Poverty and Inequality in Middle Income Countries: Policy Achievements, Political Obstacles

by Einar Braathen (Editor), Julian May (Editor), Gemma Wright (Editor)

Overview

The past several decades have seen dramatic changes in global poverty—the most important of which has been a shift that has seen nearly three-quarters of the world’s poor living not in the most impoverished areas of the world, but in middle income nations. This relatively rapid transformation has forced a rethinking of anti-poverty strategies, as many of the long-established frameworks for such policies no longer apply to this altered situation.

This book gathers experts in anti-poverty work to answer many of the key questions that now face development policy. With contributions covering Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and analyzing poverty and inequality on global, national, and local scales, the book provides poverty researchers and policy makers with valuable new tools for assessing and addressing poverty as it actually exists in today’s world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783605576
Publisher:	Zed Books
Publication date:	04/15/2016
Series:	Zed Books - International Studies in Poverty
Pages:	213
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Einar Braathen is a senior researcher in international studies at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research. Julian May is director of the Institute for Social Development and chairperson of the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Gemma Wright is a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Social Policy in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford and the deputy director of the Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy. 

Table of Contents

Figures and tables
Acknowledgements

Introduction: poverty and politics in middle income countries
Einar Braathen, Julian May, Marianne S. Ulriksen and Gemma Wright

1. Policy-relevant measurement of poverty in low, middle and high income countries
David Gordon and Shailen Nandy

2. Poverty, inequality, racism and human rights in Mexico and Latin America
Camilo Pérez-Bustillo

3. South Africa, the OECD and BRICS
Tor Halvorsen

4. Universalizing health coverage in emerging economies 
Amrit Kaur Virk

5. The politics of inequality in Botswana and South Africa
Marianne S. Ulriksen

6. Democratization, disempowerment and poverty in Nigeria
Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba

7. Urban poverty and inequality in Rio deJaneiro, Cape Town and Durban
Einar Braathen, David Jordhus-Lier, Berit Aasen and Catherine Sutherland

8. Adults who live on the streets of Buenos Aires
Martín Boy

9. Grassroots politics and social movement mobilizations for development on Brazil
Abdulrazak Karriem 

10. Land-alienation-infused poverty in India
Sony Pellissery

11. The politics of hunger deaths in Odisha (India)
Rajakishor Mahana

About the editors and contributors 
Index

Editorial Reviews

This timely and important collection of essays breaths fresh air into the debate about what it means to be poor in today’s world, and what can be done to end poverty.

Tony Addison

The excellent group of papers in this volume throw much needed light upon the politics of poverty reduction in middle-income countries. They deserve a wide readership.

A David Williams

A welcome addition to the literature on poverty. In focusing on domestic actors and politics, the essays in this volume help to shed light on the social drivers of poverty and available instruments for effective poverty reduction. A must read for scholars, activists, and policymakers interested in the problem of poverty and poverty reduction.

William D Armaline

This volume is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the causes of, and solutions to, poverty and inequality in the global South. Comparative and interdisciplinary in approach, it provides a comprehensive and critical analysis and is a timely addition to the literature on these issues.

Kathleen S Farber