ADAPTED · Eradicating Poverty: Pathways towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Eradicating Poverty: Pathways towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Reducing absolute poverty and ending extreme poverty are at the forefront of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the Member States of the EU, together with all other members of the UN, have agreed to work towards by 2030. Since 1990, almost all developing countries have made considerable progress in reducing their population shares living below the poverty line. However, this progress was less dynamic in the 49 countries in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), where in 2019 out of a total population of 1.12 bn people 393 million still lived in absolute poverty. As poverty is a root cause for spreading instability and conflict the high numbers of the poor on its neighbouring continent is of special concern for the EU and the EU member states. There is some consensus in the literature that progress in poverty reduction can be attributed to economic growth, the implementation of social protection schemes and minimum wages, and governance conditions that affect a country's performance in reducing poverty. However, a review of the literature shows that academic debates on the determinants of poverty reduction take place in disciplinary silos, that modelling and empirical analysis replicate approaches that work for high- income economies but ignore structural differences between high-income and developing countries, and that there is a large gap in understanding the determinants of poverty reduction. ADAPTED broke the existing silos and delivered high-level training with intersectoral relevance • in validating pathways towards poverty eradication (work package 1), • in analysing interactions between poverty reduction and other policy areas (work package 2), • and in optimising the impact of poverty reduction policies (work package 2) to Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) to bridge the existing knowledge gap by equipping them with a unique skills portfolio that is equally attractive for research institutions, development organisations and internationally active firms. Through its research and training activities, ADAPTED contributed to answering the following research questions (1) How effective are different growth- and social protection-oriented policies in improving poverty- related outcomes, given the large heterogeneity of low- and middle-income countries and the differences in the target groups that these policies can reach? (2) What are the poverty-related trade-offs and co-benefits within different growth- and social protection-oriented policy frameworks, and between them and other policies, and what recommendations can be derived for a pro-poor policy mix? (3) What are mechanisms to enhance the relevance and quality of social protection schemes, to improve the coordination of fragmented social policies and to support the design and implementation of pro-poor policies in neo-patrimonial environments? The research work of ADAPTED has shown that mainstream models, all of them written to describe growth and development in high-income countries, failed to describe the persisting differences in the conditions of production and consumption that are characterising developing countries. ADAPTED has presented such descriptions, and it has brought about empirical evidence at different levels of investigation that economic growth does not mean a continuous increase in productivity and income that is beneficial for all, including the poor, but that, in developing countries, growth is driven by structural transformation of the workforce, is not inclusive and leaves the poor behind. This finding implies that, in middle- and low-income countries, pro-poor policies may have a much more important role in poverty reduction than previous literature has suggested. With focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, ADAPTED has studied the preconditions of implementing pro-poor policies, has analysed the interactions between poverty reduction and other policy areas, has identified resulting governance challenges, co-benefits and trade-offs, and has investigated the impact that different policy approaches have on poverty.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз