Assault On Poverty

Assault on Poverty: Basic Human Needs, Science, and Technology

Rural development; Agricultural credit; Land reform; Education; Health.

Does science and technology (S & T) truly have a part to play in meeting basic human needs? Can S & T help the world's communities secure adequate nutrition, health care, water, sanitary facilities, and access to education and information? The role of science and technology in development is certainly one of the most complex and delicate issues facing policymakers and development practitioners today. In An Assault on Poverty, the Panel on Technology for Basic Needs of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development offers analyses of poverty eradication and the role of S & T.

Examines the economic underworld of migrant farm workers, the aged, minority groups, and other economically underprivileged groups.

In Assault on Rural Poverty, Haileleul Getahun analyzes the various causes of rural poverty and constraints impeding increased agricultural productivity during the last four decades in Ethiopia, under three different regimes. Getahun examines the feudalistic system under Emperor Haile Selassie, the command economic system of the military junta led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, and the current capitalist system of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia led by Meles Zenawi. Getahun discusses the lessons drawn from Ethiopian experience during these three regimes, as well as from other African and Asian countries. These provide the basis for recommending a small farmer-led agricultural and rural development strategy that, if implemented, would alleviate rural poverty in Ethiopia. The author maintains that the keys for successful development are the provision of institutional savings and credit for small-scale farmers and small business owners; the deep involvement of the community in project planning, implementation, evaluation and sharing of the benefits; and the use of development support communication for motivation, information dissemination, and training. Getahun argues strongly that ethnic politics in Ethiopia are destructive to Ethiopian society and militates against sustainable development. Rather, the path to peace and sustainable development requires that ethnic politics be scrapped and replaced by a genuinely democratic and widely acceptable system of governance.

Former Brookings Senior Fellow Susan E. Rice spearheads an investigation of the connections between poverty and fragile states and the implications for American security. Coedited by Rice and former Brookings colleagues Corinne Graff and Carlos Pascual, Confronting Poverty is a timely reminder that alleviating global poverty and shoring up weak states are not only humanitarian and economic imperatives, but key components of a more balanced and sustainable U.S. national security strategy. Rice elucidates the relationship between poverty, state weakness, and transnational security threats, and Graff and Pascual offer policy recommendations. The book's overarching conclusions highlight the need to invest in poverty alleviation and capacity building in weak states in order to break the vicious cycle of poverty, fragility, and transnational threats. Confronting Poverty grows out of a project on global poverty and U.S. national security that Rice directed at Brookings from 2002 through January 2009, before she became U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations.