The Chronic Poverty Report 2014-2015: The road to zero extreme poverty

With the debate on the post-2015 development framework in full swing, the third international Chronic Poverty Report addresses one key question: what needs to be done to get to (or close to) zero extreme poverty by 2030 – the new goal for global poverty reduction?

The report is the first produced by the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN), the successor to the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), which produced the first two Chronic Poverty Reports. Drawing on ten years of research by the CPRC and others, and on recent policy guides from CPAN, it presents new analysis of what it takes to sustain escapes from poverty; of countries that have succeeded in tackling chronic poverty; and new projections of poverty in 2030.

It presents a tripartite challenge to the world: to get close to zero extreme poverty countries need to tackle chronic poverty, stop impoverishment and ensure that those who manage to escape from poverty sustain their escapes (the poverty ‘tripod’). It also raises the spectre that there may remain a billion people living in extreme poverty in 2030 unless existing policies are implemented robustly and new policies and political commitments are up and running by 2020.

The bulk of the report focuses on the policies needed to get to zero. While there are many such policies, any country could and should be able to generate a selection of the key policies that will work with the national grain, and the report offers a device – the impoverishment index – to help countries determine the priorities that will carry their citizens out of poverty.