Development’s current focus – poverty reduction and good governance – signals a turn away from the older neoliberal preoccupation with structural adjustment, privatization and downsizing the state. For some, the new emphases on empowering and securing the poor through basic service delivery, local partnership, decentralization and institution building constitute a decisive break with the past and a whole set of new development possibilities beyond neoliberalism. Taking a wider historical perspective, this book charts the emergence of poverty reduction and governance at the centre of development. It shows that the Poverty Reduction paradigm does indeed mark a shift in the wider liberal project that has underpinned development: precisely what is new, and what this means for how the poor are governed, are described here in detail. This book provides a compelling history of development doctrine and practice, and in particular offers the first comprehensive account of the last twenty years, and development’s shift towards a new political economy of institution building, decentralized governance and local partnerships. The story is illustrated with extensive case studies from first hand experience in Vietnam, Uganda, Pakistan and New Zealand.

This report sets out the main findings and recommendations of the 6th session of the UN Committee for Development Policy, held in New York in March 2004. The report focuses on three issues: resources mobilisation and measures to promote an enabling environment for poverty eradication in relation to the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the decade 2001-2010; how to evaluate progress towards good governance in the context of the Millennium Development Goals; and matters related to the Committee's triennial review of the list of least developed countries.

Poverty reduction has become a key international development priority in recent years. This publication examines some of the most important current conceptual frameworks and initiatives related to poverty reduction and identifies approaches taken by major international and bilateral organisations. It goes on to explore the conceptual dimensions of poverty and local governance, and the comparative advantages of decentralised governance in tackling poverty. It argues that greater involvement of local populations in decision-making processes may contribute to significant poverty reduction.

After almost two decades of independence from the Soviet regime, Ukraine - a young European state, inceptive democracy - turns out in a deep political, economic and social crisis. The inherited 'bad governance' with its widespread poverty and ubiquitous corruption have led to overall dissatisfaction with politics and political mistrust. The massive protests of 2001-2004 have finally resulted in an outburst of the Orange Revolution in fall 2004. The renewed political elites with a new vision of Ukrainian breakthrough, refreshed state structures, inspired citizenry and NGO's were expected to bring about a powerful change in political institutions, forums and organizations. Put differently, the Revolution was supposed to bring in an international organizational concept of 'good governance' into Ukrainian policy making. This paper examines Ukrainian governance and its implications on poverty alleviation within the post-revolutionary period (2005-2008). The research dwells on the three revolutionary lines of good governance in the Ukrainian nation: accountability, transparency and the rule of law. It is carried out by means of documentary analysis of the post-revolutionary legislation.

The motivation of this research paper is to shed light upon the political economy factors that determine the quality of governance for poverty alleviation policies. This issue is a crucial one because although remarkable strides have been made in some parts of the world, more than 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 a day. The situation begs the important question: Why have poverty alleviation efforts by developing countries not achieved the momentum necessary to improve the living standards of poor? An important reason why growth with significant redistribution has not occurred in many developing countries is that poverty reduction strategies have often been politically naive. The literature spawned by major development institutions until the 1980s did not go beyond policy prescriptions to ask under what political conditions redistributive policies could be successfully adopted. This is a relevant issue because policies reflect concrete political and social interests and it is not hard to imagine a situation where poverty-alleviating reform is hindered by vested interests. The aim of this research paper is to shed light upon the factors determining quality of governance, because poor governance is but a manifestation of these deep-rooted institutional and political biases against the collective interests of the poor.

This book published for the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex presents the findings of a team of researchers based in the UK, Uganda and Nigeria. It sets out to examine the processes by which policies for poverty reduction are made and implemented, and assesses to what extent policies provide for positive change in the lives of poor people. The project advocates a policy process that is radically different from the traditional linear model; one that departs from structural adjustment exigencies of external conditionality to one in which actors, knowledge and policy spaces interact in policy making. Strategies are generated and owned locally and the poor are understood as active participants in their own development. The book argues that if political systems and the policy processes through which they are enacted are to be democratised, then so should the knowledge base that feeds those policy processes. This means working by a deliberative process not only to produce knowledge, but also to incorporate knowledge of different kinds; differentiating between respective roles and powers of discourse, and reconstituting the prevailing cultures of legitimacy and representation. Although based on evidence from Uganda and Nigeria, the book is conceived to have application to the struggle against poverty more widely.

Uganda's National Resistance Movement (NRM) government has used credit as one of the policy strategies to reduce poverty levels. This study examines the effectiveness of that policy. It traces the ascendance to power of NRM in 1986, when the country was in crisis, devastated by years of political turmoil and economic mismanagement; and illustrates how the NRM, with the assistance of the World Bank and the IMF, embarked on a multi-pronged strategy to reconstruct the economy and improve living conditions. Issues explored are the extent to which the sweeping reforms impacted on the welfare of the rural poor; the extent to which credit programmes have economically empowered the rural poor; and further examines whether credit initiatives created economic sustainability for the beneficiaries. Dr. William Muhumuza is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Makerere University. He specialises in the study of political economy with a focus on rural development and good governance.