for reporting on poverty, the history and nature of poverty coverage, problematic representations of people experiencing poverty, poverty coverage as part of reporting on public policy and positive possibilities for poverty coverage. Each section provides an introduction to the topic, as well as a broad selection of essays illuminating key issues and a Q&A with a relevant journalist. Topics covered include news coverage of corporate philanthropy, structural bias in reporting, representations of the working poor, the moral demands of vulnerability and agency, community empowerment and citizen media. The book’s broad focus considers media and poverty at both the local and global levels with contributors from 16 countries. This is an ideal reference for students and scholars of media, communication and journalism who are studying topics involving the media and social justice, as well as journalists, activists and policy makers working in these areas.

We are in the midst of a global refugee crisis. Sixty five million people are fleeing for their lives. The choices are urgent, not just for them but for all of us. What can we possibly do to help? With compassion and clarity, David Miliband shows why we should care and how we can make a difference. He takes us from war zones in the Middle East to peaceful suburbs in America to explain the crisis and show what can be done, not just by governments with the power to change policy but by citizens with the urge to change lives. His innovative and practical call to action shows that the crisis need not overwhelm us. Miliband says this is a fight to uphold the best of human nature in the face of rhetoric and policy that humor the worst. He defends the international order built by western leaders out of the ashes of World War II, but says now is the time for reform. Describing his family story and drawing revealing lessons from his life in politics, David Miliband shows that if we fail refugees, then we betray our own history, values, and interests. The message is simple: rescue refugees and we rescue ourselves.

What Works in Development? brings together leading experts to address one of the most basic yet vexing issues in development: what do we really know about what works— and what doesn't—in fighting global poverty? The contributors, including many of the world's most respected economic development analysts, focus on the ongoing debate over which paths to development truly maximize results. Should we emphasize a big-picture approach—focusing on the role of institutions, macroeconomic policies, growth strategies, and other country-level factors? Or is a more grassroots approach the way to go, with the focus on particular microeconomic interventions such as conditional cash transfers, bed nets, and other microlevel improvements in service delivery on the ground? The book attempts to find a consensus on which approach is likely to be more effective. Contributors include Nana Ashraf (Harvard Business School), Abhijit Banerjee (MIT), Nancy Birdsall (Center for Global Development), Anne Case (Princeton University), Jessica Cohen (Brookings),William Easterly (NYU and Brookings),Alaka Halla (Innovations for Poverty Action), Ricardo Hausman (Harvard University), Simon Johnson (MIT), Peter Klenow (Stanford University), Michael Kremer (Harvard), Ross Levine (Brown University), Sendhil Mullainathan (Harvard), Ben Olken (MIT), Lant Pritchett (Harvard), Martin Ravallion (World Bank), Dani Rodrik (Harvard), Paul Romer (Stanford University), and DavidWeil (Brown).