Poverty
Research at the Earth Institute is organized into nine themes. Poverty is one of them.
Over a billion people currently live below the poverty line, earning less than $1.25 a day. At the Earth Institute, researchers take a “human needs” approach and look at the root causes of extreme poverty, thinking beyond money to ask whether people have the basics they need for economic growth.
Researchers, scientists and development practitioners work together to fight global poverty by addressing its multifaceted causes: hunger and malnutrition, inadequate access to health care and education, lack of safe drinking water and sanitation, energy problems, trade barriers, and gender inequality.
Featured Projects
Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC)
The Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have partnered with Forest Trends, Enterprise Works/VITA and the Land Tenure Center at the University of Wisconsin to work on a USAID-funded ecosystems management project entitled “Promoting Transformation: Linking Natural Resources, Economic Growth and Good Governance” (Translinks).
The project will help CERC and its partners exchange and share expertise on the role of ecosystem services in promoting the goals of natural resource management, good governance and poverty alleviation. One of the primary goals of the Translinks project is to develop an ecosystem services primer for local conservation practitioners in agricultural settings. The hope is that this will brief local practitioners on the variety and importance of ecosystem services, as well as the ecological and economic benefits of utilizing these services in individual agricultural practices.
Millennium Villages Project (MVP)
The Millennium Villages project—led by the Earth Institute, Columbia University; the United Nations Development Programme; and the charitable organization Millennium Promise—offers a bold, innovative model for helping rural African communities lift themselves out of extreme poverty. The more than 80 Millennium Villages in 10 countries are proving that by fighting poverty at the village level through community-led development, rural Africa can achieve the Millennium Development Goals—eight globally endorsed targets for cutting extreme poverty and hunger in half by 2015 and for improving education, health, gender equality and environmental sustainability.
Tropical Agriculture and Rural Environment Program (TAP)
The Tropical Agriculture and Rural Environment Program uses science, technology, management and policy tools to improve environmental quality, nutrition and farmers' incomes through sustainable agricultural practices in developing countries. The program’s work focuses on the tropics, where the expansion and intensification of agriculture is needed to improve food security, but also threatens the long-term integrity of the environment, a local and global concern.
The Access Project, Center for Global Health and Economic Development (CGHED)
The Access Project, an initiative of the Center for Global Health and Economic Development, follows a simple model to improve the health of impoverished people: apply business and management skills to health systems in poor countries to increase access to life-saving drugs and critical health services. In Rwanda, the project applies its unique approach to health centers, the only medical facilities within reach for most of the country's population of over 9 million. With investments in management, training and infrastructure, the project equips these facilities and their staff to provide sustainable, high-quality health care for their communities.
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
Understanding the location and spatial distribution of the world’s poor is vital not only for targeting specific poverty alleviation efforts, but also for addressing the root causes of persistent poverty and identifying and overcoming the diverse obstacles to sustainable development. In collaboration with the World Bank and other groups, the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) has developed a unique online data resource on the distribution of poverty around the world. The Poverty Mapping Project site includes detailed sub-national data on poverty, both in the least-developed countries and in other countries where significant pockets of poverty persist. Such data allows researchers to test hypotheses about the possible roles environmental, health and economic factors play in persistent poverty and in the success or failure of poverty alleviation efforts. Poverty data are also vital in developing efficient and effective strategies for poverty reduction and sustainable development, and for assessing progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
Migration is often a coping strategy for poor populations faced with uncertain, agriculture-based incomes. Building upon theoretical and empirical advances in migration research, the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) is collaborating with scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to study migration patterns in the Nang Rong district of northeast Thailand. The project is using life-history data to examine migration patterns and assess what factors determine different migration strategies and how early migration experience affects a person’s place of residence at age 30.
International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI)
Climate has always presented a challenge to farmers, herders, fishermen and others whose livelihoods are closely linked to their environment, particularly those in poor areas of the world. A type of insurance called index insurance now offers significant opportunities for managing climate risk in developing countries. The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) has helped to develop index insurance programs in a number of countries, and it is working to find ways to overcome the technical and operational challenges that currently limit the growth and spread of index insurance.
IRI has partnered with the United Nations Development Programme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Oxfam America, Swiss Re, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the World Food Programme to implement this important work. In 2009, the partners published "Index Insurance and Climate Risk: Prospects for Development and Disaster Management,” which detailed the successes and challenges of using index insurance to reduce poverty and meet development goals.