Fourteen Human rights, transnational corporations and the World Bank
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Peter Townsend
Abstract
This chapter examines the influential role of the World Bank over the last 50 years in shaping approaches to poverty, and concludes that a major problem has been its avoidance of the obligation to adopt a core scientific measure of the phenomenon to facilitate comparison and the identification of the population groups who experience poverty in the worst forms. Another, related, problem has been avoidance of the obligation, accepted at the 1995 Copenhagen World Summit on Social Development, to monitor existing and newly introduced policies and measure their exact effects on the extent and severity of poverty. This applies to the components of the Bank’s anti-poverty policies during recent decades. Structural action by the key institutional players – the transnational corporations and the governments of the most powerful nations, such as the G8 – working collaboratively as well as within existing and newly introduced international law, is an unknown factor.
Abstract
This chapter examines the influential role of the World Bank over the last 50 years in shaping approaches to poverty, and concludes that a major problem has been its avoidance of the obligation to adopt a core scientific measure of the phenomenon to facilitate comparison and the identification of the population groups who experience poverty in the worst forms. Another, related, problem has been avoidance of the obligation, accepted at the 1995 Copenhagen World Summit on Social Development, to monitor existing and newly introduced policies and measure their exact effects on the extent and severity of poverty. This applies to the components of the Bank’s anti-poverty policies during recent decades. Structural action by the key institutional players – the transnational corporations and the governments of the most powerful nations, such as the G8 – working collaboratively as well as within existing and newly introduced international law, is an unknown factor.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Notes on contributors v
- Acknowledgements ix
- The human condition is structurally unequal xi
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International anti-poverty policy: the problems of the Washington Consensus
- Poverty, social exclusion and social polarisation: the need to construct an international welfare state 3
- Is rising income inequality inevitable? A critique of the ‘Transatlantic Consensus’ 25
- The international measurement of poverty and anti-poverty policies 53
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Anti-poverty policies in rich countries
- Social policy in the US: workfare and the American low-wage labour market 83
- A European definition of poverty: the fight against poverty and social exclusion in the member states of the European Union 119
- Welfare state solidarity and support: the Czech Republic compared with the Netherlands 147
- Targeting welfare: on the functions and dysfunctions of means testing in social policy 171
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Anti-poverty policies in poor countries
- Structural adjustment and mass poverty in Ghana 197
- Social funds in sub-Saharan Africa: how effective for poverty reduction? 233
- Urban water supply, sanitation and social policy: lessons from Johannesburg, South Africa 251
- Round pegs and square holes: mismatches between poverty and housing policy in urban India 271
- Urban poverty in China: incidence and policy responses 297
- ‘A new branch can be strengthened by an old branch’: livelihoods and challenges to inter-generational solidarity in South Africa 325
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Future anti-poverty policies: national and international
- Human rights, transnational corporations and the World Bank 351
- Are we really reducing global poverty? 377
- 1% of €10,000 billion 401
- Conclusion: constructing an anti-poverty strategy 413
- Manifesto: international action to defeat poverty 433
- Index of material and social deprivation: national (UK) and cross-national 437
- Index 443
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Notes on contributors v
- Acknowledgements ix
- The human condition is structurally unequal xi
-
International anti-poverty policy: the problems of the Washington Consensus
- Poverty, social exclusion and social polarisation: the need to construct an international welfare state 3
- Is rising income inequality inevitable? A critique of the ‘Transatlantic Consensus’ 25
- The international measurement of poverty and anti-poverty policies 53
-
Anti-poverty policies in rich countries
- Social policy in the US: workfare and the American low-wage labour market 83
- A European definition of poverty: the fight against poverty and social exclusion in the member states of the European Union 119
- Welfare state solidarity and support: the Czech Republic compared with the Netherlands 147
- Targeting welfare: on the functions and dysfunctions of means testing in social policy 171
-
Anti-poverty policies in poor countries
- Structural adjustment and mass poverty in Ghana 197
- Social funds in sub-Saharan Africa: how effective for poverty reduction? 233
- Urban water supply, sanitation and social policy: lessons from Johannesburg, South Africa 251
- Round pegs and square holes: mismatches between poverty and housing policy in urban India 271
- Urban poverty in China: incidence and policy responses 297
- ‘A new branch can be strengthened by an old branch’: livelihoods and challenges to inter-generational solidarity in South Africa 325
-
Future anti-poverty policies: national and international
- Human rights, transnational corporations and the World Bank 351
- Are we really reducing global poverty? 377
- 1% of €10,000 billion 401
- Conclusion: constructing an anti-poverty strategy 413
- Manifesto: international action to defeat poverty 433
- Index of material and social deprivation: national (UK) and cross-national 437
- Index 443
