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. …
Tag: Poverty Eradication
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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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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Nature-based Solutions: A transformative pathway to ending poverty
As I was exploring the potential focus for my MA thesis, I had the opportunity to consult with Professor Robert Chambers to discuss my ideas and get his insights on them. What was foremost on my mind was the issue of seasonal poverty or seasonality, prompted by Robert Chamber's work on the topic, the discussions …
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Now that the COP29 dust has settled, a silo approach to tackling climate change and poverty will not effectively address either challenge
Photo credit: IIED As I write this blog, Cyclone Chido is calming down in Zimbabwe, my home country, after causing significant destruction of houses, infrastructure and livelihoods, as well as injuries and tragic loss of life in Mayotte, Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi, as reported here, here, here and here. The cyclone comes on the heels …
Blessing Gweshengwe PhD 