“Marginality and extreme poverty – towards inclusive development for and with the poor”
is the topic that experts from research, business and non-profit organizations will work on during an upcoming international conference at ZEF in Bonn from June 20-22.
With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation, the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn has taken the lead in this initiative, whose overall goal is to find solutions for one of today’s most urgent global concerns: How to combat extreme poverty and to include marginalized people more effectively in development.
„The poorest of the poor have been left behind”, says ZEF Director Joachim von Braun. “The unique feature of this conference is that development practitioners, scientists and social entrepreneurs will identify together opportunities for action and supportive research for and with the marginalized poor. By exchanging and evaluating best practice experiences we aim to set up a research-for-action agenda for including the marginalized poor in more effective ways”.
Global efforts to reduce poverty have shown significant effect on a global scale since the Millennium Development Goals have been declared and set into action in 2000: The number of people living on less than 1$ a day and suffering from hunger worldwide has decreased from 29% in 1990 to 18% in 2004. However, the extreme poor, who live on less than 0.5 $ per day, are mostly excluded from this progress. Millions of people, especially in Sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia are currently being marginalized.
Non-governmental organizations work since long on the problem. New initiatives by the private sector with social business initiatives and “shared value – approaches” offer new opportunities. Now unusual partnerships among development agencies, business and NGOs shall be explored at the conference and their impacts be tested on the ground. Such partners at the conference come, among others, from Bangladesh, India, China, Ethiopia, and Germany.
Further information:
» Interviews with participants of the conference
» Pressemitteilung vom 20.06.2011 (deutsch)
