The Geography of Poverty

Poverty’s geographical distribution across the world is of critical importance in determining the focus of many countries’ development assistance, including the United Kingdom. The geography of poverty is not though uncontested and within questions on where the poorest live, and will live, there are also lines of inquiry on how to determine who is poor and whether to rely on strictly income-related poverty measures (and if so which set of data) or more varied indicators. This evening debate will provide differing perspectives on the geography of poverty and the policy and research implications of these.

For some the focus of international development assistance should be the poorest in the poorest countries, for others it should be where there is the greatest concentration of the poor which could mean middle-income countries, whilst others would focus on fragile and conflict-affected states, or the urbanisation of poverty, and there are more ways to cut this cloth too. What is clear is that the changing geography of poverty, and for that matter growth, inequality and wealth, are affecting our understanding of international development, local agency, and global norms just as the United Nations is aiming to end extreme poverty by 2030.

The Chair for the evening debate will be Professor Sir Ian Diamond FBA FRSE, Principal of the University of Aberdeen with the following speakers:

• Professor Stefan Dercon, Chief Economist, Department for International Development
• Professor Diana Mitlin, Professor of Global Urbanism, University of Manchester
• Professor Frances Stewart, Professor Emeritus in Development Economics, University of Oxford
• Dr Kevin Watkins, Executive Director, Overseas Development Institute

To Register

To attend the debate please register with Philip Lewis, International Policy Adviser, at p.lewis@britac.ac.uk