The Global Poverty Consensus Report (GPCR) is a joint project by Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) and supported by the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP) that aims to contribute to the global discussions on poverty by identifying existing and emerging consensus about the causes of poverty and how best to eradicate and prevent it. Click the link at the bottom of the page for access to the report.
This report is the result of a pilot project based on interviews conducted in 2012 with thirty-nine recognized experts in the field, and it represents the consensus found in this group. It is a point of departure for a learning process towards a more ambitious initiative that intends to go beyond the appearance of constant debate that characterizes social science and humanities professions and academic practices.
Readers of the Report with some background knowledge likely will not find surprising or new conclusions, but this was not the intention. To report on existing consensus itself is the fundamental intention, for several reasons. Identification, or discovery, of existing consensus is meant to help increase the impact of academic work on global poverty. First, it can focus attention on areas where there is actually significant agreement, which can act as a foil for the ongoing debate characteristic of academic work. By showing the similarities in conclusions or recommendations within and across disciplines, it can enhance recognition of degrees of convergence in studies that can be vulnerable to the winds of both academic fashion and politics. It helps identify possibilities of collaboration across disciplines and across multiple levels of policy making.
In the findings, it is noteworthy that there is a high degree of consensus on the role of various aspects of the international institutional economic order in the causation and continuation of global poverty. We hope the Report will encourage further research into the impact of international institutions and practices on poor people and how they can be reformed.