How do we define poverty? Who is poor? Why? What should be done?
Ending poverty is a global priority. Sustainable Development Goal 1 calls for an end to poverty in all its forms everywhere. Over the past decade, the number of people living in extreme poverty has been reduced considerably, but it remains one of the world’s greatest challenges. What’s more, there is no consensus on what should be done.
As part of our commitment to informing robust, scholarly and policy-relevant debate, Policy Forum has launched this special section: Poverty In Focus. We hope you find the contents both illuminating and thought-provoking, and invite you to join the conversation.
Professor Sharon Bessell
Editor, Poverty In Focus section
Government and governance | Australia
The link between homelessness and poverty is well known, but evidence of its relationship over time is only just emerging. As it is deeply entrenched in disadvantage and housing insecurity, responses to homelessness must be re-thought and scaled-up, James O’Donnell writes.
6 minute read
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Government and governance | Australia
The ability to manage a period hygienically and safely is crucial, and our policies are beginning to reflect this. However, an approach to end the shame associated with menstruation has to be the next step, Dani Barrington writes.
7 minute read
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Economics and finance | Australia
Poverty is a chronic lack of access to resources, but one of the most valuable and irreplaceable of those resources is a person’s time, Lyndall Strazdins and Amelia Yazidjoglou write.
6 minute read
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Government and governance | Australia
New research reveals that many young Australians are living without basic items that they value. A child-focused framework that acknowledges young people’s agency is a way forward on poverty, Anne Hampshire writes.
5 minute read
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Economics and finance | Australia
Poverty is perhaps the world’s largest policy issue, affecting billions of people every day. For Anti-Poverty Week 2019, we’re focusing on what policymakers can do about it. Getting us underway, Sharon Bessell outlines poverty’s different aspects, linking a better understanding of poverty to the potential for greater action.
8 minute read
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Evidence has shown for a long time that the best way out of poverty is to increase incomes and access to resources. So why hasn’t policy responded? Gill Main writes about a ground-breaking study from the UK that aims to help policymakers hear the real story.
6 minute read
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Vietnam is facing a number of environmental pitfalls and policy hurdles on its path towards a sustainable energy sector, Frauke Urban, Giuseppina Siciliano, Linda Wallbott, Markus Lederer and Anh Nguyen Dang write.
5 minute read
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Government and governance | Australia
Australia will only reduce its national suicide toll if policymakers are held to account on poverty, education, bullying, and Indigenous disadvantage, Gerry Georgatos writes.
7 minute read
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If we can’t get our poverty measurements right, then we have no chance of getting our policy responses right either, Sharon Bessell writes.
6 minute read
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If the world is to have any chance of eradicating poverty by 2030, it has to understand it first. This week on Policy Forum Pod, we hear from two leading figures working on the front line of measuring and addressing the problem.
