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Politics and Poverty
Poverty and politics are inextricably linked. In the coming months, The Broker will host an online debate about the thorny questions that surround the issue of politicization of poverty. The starting point for the discussion is an article by Kees Koonings (University of Utrecht), entitled Bringing Politics into Poverty: The Political Dimensions of Poverty Alleviation. The Broker wishes to contribute to evidence-based policy making by relating innovative research in the areas of development and globalization to ongoing policy discussions. To launch the debate, The Broker has invited scholars, policy makers and practitioners from NGOs and the World Bank to participate. We have already received positive responses from many individuals in Scandinavia, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, the UK and the US.
This is an interesting article and I very much welcome an additional voice to the proposition that development is political. The current aid effectiveness mantra is unfortunately reinforcing the idea th... Read more >>
Brian Pratt agrees that politics have been largely omitted from the international poverty agenda. But he suggests that Koonings could have been even more critical. For instance on the impact of PRSP and... Read more >>
Marco Zupi shares much of Koonings’ criticism on current concepts of poverty that fail to include ‘the political’. In adding to the discussion, he highlights the ongoing interaction between different po... Read more >>
Agreeing that politics are an intrinsic part of poverty issues, Nadia Molenaers takes the analysis by Koonings a step further. She asks: what are the opportunities the new aid approach offers in terms o... Read more >>
Solveig Buhl asks: do we really need new concepts of poverty to include the political dimension? Or do we need more commitment on the part of major stakeholders and more practical tools (like PIA)? And... Read more >>
Juhani Koponen doubts that politics has ever been absent from poverty alleviation. The real task is to recognise its pervasiveness and to understand the many ways in which politics impact on poverty. He... Read more >>
Deberre agrees that complex realities on the ground require an approach to poverty that takes account of political factors. This, however, raises challenging questions about legitimacy, ownership and so... Read more >>
Poverty has a political dimension - that is our starting point, says Nils Boesen. What we are short on is not an awareness of this, but the practical tools and approaches that could help deal with the m... Read more >>
Jean-Luc Dubois welcomes Koonings’ pragmatic reintroduction of the political dimension to questions of development. Adding politics implies that key issues of inequity, social exclusion and human insecu... Read more >>
Voorbraak and Ndegwa confirm that understanding how ‘politics tick’ is essential for better development outcomes. Koonings’ arguments in this respect are valid not only for bilateral cooperation. The Wo... Read more >>
