The goal of halving the proportion of people living in absolute poverty by 2015, represents a key milestone on the road towards the ultimate elimination of world poverty.
Since the OECD's Development Assistance Committee published its 'Shaping the 21st Century' strategy in 1996, the 2015 Goals have become an increasing focus for the development efforts of governments and aid agencies.
These International Development Goals were based on the outcomes of a series of UN Summits held in the 1990s, which addressed a range of issues directly affecting people in chronic poverty: the feminisation of poverty, reproductive health, social exclusion, children's education and nutrition, sustainable development.
Building on agreements reached at meetings such as the Earth Summit in 1992, the Cairo Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Conference on Women and the Social Summit, the goals provide a series of specific targets which are achievable - but which require concerted action.
Crucial ingredients in the mix required to attain the 2015 goals are:
- improved partnerships - between north and south, government and civil society
- increased and better targeted financial resources
- a better understanding of the nature of poverty and policies that can help to reduce it.
The Chronic Poverty Research Centre aims to play its part in poverty elimination in two ways.
- First, by contributing to the analysis of poverty and by identifying approaches to development policy which are effective. CPRC's long term perspective will help to ensure that recent increases in phenomena such as AIDS and displacement are addressed in a way that minimises the risk that families and communities affected will be condemned to poverty for generations.
- Second, by focusing in particular on persistent poverty and ensuring that development planning addresses the problems of even those who are most disadvantaged. Goals such as ensuring universal primary enrolment by 2015 cannot be achieved unless the needs of routinely excluded groups, such as disabled people and those in remote rural areas, are met.
CPRC hopes that this twin track approach will both contribute to the achievement of the International Development Goals, reaffirmed world leaders at the September 2000 Millennium Summit, whilst at the same time addressing the needs of those who are expected to remain in poverty even beyond 2015.
Read the July 2005 issue of CP Update on Making Chronic Poverty History (pdf file).
To find out more about the Millennium Development Goals, click on these links: