Conferences
Global Poverty Summit.
Johannesburg, South Africa, 16-19 January 2011
BWPI hosted the inaugural Global Poverty Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, between 16 and 19 January 2011. The Summit took place at the recently renovated Turbine Hall in Newtown, an area in the heart of Johannesburg that reflects a wider global dynamic of wealth sitting alongside enduring poverty and absolute destitution.
The Summit was the culmination of 18 months work to design, develop and stage a global event, and the product of a partnership forged with the Rory and Elizabeth Brooks Foundation (which supported the event), the Ralph Bunche Institute, The City University of New York Graduate Center, CUTS International and Southern Africa Trust. It was designed to bring together some of the best minds working on all aspects of poverty, its study, and its alleviation.
The topic for the inaugural Summit was the role of global institutions in poverty reduction. Its primary focus was the convening of two high-level task forces designed to influence the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Agenda (DDA).
These task forces produced two major international declarations - the Johannesburg Statement on the Millennium Development Goals (PDF 317KB) and the Johannesburg Statement on the Doha Development Agenda (PDF 319KB) - and two high-level reports (on the MDGs and the DDA, respectively).
The Summit also shared and disseminated knowledge beyond the task forces through: (i) site visits in and around the Johannesburg region; (ii) a day of public debate; and (iii) a series
of events designed to bring together local and global policymakers, practitioners,
philanthropists, NGOs and activists .
The Summit attracted a great deal of interest among scholars and practitioners. Attendees included a number of current and former Permanent Representatives to the World Trade Organisation, senior UN officials, academics, representatives of international NGOs, etc.
The Summit also saw the launch of a web portal. This is designed to house the output from the Summits, as well as videocasts of the events, information points, message boards and, in the near future, a means of enabling off-site participation in the Summits.
Discussions are under way to design and secure funding for the 2012 Summit around the topic of conflict and poverty. The aim for 2012 is to refine the concept further, build upon the partnerships established, and take the conversation forward through greater involvement in the physical and virtual aspects of the Summit.
Ten Years of War against Poverty: What have we learned since 2000? What should we do 2010-2020?
University of Manchester, 8-10 September 2010
From 8-10 Sep 2010, the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) marked ten years of poverty research with an international conference hosted by the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI) at the University of Manchester. This event brought together leading poverty researchers and actors for poverty reduction to: (1) review the ‘state of the art’ in poverty reduction; (2) showcase CPRC’s key research findings on chronic poverty; (3) set the research and policy agenda on poverty research for the next ten years (2010-2020).
The conference took place two weeks before the UN General Assembly convened to review progress towards achieving the MDGs.
Keynote speakers at the conference included: Prof Fazle Abed (BRAC); Prof Angus Deaton (Princeton University); Prof Ravi Kanbur (Cornell University); Prof Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University and University of Manchester); and Prof Michael Woolcock (The World Bank and University of Manchester).
The conference was funded by the CPRC, the Brooks World Poverty Institute and DFID.
For details of the programme and download papers and presentations, visit the conference website.
Please see the events archive for details of previous conferences.