USAID Frontiers in Development

Since the dawn of humanity, extreme poverty has crowded at the heels of progress—stifling hopes and undermining growth.  Today, we stand within reach of a world that was simply once unimaginable: a world without extreme poverty.  This new book of essays published by USAID’s Frontiers in Development focuses on critical issues associated with ending extreme poverty. Several authors point out that significant progress in reducing extreme poverty has given the development community reason to redouble its efforts to work collaboratively to seek solutions that can deliver even more progress.   As countries and the development community come together to shape the post-2015 Development Agenda, the elimination of extreme poverty by 2030 has become a central focus. This book includes contributions by well-known leaders, thinkers and practitioners as well as voices less well-known—12 essays were chosen through a contest open to USAID staff from missions and bureaus around the world.    

Readers learn about the many challenging issues and ideas associated with tackling extreme poverty.  For example, Secretary of State John Kerry reflects upon today’s pivotal moment and underscores the connections between development and climate change efforts.  Laurence Chandy and Homi Kharas of the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development Program examines extreme poverty’s multidimensionality and the importance of focusing on women and girls, and Executive Director of Oxfam International, Winnie Byanyima, addresses issues of inequality.   Development efforts at all levels must contend with the politics of societies, which brings readers to another set of essays addressing issues ranging from capacity and culture to corruption, including agricultural subsidies in Malawai, social capital in Liberia and cartels in South Africa and Mexico.  A discussion of supporting competitive markets includes a section about catalyzing growth and investment. The final set of essays focuses on how to protect the development gains made so far to ensure ongoing progress toward eradicating poverty once and for all.

Authors

This book includes contributions by well-known leaders, thinkers and practitioners, including Secretary of State John Kerry, Laurence Chandy and Homi Kharas of the Brookings Institution as well as Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International.  It also includes leading experts from USAID who were selected through an essay contest open to USAID staff around the world.