Poverty, inequality and growth

Definitions of Poverty

Both poverty and inequality are complex, multidimensional, and difficult to measure.

In recent years, definitions of poverty within mainstream development discourse have moved beyond a basic income definition. Poverty is now placed within a broad framework, not only including dimensions of income, health and education but also vulnerability, voicelessness and powerlessness.

The World Bank's Voices of the Poor based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries outlines a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty. These include: precarious livelihoods, excluded locations, physical limitations, gender relationships, problems in social relationships, lack of security, abuse by those in power, disempowering institutions, limited capabilities, and weak community organisations.

Measuring poverty is difficult, especially when the definition of poverty is so broad. However, measurements for absolute and relative poverty differ. The most commonly used definition of global poverty is the absolute income poverty line set by the World Bank. Poverty is set at an income of $2 a day or less, and extreme poverty is set at $1 a day or less for developing nations.  In relative terms, the European Union has decided that ’the poor shall be taken to mean persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural, social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the member state in which they live’ ( http://www.europemsi.org/)

You will find the following information on this page:

• DERN Outputs
• Reports
• Useful Websites
• International Commitments
• Books related to Poverty, Inequality and Growth 

DERN outputs

• View Su-ming Khoo's review of Raphael Kaplinsky's book: Globalisation, Poverty and Inequality. Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

Below is a list of useful reports and websites relating to the Poverty, Inequality and Growth.

Reports

• CIDSE - Caritas Internationalis Report: PRSP as Theatre - Backstage policy making and the future of the PRSP Approach 
• Human Development Report 1997 'Human Development to Eradicate Poverty'
• Ruggeri Laderchi, C., Saith, R.  and Stewart, F (2003) 'Does it matter that we do not agree on the definition of poverty? A comparison of four, approaches’ Working Paper No 107, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford,
• Trocaire: More than a Numbers Game? Ensuring that Milennium Development Goals Address Structural Injustices 
• Trocaire: Strenthening Participation for Policy Influence. Lessons Learned from Trocaire's PRS project 2002-2006 
• UNDP Millennium Development Goals Report 2007
• UNDP Human Development Report 2003: Millennium Development Goals, A Compact Among Nations to end Human Poverty
• UNDP Human Development Report 2005 International Cooperation at a Crossroads: Aid, trade and security in an unequal world

Websites 

NGOs/Non-Profit Organisations/Campaigns 

Irish Issues

• Combat Poverty Agency develops evidence-based proposals and measures to combat poverty in Ireland
• The Equality Authority works towards the elimination of discrimination in employment. They have numerous research and policy publications related to different aspects of employment discrimination.
• Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP) aims to promote the rights of the poorest members of society in Ireland 

International Issues 

• AfDevInfo is a commercial, not for profit enterprise committed to harnessing information to strengthen and improve government in Africa.
• Alliance 2015 is an NGO alliance who have a number of projects together, including 2015 Watch - measuring donor orientation towards the MDGs.
• ID21 communicates UK sourced research on international development. Their website provides numerous articles on development issues, including different aspects of poverty, inequality and growth. 
• OneWorld.net provides information on a number of topics related to poverty and inequality as well as analysising progress on the MDGs.
• The Bretton Woods Project seeks to influence the World Bank and IMF, and focuses specifically on environmental and social concerns.

Research Institutes and Think Tanks

• European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes. Aims to promote quality in research and education in development studies. Their website has information on upcoming events, the activities of their numerous working groups, links to publications and information on their research.
• The Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex, UK. The IDS is a global organisation for research, teaching and communications on international development.
• The Millennium Project is an independent think tank focusing on the MDGs and recommending the best strategies for achieving them.
• The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has numerous publications on environmental, economic and societal issues
• The Overseas Development Institute (ODI).  The ODI is a UK based independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues.

Multilateral Agencies

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) The IMF focuses on the global financial system but also provides technical asssistance to developing countries. The IMF, along with the World Bank, have been responsible for imposing Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) on developing countries to help them recover from the 1980s Debt Crisis. However, these policies have generally led to increased inequality and poverty.  
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) This is the UN's global development network, which aims to address global and national development challenges. The UNDP produces the annual Human Development Report which looks at key development issues.
• The World Bank provides financial and technical assistance to countries and initiated the much criticised  Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers which aim to reduce poverty in developing countries.
• World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER). WIDER provides an Income inequality database with a selection of articles related to issues of inequality.

Gateways

• Development Gateway This is an online resource providing information on development issues, including issues such as climate change in Africa.
• Eldis This site contains over 22,000 documents on a range of topics including Environment. It is one of many "knowledge services" from the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, UK.
• Sustainable Development Gateway This site provides over 1,200 documents on sustainable development topics, as well as a calendar of events, job listings, mailing lists and news sites dealing with sustainable development issues.

News sites

• ReliefWeb This is an online gateway to information on emergencies and disasters. It is administered by the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Their "Policies and Issues" section is an online library of reference materials covering humanitarian policies and development issues.
• Reuters
• BBC Report: World Bank Rediscovers Inequality

International Commitments

• United Nations Millennium Declaration
• Millennium Development Goals:
  Each of the 8 goals below address different aspects of poverty and inequality 

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDs, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

• Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness is an international agreement to ensure better harmonisation of aid.

Books related to Poverty, Inequality and Growth

Inequality

• Birdsall, N, Ross, D, Sabot, R (1995) ’Inequality and Growth reconsidered: lessons from East Asia’ The World Bank Economic Review, Vol 9, No 3, p 477-508
• Cole M.A and Neumayer, E. (2003) ’The pitfalls of convergence analysis:is the income gap really widening?’ Applied Economics Letters, May 17, Vol 10, No 6 pp 355-357 (3) Routledge
• Cornia, G.A (2003) ’Globalisation and the distribution of income between and within countries’ in Rethinking Development Economics edited by H.J. Chang, pp423-510
• Cornia, G. A (ed) (2004 ), Inequality, Growth and Poverty in an Era of Liberalisation and Globalisation, WIDER Studies in Development Economics, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Cramer, C (2003) ’Does Inequality Cause Conflict?’ Journal of International Development, Special Issue: Explaining Violent Conflict: Going Beyond Greed Versus Greivance Vol 15, No 4
• Jones, I (1997) ’On the Evolution of the World Income Distribution’ Journal of Economic Perspectives 11 (3) pp19-36
• Milanovic (2002) ’True World Income Distribution, 1998 and 1993: First Calculation based on household surveys alone’ The Economic Journal 112 (January) pp51-92
• Radetzki, M. Jonsson, B (2002) ’The Expanding Global Income Gap: How reliable is the Evidence?’ The European Journal of Development Research, June, Vol 14, No 1 pp244-263
• Sutcliffe, B. (2004) ’World Inequality and Globalisation’ Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol 20, No 1, P15-37 (23)
• Sutcliffe, B, (2001) 100 Ways of Seeing an Unequal World. London: Zed Books
• Wade, R (2003), ’The Rising Inequality of World Income Distribution’ in Seligson and Passe-Singh (ed) Development and Underdevelopment. The Political Economy of Global Inequality. Lynne Reinner Publishers
• Wade, R (2004), ’Is Globalisation Reducing Poverty and Inequality?’ World Development Vol 32, No 4, pp567-589

Poverty

• Allen, T and Thomas, A (eds) (2000)  Poverty and Development into the 21 ^st Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Cammack, P (2004) ’What the World Bank Means by Poverty Reduction and Why it Matters’ New Political Economy 9 (2) pp189-211
• Craig, D and Porter, D. (2003) ’Poverty Reduction Strategy PapersL A New Convergence’ World Development 31 (1) pp53-69
• Dagdeviren, H., van der Hoeven, R and Weeks, J (2002), Poverty Reduction with Growth and Redistribution’ Development and Change 33 (3) pp383-413
• Lipton, M (1977) Why Poor People Stay Poor. A Study of Urban Bias in World Development. London: Temple Smith
• Shorrocks, A and Rolf van der Hoeven (2004) Growth, Inequality and Poverty: Prospects for pro-poor economic development., UNUN/WIDR, Oxford: OUP
• Srinivasan, T.N (2000), ’Growth, Poverty Reduction and Inequality’, World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics June
• Stewart, F. and Wang, M. (2003) ’Do PRSPs Empower Poor Countries and Disempower the World Bank or is it the Other Way Round?’ Queen Elizabeth House Working Paper, University of Oxford.
• World Bank (2000) World Development Report , 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty, Washington DC

Growth

• Chang, H.J (2003) Rethinking Development Economics, London: Anthem Press
• Ravaillion, M and Datt, G (1999) ’When is growth pro-poor? Evidence from the diverse experiences of India’s States’, World Bank Policy Research Working Papers
• Thirlwall, A.P (1999) Growth and Development 7 ^th Edition, London: Macmillan

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