The Politics of Poverty Research and Poverty Reduction

PANEL DEBATE: Growing poor population in Middle Income Countries necessitates a re-thinking of poverty reduction policies, how these are developed, the role played by politics and how social development policies are shaped.

We wish to extend an invitation to a public panel discussion jointly hosted by the University of the Western Cape and the University of Bergen supported by the Southern African/Nordic Centre (SANORD) and the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD) in the Office of the President. This event is a joint collaboration between the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), Institute for Social Development (ISD) and CROP.

According to the latest World Bank estimates (29 Feb 2012) there is a visible “decline in both the poverty rate and the number of poor in all six regions of the developing world”. While these figures might bring some hope, two thirds of those who are poor are living in Middle Income Countries. 

The session will be formally opened by Chesepo Mphaisha, Director of School of Government

Chair: Julian May, Director of Institute for Social Development.

Panelists:
Andries du Toit, Director of PLAAS: Trained in political theory and qualitative and anthropological approaches to social science research, he has done extensive research on the political economy of structural poverty and racialised inequality in a range of South African contexts.
Einar Braathen, Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Urban and Regional Research (NIBR): Has conducted research in South-East Africa, Latin America and Norway on decentralisation, local politics, administration, local democracy, poverty, social exclusion, conflict and post conflict, politics and government, civil society and social capital.
Camilo Pérez-Bustillo, Research Professor of the Graduate Programme in Human Rights and the Faculty of Law, Autonomous University of Mexico City (UACM) since April 2006, and was from 1993 to 2002 Research Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM).
Chifa Tekeya was until recently the co-ordinator of UNESCO Programme on Poverty and Human Rights. Her research interests are gender, human rights and poverty reduction and she has worked in the Middle East and West Africa.