Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics

PUBLICATION: The new UNRISD report seeks to explain why people are poor and why inequalities exist, as well as what can be done to rectify these injustices. CROP is assisting UNRISD and NORAD with the launch of the report in Norway.

The report argues that many current approaches to reducing poverty and inequality fail to consider key institutional, policy and political dimensions that may be both causes of poverty and inequality, and obstacles to their reduction.Moreover, when a substantial proportion of a country's population is poor, it makes little sense to detach poverty from the dynamics of development. For countries that have been successful in increasing the well-being of the majority of their populations over relatively short periods of time, the report shows, progress has occurred principally through state-directed strategies that combine economic development objectives with active social policies and forms of politics that elevate the interests of the poor in public policy.

The report is structured around three main issues, which, it argues, are the critical elements of a sustainable and inclusive development strategy:
-patterns of growth and structural change (whether in the agricultural, industrial or service sectors) that generate and sustain jobs that are adequately remunerated and accessible to all, regardless of income or class status, gender, ethnicity or location;
-comprehensive social policies that are grounded in universal rights and that are supportive of structural change, social cohesion and democratic politics; and
-protection of civic rights, activism and political arrangements that ensure states are responsive to the needs of citizens and the poor have influence in how policies are made.

The report seeks to explain why people are poor and why inequalities exist, as well as what can be done to rectify these injustices. It explores the causes, dynamics and persistence of poverty; examines what works and what has gone wrong in international policy thinking and practice; and lays out a range of policies and institutional measures that countries can adopt to alleviate poverty.

Place and time: NORAD, Oslo, 13:00-14:30, November 25.

The report can be read in full at the UNRISD website