Deepa Narayan, in “The Dynamics of Poverty,” reminds us that poverty
is not only a multidimensional, but a dynamic phenomenon. She
discusses how people fall into it, and move out of poverty. The
study she highlights shows that, across 500 communities studied,
close to half the population is moving up or down, often with the
same people falling and rising at different times, and that the
reasons for moving out of poverty and for falling into it are
different. She also discusses several policy implications to her
findings.
In “The Changing State of Global Poverty,” Laurence Chandy and
Geoffrey Gertz discuss new trends on global poverty. They provide
estimates of global poverty, and compare rates of progress over
time. Most importantly, they point out that the global poverty
landscape is quickly being redrawn. Between 2005 and 2015, Asia’s
share of global poverty is expected to fall from two-thirds to one-
third, while Africa’s share more than doubles from 28% to 60%.
With the graduation of some of the world’s biggest developing
countries into middle income-country (MICs) status, poverty is no
longer concentrated in low-income countries (LICs), the largest
number of poor people are in in the wealthier MICs. In LICs, they
discuss the fact that poverty is becoming increasingly concentrated
in fragile and conflict-afflicted states. Finally, they discuss how these
trends affect organizations committed to improving the wellbeing
of children across the developing world.
Caroline Harper, Hanna Alder and Paola Pereznieto, in “Escaping
Poverty Traps – Children and Chronic Poverty,” discuss the importance of
chronic poverty to development, what the drivers of chronic
poverty are, how children are disproportionately affected, and how
chronic poverty, in particular children's chronic poverty, can be
addressed. They provide key policy recommendations to tackling
the issue.