Global Forum on Development: Innovative Approaches to Poverty Reduction, Social Cohesion and Progress in the Post-2015 World

The Global Forum on Development will be the first in a series of three forums to be held over the next three years focusing on “Preparing for the Post-2015 World”. These events provide a venue for high-level policy makers, academia, civil society and the private sector to exchange perspectives and explore challenges, opportunities and lessons learned about current poverty reduction policies and methods for fostering social cohesion and progress. Perhaps the most important insight about poverty in the last twenty years is that the vision in the UN Millennium Declaration - of creating an environment conducive to the elimination of poverty - is achievable. These global fora held from 2013 through 2015 will focus on what this means to all those working toward this vision. 

The global economic landscape has changed, and with it, the understanding of what development and poverty are all about. Economic growth in developing and emerging countries has improved lives of many poor people and led to the emergence of a middle class. Yet, many people who have escaped absolute poverty would still be counted as poor when based on different - relative and country specific – thresholds of poverty.  At the same time, income inequalities have been rising in many parts of the world, thus reducing the “pay-off” of economic growth in lowering absolute poverty. 

The emerging middle class is increasingly comparing itself to the living standards in the more affluent part of the world.  Many remain vulnerable, however, to a range of economic factors, such as unemployment, sickness and old age, that could move them back to destitution. There also are still large numbers of people in poverty in middle-income countries.  In light of the new economic world we live in, the 2013 Global Forum on Development (GFD) is designed to promote a better understanding of what the shifting dynamics of poverty mean for the poverty reduction policies to be pursued by governments, international organisations and others in the post-2015 world.

For more information about the Conference, please visit its website

For the programme

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The Wikiprogress Team