"A landmark report ... a challenge to complacency"
Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaking at the launch of the Chonic Poverty 2004-05 report, May 2004. Photo courtesy of CPRC.

Aims:

• to help create a network of agencies willing to develop and disseminate effective approaches and strategies that work for the poorest
• to encourage collaboration to ensure that poorest are not omitted from the international agenda on poverty reduction and development assistance.

What we did:

• organised Making Development Work for the Poorest – an international seminar for donors and agencies to share perspectives, knowledge and experience on what can be done to enable the poorest to share in progress towards the MDGs.

Participants:

• the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, UK Secretary of State for International Development (UK), Professor MS Swaminathan, UNESCO Chair of Ecotechnology, Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Minister of International Develoment (Norway), Suma Chakrabarti, Permanent Secretary, DFID
• Andrew Shepherd, CPRC/ODI, Aasha Kapur Mehta, CPRC/Indian Institute of Public Administration, David Hulme, CPRC/IDPM, University of Manchester
• John Kruger, Chief Director, Social Services, National Goverment of South Africa, Binayak Sen, Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies/CPRC
• Ravi Kanbur, TH Lee Professor of World Affairs and Economics, Cornell University and Salil Shetty, Director, Millennium Campaign
• donor and agency representatives – see participant list and agenda.

Additional resources:

• summary of keynote points
• detailed workshop report
• discussion paper Hitting the target, missing the point
• notes on approaches to the poorest from France, ILO, Ireland, the Netherlands, OECD, UNAIDS, UN DESA, UNICEF and the World Bank.

Back to top

Aims:

• to promote national and international policies that lead to poverty eradication
• to create a collaborative project of participating NGOs, academics, aid agencies, and the OECD directorate.

What we did:

• established the Reality of Aid project in 1992
• produced nine annual Reality of Aid reports and two Reality Checks to analyse the impact of policies and actions of the international community – and of aid donors in particular – on the rights, needs and interests of people living in poverty.

Additional resources:

• see our Reality of Aid pages
• the Reality of Aid project became an independent intiative in 2002 – see their current activities at: www.realityofaid.org.

Back to top

Reality of Aid home

Aims:

• to raise awareness of the concept of chronic poverty
• to help build a constituency interested in effective strategies for poverty reduction.

What we did:

• helped promote and explain the concept of chronic poverty
• helped organise an inaugural workshop to present and provide input to CPRC's developing research agenda
• helped organise Staying Poor – a major international conference on chronic poverty
• wrote and produced five CPRC updates
• contributed to the writing and editing of the Chronic Poverty report 2004-2005
• managed the dissemination and distribution of the Chronic Poverty report
• organised and managed the launch of the Chronic Poverty report 2004–05 in the House of Commons, London, by the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer – this was held immediately after the Making Development Work for the Poorest seminar, helping to maximise the launch's impact.

Who participated in the chronic poverty meetings and what were they saying?

• Staying Poor, international conference 2003 keynote speakers (external link)
• Staying Poor, international conference 2003 conference papers (external link)
• agenda, speakers and speaker notes from the CPRC inaugural launch 2002 (PDFs)
• CPRC inaugural launch presentation (PDF) 2002.

What sort of materials did Development Initiatives produce/help produce?

• Chronic Poverty report, 2004–05
• Chronic Poverty updates
• Staying Poor, international conference 2003 summary (PDF)
• Staying Poor, international conference 2003 press release (PDF)
• 2004 paper on international policy engagement (PDF)
• CPRC international policy engagement tool kit (external link).

Additional resources, information and background papers:

• see our chronic poverty page
• www.chronicpoverty.org (external link)

Back to top