'Conversation' With People Living In Extreme Poverty

Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Also Included In: Conferences;  Public Health;  Water - Air Quality / Agriculture
Article Date: 23 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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This year's theme of the 'Rajendrapur Conversation' organised by the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI) at The University of Manchester will be global warming and will take place from 24 to 28 January.

It will provide a unique opportunity for the poor of Dhaka to discuss their experiences and ideas on adapting cities to climate change with world renowned experts.

It will result in an action plan and a series of pilot projects to be announced at the International Conference on Urban Poverty and Climate Change in Dhaka on January 28.

The wider aim of the annual conversation, which in subsequent years will be held in other developing countries, is to create a strategic global partnership between poor people and leading poverty research institutions.

It has been timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos in an attempt to divert attention to the needs of the poor.

Professor Tony Addison, BWPI Executive Director said: "There needs to be a sense of urgency about this. The world knows that action is needed now to help people in developing countries affected by climate change and to stem the North's impact on them by reducing carbon emissions.

"We hope that world leaders gathering in Davos this week, who are focusing predominantly on the global financial crisis, will consider the economic impact on the world's poor and see that we need to act now."

He added: "Our urban focus is important. Most of the adaptation research in Bangladesh has been carried out in rural areas, but we need to look at ways in which the lives of people in towns and cities can be improved, as the population continues to shift there in huge numbers to escape the flood-swept rural areas."

One of the projects to be discussed at the 4-day conversation is the introduction of a huge barge to the market area of Dhaka to enable trading to continue during floods, preventing the ruin of poor people's livelihoods.

The BWPI team is working in partnership on the conversation with Dhaka-based BRAC, the world's largest and most successful NGO, which works with 110 million people across Bangladesh, Africa and Afghanistan on projects to lift them out of poverty.

Professor David Hulme, Associate Director of BWPI said: "Our partnership with BRAC is critical to the success of the conversation. We're sitting down and listening to poor people, bringing their knowledge together with our expertise in poverty research and architecture alongside BRAC's expertise and phenomenal on-the-ground experience.

"Our engagement with poor people from the outset means that their knowledge and their preferences will help shape the projects designed to improve their lives. In the past, poverty researchers have been guilty of exploring solutions that they believe will work for the poor, rather than listening to what poor people really want,' he said.

With 153 million people, Bangladesh is the world's most densely populated country and because it is one vast flat river delta, it is the most vulnerable place on earth to rising sea levels and extreme weather caused by climate change.

More than half of its population lives in poverty and scientists at NASA have predicted that the country will be completely submerged by 2100.

The first Rajendrapur Conversation takes place between January 24 to 27, followed by the International Conference on Urban Poverty and Climate Change on January 28 in Dhaka.

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Source: Michael Addelman
University of Manchester

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