Chronic Poverty Research Centre

CPRC is an international partnership of universities, research institutes and NGOs established in 2000 with initial funding from the UK's Department for International Development.

Well over a billion people - about a fifth of the world's population - live in absolute poverty. Current efforts by governments, multilateral agencies and many non-governmental organisations, aim to halve the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015.

But even if ambitious Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are met, population growth means that in a generation's time, Chronic Poverty will blight the lives of at least 900 million people.

For people living in marginal rural areas, the disabled, older people, child-headed 'households', displaced people and refugees, poverty is frequently carried from one generation to the next. Exclusion and social discrimination are persistent and often invisible to policy makers.

CPRC expects its research and analysis to result in policy relevant findings which will be useful to all those working to combat poverty. This will include people in community level organisations, government and official agencies, NGOs, political parties, other researchers, the media, trade unions and the private sector.

The people who should ultimately benefit from CPRC's research, are those whose deprivation is sustained over many years and who are least likely to benefit from current national and international development efforts.

• Read more on CPRC's 'three pillars' approach: thematic research, policy analysis and policy engagement....
• See a brief outline of what CPRC means by chronic poverty.
• See how CPRC contributes to the Millennium Development Goals.