Smith Stephen C. 2005. Ending global poverty: A guide to what works. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN 1-4039-6534-X, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, ISBN-13 978-0-230-60615-9, pp. 272.

✍ Scribed by G. H. van der Horst

• Book ID: 102348812
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 42 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0954-1748
• DOI: 10.1002/jid.1682

✦ Synopsis

At first glance, one might expect this book on global poverty written by a development economist to contain yet another polemic on international development, governance and aid similar to the recent offerings of Sachs (2005), Collier (2007), Moyo (2009) and myriad others. In any event, it is clearly a product of the recent resurgence of interest in poverty popularised by initiatives such as the Jubilee movements and Millenium Development Goals. In terms of its focus, content and approach, however, this publication is a bird of rather a different feather. Like Sachs and the others, Smith is deeply concerned with severe 'underdevelopment', feels that enough knowledge has been generated to develop solutions, and that extreme poverty could be eliminated in the near future. Unlike them, however, he avoids discussion of macroeconomic dynamics, theory and policy almost entirely. Instead, he focuses on the causes and experiences of poverty at the household level, the efforts of various Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to remedy these and what the average private 'western' citizen can do to help.

Smith's main argument is that while the relatively poor may at times be able to work their own way out of deprivation, the extremely poor are caught in a trap (or, rather, various combinations of 16 interrelated possible traps) that, largely through no fault of their own, perpetuate their disempowerment. These, he suggests, can be addressed through the provision of the 8 'Keys to Capability' which enable the ultra poor to extricate themselves from absolute destitution. Given the nature of the traps (which operate mainly at the household and local levels) and their disempowering effect, however, the 'keys' can only be effectively provided by outside agents such as national or international NGOs working with families and communities. The good news, he finds, is that much progress has been made. Nonetheless, much remains to be done in terms of fine-tuning, diversifying and upscaling successful programmes and this, he claims, can only be achieved if we all (the affluent western public) pitch in to support them. The purpose of the book is to elaborate, for the lay reader, how this can be done judiciously.

On one hand, given its primary aim, this reader finds the book to be quite an effective piece of work and perhaps one of the more useful of its kind. In the first of the book's three sections, Smith presents a reasonable (though brief and generalised) picture of extreme poverty at the daily, household level. Chapter 1's elaboration of the 16 poverty traps and Chapter 2's explanation of the 8 'keys' present his argument clearly and succinctly creating a strong foundation for the rest of the book. Section 2 grounds his argument through numerous case studies of successful NGO programmes, presented in 8 chapters representing each of the 'keys' and a ninth describing 10 lessons on innovation in combating poverty. Finally, the four chapters of the third section provide a solid, practical guide to what individuals and businesses can do to 'get engaged', with plenty of direction regarding further sources of information. Throughout these latter two sections, the utility of this otherwise somewhat superficial survey is bolstered by Smith's cautious, evenhanded critique detailing various challenges and pitfalls. As such, the book represents a valuable guide to the individual or group looking to help the world's least affluent in a responsible and effective manner.

On the other hand, despite its target audience, the book deserves a few points of criticism. First, while the focus on local-level poverty 'traps' is generally reasonable and sound, there is simply not enough recognition of the broader-scale structural causes of poverty, such as corruption, ineffective