Policy Press publishes tomorrow - 25 Sept - "World Poverty - New
Policies to Defeat an Old Enemy" edited and partly written by myself
and David Gordon. The press release is below.

Good wishes

Peter Townsend

PRESS RELEASE

Embargo: 0001 hrs, Wednesday 25th September 2002

World Bankand IMF policies are increasing world poverty and must be
changed, says new study by leading academics

Policies pursued by the World Bank, IMF and other international
institutions are demonstrably wrong and must be changed if targets to
reduce world poverty are to be met, finds a major new study published
today.

World poverty: New policies to defeat an old enemy shows how policies
pursued by the World Bank, IMF, World Trade Organisation and national
governments - particularly of the G8 nations - have not only failed to
reduce poverty but have exacerbated the problem. It also puts forward a
radical Manifesto for international action against poverty - an 18
point plan to be adopted by governments internationally to meet targets
set by the United Nations and at the 2002 World Summit.1

Co-editor of the study, Peter Townsend, Professor of International
Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science
said: "Despite decades of national and international policy making, mass
poverty persists and is set to increase. Policies that are more
directly effective have to be devised for rich and poor countries
alike. Economic growth without redistribution - the central assumption
of World Bank strategy - is found not to reduce poverty. A new
international strategy must be devised."

Policies that meet with particular criticism include:

"    Policies designed to bring about economic growth without redistribution
The World Bank, IMF and many national governments continue to pursue
policies that rest on the assumption that if the GDP of a country
increases, the poor will be lifted out of poverty. In fact, policies
based on this assumption are simply giving rise to growing and dramatic
inequalities both within and between countries.
"    Policies based on a belief that conditional (or targeted) forms
of welfare are more effective in tackling poverty than universal
welfare
This includes policies such as means-testing for benefits and 'workfare
policies', i.e. benefit conditional upon participation in work,
favoured by countries like the USA and Britain.  Means-tested benefits
in particular are found not always to reach those in need, to be costly
and complex to administer, and to generate social divisions. The IMF's
efforts to force developing countries to move from universal welfare
programmes to targeted ones (by lending money on condition that
recipient governments cut public spending) has resulted, by their own
admission, in devastating social and economic consequences for the
countries involved.
"    World trade policies, particularly terms of trade between rich
and poor countries
Developing countries who export to markets in the richest countries
face tariff barriers in the reverse direction. This costs them $100
billion per year - twice as much as they receive in aid. The World
Trade Organisation and powerful Transnational Corporations are accused
of operating unfair policies, which result in a concentration of wealth
in developed countries and in the accounts of global business giants.
Fifty one of the world's largest economies are now corporations.

"    Policies that rely on the World Bank's $1-a-day threshold as a
measurement of poverty
This threshold is found to be arbitrary, based on out of date
information and ineffective as a means of comparing poverty across
countries. In particular, it does not help when assessing relative
poverty between countries and does not allow for analysis of other
factors which may give rise to a poor standard of living. For example,
access to basic services such as water, sanitation, health and
education is not taken into account. World Bank figures therefore
underestimate the number of poor in the world.

The study's Manifesto for international action against poverty2 puts
forward an alternative strategy for tackling poverty worldwide. In
particular, it argues for increased redistribution of wealth, a system
of international universal welfare, and giving legal force to human
rights declarations on entitlements to social security and an adequate
standard of living.


Policy recommendations include:

"    All developed countries to commit to 1% GDP overseas
development assistance - to be introduced first by the EU and
subsequently extended to all OECD countries. This is affordable and
would have a major impact on poverty in developing countries;

"    Introduce an international financial transactions tax to be
administered by the UN - payable on all currency exchanges at banks and
currency exchange offices. Half of the gross revenue would be
administered by the UN to subsidise the establishment of child benefit
in developing countries;

 "   Introduce or strengthen the legal right to child benefit -
provision to be made for every child of a monthly cash benefit, or the
equivalent in value of goods and services, which is adequate to
surmount material and social deprivation;

 "   Introduce and develop schemes to fulfil a fundamental and legal
right to social security - involving legislation that defines minimum
adequate benefit and minimum adequate wages in all countries;

 "   Establish, in practice, the universal human right of access to
basic social services such as sanitation, water, healthcare and
education.3

Co-editor, David Gordon, Director of the Townsend Centre for
International Poverty Research said:
"Ending poverty is largely a matter of lack of political will. It is
not a problem of lack of money or scientific knowledge of how to
eradicate poverty. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has
estimated the cost of providing basic health and nutrition for every
person in the world at  $13 billion per year for 10 years. This seems
like a large figure, but, to put it in perspective, in 2000 the US
population spent $11.6 billion on dog and cat food."




1 The United Nations Millennium target on poverty is to halve, by 2015,
the proportion of the world's people (currently 22 per cent) whose
income is less than one dollar a day (see
http://www.un.org/millennium/sg/report/key.htm). The target of halving
the number of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015 was set
at the recent Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

2 Appendix A (attached) gives full details of the Manifesto for
international action to defeat poverty, as published in the study.

3 The study develops the link between human rights and the eradication
of poverty more substantially than elsewhere.

END


NOTES TO EDITORS

1.   World poverty: New policies to defeat an old enemy, edited by
Peter Townsend and David Gordon, is published by The Policy Press.

The study describes anti-poverty policies in both rich and poor
countries, including the United States, European Union countries, the
Czech Republic, Ghana, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and China. It
includes major contributions from leading economists and sociologists
with UN and European expertise.

 2.  The book is available from: Marston Book Services, PO Box 269,
Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4YN. Tel: 01235 465500 Fax: 01235 465556
Email: [log in to unmask] Price



£25.00 (plus £2.75 p&p).

3.   For further information, please contact:

Peter Townsend, Professor of International Social Policy and Acting
Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, London School of
Economics, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7955 6632 (work) or 07740 779 9492 (mobile)


Professor David Gordon, Director, Townsend Centre for International
Poverty Research, University of Bristol on Tel: +44 (0) 117 954 6761
(work) or +44 (0)117 9240344 (home)

4.   For further information and a review copy, please contact: Helen Bolton at
The Policy Press. Tel: 0117 954 6802 or email: [log in to unmask] or
visit www.policypress.org.uk.