The Chronic
Poverty Research Centre
(CPRC) is an international
partnership of universities, research institutes and
NGOs that exists to:
-
Focus attention on chronic poverty
-
Stimulate national and international
debate
-
Deepen understanding of the causes of
chronic poverty
-
Provide research, analysis and policy
guidance that will contribute to its reduction.
CPRC was established in 2000 with initial
funding from the United Kingdom's
Department for International
Development
(DFID). CPRC is also
supported by USAID's PASSN Team.
CPRC's Agenda
Well over a billion people - about a fifth of
the world's population - live in absolute poverty.
Current efforts by governments, multilateral agencies
and
many non-governmental organisations, aim to
halve the proportion of people living in poverty by
2015.
But even if ambitious International
Development Targets are met, population growth means
that in a generation's time, Chronic Poverty will blight
the lives of at least 900 million people.
For people living in marginal rural areas,
the disabled, older people, child-headed 'households',
displaced people and refugees, poverty is frequently
carried from one generation to the next. Exclusion and
social discrimination are persistent and often invisible
to policy makers.
CPRC expects its research and analysis to
result in policy relevant findings which will be useful
to all those working to combat poverty. This will
include people in community level organisations,
government and official agencies, NGOs, political
parties, other researchers, the media, trade unions and
the private sector.
The people who should ultimately benefit from
CPRC's research, are those whose deprivation is
sustained over many years and who are least likely to
benefit from current national and international
development efforts.
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