Most poverty is now to be found in Middle Income Countries and not in sub-Saharan Africa. This course examines how we conceptualize poverty and what role the private sector can play in reducing it, and what its limitations are. This is done against the background of two major upcoming international events involving the world’s major actors relating to development, namely 2015 by which time the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should be reached and the United Nation’s Earth Summit (Rio + 20) to be held in 2012.

The course begins with a discussion of how we define poverty and the political decision procedures behind defining what poverty is. It analyses present trends, and the present status in relation to the MDGs. It then takes up specific MDG themes and central issues – health, education, gender equality, environmental sustainability and global partnerships – relating each to the private sector. Particular attention will be paid to the goal of environmental sustainability (MDG 7/Rio+20) concentrating on the green economy, climate change, low carbon pro-poor growth, climate induced disasters and microinsurance, biodiversity loss and ecotourism. Emerging global partnerships are examined by looking at the activities of India, China and Brazil in Africa. The course includes examples from all continents and ends by looking towards the future. Issues include the global food crisis, the global economic crisis, Fair Trade and the Bottom of the Pyramid approach.

1. Poverty as lack of income versus the human development paradigm:

World Development Report 2000/2001, Attacking Poverty: Overview and Chapters 1 The Nature and Evolution of Poverty, and 2 Causes of Poverty and a Framework for action.

A.K. Sen (1999) Poverty as Capability Deprivation, Chapter 5, Development as Freedom, Oxford, OUP

1. Poverty trends: Most poverty is now in middle income countries, what are the implications?

Sumner A (2010) Global Poverty and the New Bottom Billion. What if Three- Quarters of the World’s Poor Live in Middle Income Countries? Working Paper 74 IDS.

Whose problem now? Awkward questions about how best to help the poor Measuring

global poverty, The Economist Sep 30th 2010

1. MDGs Status check: With 2015 just ahead what progress has been made?

MDG Report 2010 United Nations

Easterly W, (2008) How are the Millennium Development Goals Unfair to Africa? In World Development Vol. 37 Issue 1

Carr E (2008) The Millennium Village Project and African Development, Progress in Development Studies 8, 4 (2008) pp. 333–44

1. Income and nutrition:What effect has the global food crisis had?

Janvry de A and Sadoutet E (2010) The Global Food Crisis and Guatemala: What Crisis and for Whom? World Development Vol. 38 No9 pp 1328-1339

Can the Bottom of the Pyramid eliminate income poverty?

Prahalad C.K. and Hammond A (2003) Serving the Poor Profitably Harvard Business Review On Corporate Responsibility.

Tiwari M, ICT’s and Poverty Reduction: user perspective study of rural Madhya

Pradesh,India in The European Journal of Development Research Vol 20 No3

September 2008

1. Health and the private sector: Changes in China

Meng-Kin Lim, Hui Yang, Tuohong Zhang, Wen Feng and Zijun Zhou (2004)

Public Perceptions of Private Health Care in Socialist China

Gatkin (2005) How much would poor people gain from faster progress

towards the Millennium Development Goals for health?

Lancet2005; 365: 813–17

1. Gender and the private sector:What should be there? Can Fair Trade help?

Kabeer N (2005) Gender equality and women's empowerment:

a critical analysis of the third Millennium Development Goal

Gender and Development Vol. 13, No. 1, March 2005

Lyon S, Bezaury JA, Mutersbaugh T Gender equity in fairtrade–organic coffee producer

organizations: Cases from Mesoamerica, Geoforum
Volume 41, Issue 1, January 2010, Pages 93-103

1. Education and the private sector:What type of Education? What effect has the global economic crisis had?

Heyneman S (2010) Education and Development: A return to basic

Principles in Development 53(4), 518–521.

Nambissana GB (2010) The global economic crisis, poverty and education: a perspective

fromIndia Journal of Education Policy

1. Environmental sustainability, the green economy and the private sector: What’s wrong with the income and human development paradigms?

Ecological Footprint and Human Development, Ecological Footprint Atlas (2010)

Living Planet Index (2010)

Hammill et al. (2008) Microfinance and Climate Change Adaptation IDS Bulletin Volume

39 Number 4 September 2008

1. Biodiversity:poverty and ecotourism

Spenceley A and Goodwin H, (2007) Nature-Based Tourism and Poverty Alleviation: Impacts of Private Sector and Parastatal Enterprises In and Around Kruger National Park, South Africa, Current Issues in Tourism vol. 10 Nos. 2&3.

Kirkby CA, Giudice-Granados R, Day B, Turner K, Velarde-Andrade LM, et al. (2010) The

Market Triumph of Ecotourism: An Economic Investigation of the Private and Social

Benefits of Competing Land Uses in the Peruvian Amazon. PLoS ONE 5(9): e13015.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013015

1. Global partnerships: Chinese, Indian and Brazilian aid to Africa

Kragelund P (2010) The Potential Role of Non-Traditional Donar’s Aid in Africa

1. The Future

Sumner A and Tiwari M After 2015: International Development Policy at the Crossroads