When the time came to settle on the main theme of the 1998 Annual Conference of the Development Studies Association (DSA) it was decided that a major eort would be made to encourage participants to contribute to the ongoing discussion about world poverty. The publication of the United Kingdom Government's White Paper on the International Development, Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21st Century (http://www.dยฎd.gov.uk/public/what/what_frame.html) in November 1997 coincided with increased concern about world poverty. The White Paper followed a long period during which poverty had fallen down the global agenda relative to other concerns. A Special Issue of the Journal of International Development (Volume 10 Number 2, MarchยฑApril 1998) focused critically on the White Paper.
The theme of the conference was therefore set as Progress Towards Global Poverty Reduction. A number of important features are implied by this title. First, it is short and concise ร it was felt that clarity and precision was a prime requirement of the discussion. Second, it signalled at the outset that the concern was with movement on the poverty issue through the use of the words progress towards' ร inviting progress reports and consideration of positive developments in relation to world poverty. Third, the concern was with global poverty and not with that relating only to the least developed countries ร poverty in low income countries should be considered together with poverty in high and middle income countries. Fourth, and perhaps most signiยฎcantly, the concern was with poverty reduction, and not with politically praiseworthy, but empirically imprecise and impracticable, terms such as poverty elimination, and potentially cosmetic' terms such as poverty alleviation. In other words the conference organizers felt that `poverty reduction' is clearly deยฎnable and is amenable to practical policy targeting.
The 1998 Annual Conference of the DSA marked the 21st anniversary of the Association as a fully-ยฏedged member of the academic and practitioner communities concerned with international development in the United Kingdom and Ireland. To mark this event the outgoing President, John Harriss (one of the founder members of the Association), was invited to give a Presidential Address. His address is published as the ยฎrst of the papers in this collection.
A system has developed whereby the organizers of the DSA's annual conference invite three keynote speakers to make plenary addresses. For 1998 it was decided that