Escaping Poverty's Grasp: The Environmental Foundations of Poverty Reduction

Description

Despite decades of macroeconomic reforms, poverty reduction plans and rural growth strategies, poverty is persistent and environmental degradation is accelerating in the developing world. Though traditional economic indicators have improved in some countries, little has worked to open enduring economic and ecological opportunities to the rural poor. This unacceptable outcome grows, in large part, from the failure to place the needs of the poor at the centre of national development strategies and to link local level changes to urgently needed changes in national development policies. This book is designed to change all of that by showing how change must begin at the local level and, from there, push upwards to change policies and institutions at higher levels to remove political, economic and institutional impediments that stifle opportunities for the rural poor and improved environmental management. This approach challenges the notion that poverty reduction and improved natural resource management can originate with design masters in international organizations or national capitals.Working with teams in China, Indonesia, El Salvador, South Africa and Zambia, WWF devised the revolutionary '3xM' - micro (local), meso (sub-national) and macro (national) - Approach to analysing and intervening to change the poverty dimensions in a country. This approach helps improve the local environment and community livelihoods, and promotes policy and institutional changes at state/provincial and national levels that are essential for the sustainable, equitable development. This book provides both the tools and successful case studies to show practitioners how to adopt the 3xM Approach in diverse developing country contexts.

DAVID REED is director, Macroeconomics Program Office, WWF-International in Washington DC, US. He has a PhD from the University of Geneva and has worked in social and economic development for 30 years. He is author of Economic Change, Governance and Natural Resource Wealth (2001) and editor of Structural Adjustment, the Environment and Sustainable Development (1996).

WWF's groundbreaking book and its 3xM Approach reflects Sida's development philosophy in many ways: it empowers the poor, links poverty reduction and the environment, and promotes changes across the local, sub-national and national levels of societies. For these reasons, the book sets standards that I believe all development projects should strive to meet' Maria Norrfalk, Director General, Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Sida) 'WWF's work on poverty and environment examines concrete activities to empower the poor, link poverty reduction and the environment, and promote changes across the local, subnational and national levels of societies. This work makes a number of solid policy recommendations for bringing about enduring changes in rural livelihoods and resource management' Louis Michel, EC Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid