Poverty blogs
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How Bus Rapid Transit can make housing affordable to low-income households
6 June 2018A paper in the latest issue of the journal Environment and Urbanization explores how affordable public transport – via a Bus Rapid Transit system – can make housing affordable for low-income groups. David Satterthwaite describes how a roll-out of this public transit could work in Mumbai
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If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise…
27 October 2017Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a magnet for tourists wanting to see gorillas in the wild, but surrounding communities don't get much revenue from the tourist trade. Dilys Roe describes a project that is helping local people who live close to the edge of the forest to develop products and activities that will attract visitors – and much-needed income
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Who can we trust to measure urban poverty?
13 June 2017International definitions of the poverty line don't take into the account the additional costs of living in cities. Sarah Colenbrander says the urban poor can help institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank develop accurate, local, definitions of urban poverty
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Action to protect nature and tackle poverty gathers momentum
2 November 2016An IIED workshop heard how new global agendas and advances in ways to measure the benefits of natural resources are reframing the debate on how to protect the environment while reducing poverty
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How serious are the SDGs about tackling inequality?
4 October 2016The international commitment to reducing inequality marks a welcome breakthrough. But without clearer targets for measuring progress, driving change to tackle rising inequality will be a challenge
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Can global funds be accountable at the local level?
9 August 2016Is it possible for global funds to be accountable to local communities – especially those whose needs the funds should address?
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Will the UK be left behind on sustainable development?
25 July 2016The global goals, which UN members signed up to last year, are for all countries, not just poor ones. How is the UK going to implement them?
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Five challenges for Least Developed Countries in the post-2015 era
28 June 2016Can the Least Developed Countries reimagine development? A meeting in London looked at the key issues
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Country progress on putting the sustainable development goals into action
23 June 2016The 21st Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP) meeting, held earlier this month by IIED and partners, focused on putting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into action
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A valuable learning experience
19 April 2016An intern looks at the lessons he has learnt during his internship with IIED
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Broadcasting to Bwindi
28 July 2015What happened when a project to get the message out on the need to balance conservation efforts with reducing poverty in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, took to the airwaves?
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Putting ourselves out of business – forward planning for the PEP
29 June 2015The 20th Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP) meeting focused on the opportunities for an integrated approach to development as embraced by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but recognised that key challenges still remain to make implementation a reality
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Taking an integrated approach to eliminating poverty and sustaining natural resources
28 May 2015As the UNDP-UNEP Poverty Environment Initiative celebrates its 10th anniversary in Edinburgh, guest blogger Michael Stanley-Jones explains how its integrated approach is key for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals
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How India's slum and pavement dwellers made sanitation affordable
5 April 2015In India, slum and pavement dwellers' organisations have designed and managed a programme of community toilets and washing facilities that are used by hundreds of thousands of households. Guest blogger Sheela Patel describes how this was achieved
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Stopping rural people going to cities only makes poverty less visible, and stripping migrants of rights makes it worse
18 March 2015There is growing concern that rural migrants transfer poverty to urban areas, but excluding them is not the solution. Ensuring full citizenship rights to all groups and proactive planning for urban growth are more effective ways to reduce disadvantage and poverty
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Why sanitation, spearhead of urban improvement in the 19th century, has become the laggard of the 21st
4 March 2015Drawing on a recently published paper in 'World Development', Gordon McGranahan considers why, given we seem to have the know-how, there are still so many people in cities without decent sanitation
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Facing up to the awkward realities of the post-2015 agenda
28 January 2015The post-2015 sustainable development agenda promises a better future – but only if some awkward realities are confronted
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Local democracy as a substitute for data (and rather a good substitute too)
16 January 2015Why is there so little data on who faces poverty and where they live? David Satterthwaite examines why 'better' data is better than 'more' data
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Ebola – what must we learn?
30 October 2014The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is launching an unprecedented appeal in response to the Ebola crisis, but what lessons must we learn if we are to effectively and equitably tackle future shocks of this scale?
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Q&A: Why the PCLG website is the place to be for poverty and conservation issues
9 October 2014The PCLG website is at the heart of the Poverty and Conservation Learning Group. It has been relaunched with a new look and updated content
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Piloting Social Assessment of Protected Areas: some initial reflections
23 September 2014With the global forum on protected areas, the World Parks Congress, just two months away, it's a good time to consider our experience with the Social Assessment of Protected Areas (SAPA) initiative
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LDC experts to share ideas on building productive capacity
25 July 2014How can Least Developed Countries (LDCs) progress so they are no longer held back by extreme poverty? A conference next week in Cotonou, Benin, will address this issue, bringing together ministers and experts from LDCs, along with UN representatives and development experts.
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If you want to go far, go together
24 June 2014How can urban development that reduces risk and boosts low-income residents' standard of living be supported? And how can community-led processes reduce poverty and build resilience? IIED staff and partners from Vietnam grappled with such questions last week in a workshop in Quy Nhon.
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The Multidimensional Poverty Index: Another underestimate of urban poverty
18 June 2014Yet another global study has understated the scale and depth of urban poverty, by failing to appreciate the differences between rural and urban contexts
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Namibia shows how to support low cost housing
13 June 2014Around a quarter of Namibians live in informal urban neighbourhoods; they live without secure tenure and without adequate access to services. So how has the country gained its reputation for progressive state action on housing?