Last week, I was privileged to be invited by British Ambassador Pete Vowles to celebrate King Charles III's Birthday at the Ambassador's Residence in Harare. This marked the third time I had been invited to this prestigious diplomatic event (see here for my reflections on previous King's Birthday celebrations), for which I remain deeply grateful. …
Author: Blessing Gweshengwe
I am a Poverty Specialist who strongly believes in the possibility of ending poverty. Isn’t the world much better today than it was some centuries ago? Don’t we have countless people in our midst who were once poor? This suggests that ending poverty in the world is indeed possible! However, it will not be an easy task due to the multiple and complex challenges associated with this.
So, I'm committed to using my expertise to help find solutions to the challenges associated with ending poverty. I have proven experience in poverty conceptualisation, poverty analysis, poverty measurement, poverty eradication and the training of community development professionals, duties that I have undertaken and still perform with the sole aim of accelerating poverty eradication.
I have worked for governments, national and international NGOs, private companies and universities in Zimbabwe and Southeast Asian countries. I currently work for Bridge Carbon LLC UK , an award-winning global carbon project developer and social impact investor whose mission is to transform the lives of families in vulnerable communities worldwide, particularly in Africa, South Asia and Central America.
One Cannot Mindset One’s Way Out of Structural Poverty
As I shared earlier here, ‘Without a deep and nuanced understanding of poverty, we cannot eradicate it.’ In many ways, this echoes the perspective of Strive Masiyiwa, who reminds us that ‘You CAN solve that problem… if you invest in knowing it deeply.’ In my continued efforts to contribute to a deeper and more nuanced …
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Embedding Clean Cooking within the Societal Pursuit of a Good Life: A Path to High and Sustained Adoption
One afternoon in the early 1990s, a group of pupils at the primary school I attended performed a drama about the Tsotso (twigs) stove (an improved biomass cookstove) to raise awareness about clean cooking. The message was simple: the open fires or simple metal stoves used for cooking in our villages were harmful and contributing …
Advancing Poverty Eradication: Reflections and My Priorities for 2026
Fieldwork in Southeast Asia, 2016: Engaging with lived experiences A world free of poverty remains a distant aspiration, since we are off track to meet the “No Poverty” target by 2030. Does that mean, then, that we are losing the war on poverty? Certainly not. Ending poverty within our lifetime remains possible, as I shared …
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Child Poverty: The Global Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight
Reading the 2025 Child Poverty in Australia report, I found myself wondering: How often do we actually talk about children living in poverty? Certainly nowhere near as much as we should! Too often, in fact, children in poverty remain on the margins, both within academic research and in practice. Granted, there are studies on child …
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Empowering Youth, Building Nations: Reflections on Restless Development’s 40th Anniversary in Zimbabwe, hosted by the British Embassy in Harare
A couple of days ago, I had the privilege of attending Restless Development’s 40th anniversary celebration at the residence of the UK Ambassador to Zimbabwe. I am very grateful to Ambassador Pete Vowles and his incredible team for the multiple invitations that I have received to his residence. Each invitation offers me an opportunity to …
Poverty’s Stubborn Persistence, Clean Cooking and Climate Change: The 2025 Global Poverty Wake-Up Call that No One Can Afford to Ignore
Global poverty remains stubbornly persistent. The just-released 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report delivers a hard truth: the world is losing the war on poverty. In previous years, as I blogged earlier here, the number of people living in acute multidimensional poverty has hovered above 1 billion, and nothing much has changed today: 1.1 …
Carbon projects could indeed help end poverty, but only if they are rooted in the right poverty worldview
In my efforts to contribute to poverty eradication, I have heard stories of large sums of money being given to the poor and considerable support for livelihoods as a strategy for eradicating poverty. I have also witnessed significant investments in education, which is regarded as a key solution to poverty. I have observed, too, many …
Carbon Credits, Rural Gains: Zimbabwe’s New Path to Ending Poverty
As the urgency of the global climate crisis intensifies, carbon credits are emerging as one of the most promising market-driven solutions to climate change. However, behind every carbon credit lies a rural community, often in the Global South, where poverty is deeply entrenched. These communities not only provide a conducive environment for implementing carbon projects …
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Contributing to the Global Dialogue on Poverty: My SAGE Feature for the Second World Summit on Social Development, Doha 2025
Last month, I was commissioned by SAGE’s International Journal of Community and Social Development to write a special feature on ending global poverty. The article, now published and accessible here, is part of a Special Issue intended to inform and influence deliberations at the Second World Summit on Social Development, scheduled for November 2025 in …
Blessing Gweshengwe PhD 