Armed with an undergraduate degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a Master's degree from the esteemed Institute of Development Studies of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, it was clear to me that pursuing a PhD on poverty in an Asian context would be immensely valuable in my journey to becoming a …
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Poverty in Australia: My Observations from the 2024 Australian Poverty Report
Photo credit: Youth Off The Streets Australia In February 2024, the Australian Parliament published a report entitled "The Extent and Nature of Poverty in Australia". This report sheds light on the levels, realities, drivers and impacts of poverty within the country and provides, among other things, recommendations for poverty eradication. The Parliament’s efforts are commendable, …
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10 (Sure) Ways of Losing the War on Poverty
Photo Credit: Commonwealth Foundation In January 1964, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty, intent on achieving a ‘total victory’ or completely ending poverty in the country. Although the United States is well known for this declaration of war on poverty, it is not the only country that has done so. In …
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The story behind our poverty scholarly article with 60 000+ views/reads
In May 2020, Dr Noor Hasharina Hassan (my doctoral supervisor) and I published a scholarly article on the characteristics or underlying qualities of poverty (available on open access here), adapted from the literature review of my PhD thesis. The article has garnered over 60 000 views or reads and has been cited 88 times. It …
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Why is COP28 crucial not only for tackling climate change but also for poverty eradication?
Photo Credit: FINANCIAL Fortune It is undeniable that the world is facing unprecedented and devastating extreme weather events, such as catastrophic cyclones and relentlessly high temperatures, as reported here and here. 2023 has been the deadliest year on record, marked as it was by extreme weather events that have wreaked havoc: thousands of lives have …
Can the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) help Southeast Asian countries to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 1?
Recently, I had the incredible opportunity to contribute a chapter to a book on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (hereafter, RCEP) and development in the ASEAN region, published by Bentham Science Publishers. This book project was spearheaded by the esteemed Institute of Policy Studies at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam. The RCEP is the largest and …
What will the future of poverty eradication look like?
Global poverty is on the rise, as I have shared here. Between 2020 and 2023, 165 million people fell into poverty. The achievement of the ‘No Poverty’ aspiration is at risk, as highlighted here, here and here. The 2030 deadline may well be missed, and we may only hope to achieve a world without poverty …
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What is the level of poverty in the wealthy state of Brunei Darussalam?
Brunei Darussalam has a laudable ambition of Zero Poverty by 2035, set in 2008, long before the United Nations even thought of eliminating global poverty through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. During my PhD fieldwork, I was often asked, in reference to Brunei’s Zero Poverty aspiration, whether a country could ever eliminate poverty within …
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What does the 2023 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report reveal about global poverty?
In 2022, as I shared here, the world had over 1 billion people living in multidimensional poverty. As 2030 - the deadline for eliminating all forms of poverty - draws closer, how close are we to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1? Having read the 2023 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report, found here, I learnt …
Is it too late to achieve UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO CLEAN COOKING by 2030?
As Bill Gates Notes reported here, it is unlikely that the world will achieve any of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This is cause for concern as we strive towards a better world post-2030. A few days after the Bill Gates Notes forecast, the World Bank and Partners released the 2023 Tracking SDG7: The …
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Blessing Gweshengwe PhD 