ABSTRACT
The global poverty crisis hits the headlines regularly these days, along with increasingly fervent statements of commitment to meet internationally agreed targets, to battle, fight and eradicate poverty-once and for all, it sometimes seems.2 Such assertions are characteristically made in moralistic language. Poverty is typically referred to as an anonymous, external threat or evil force, against which the whole world-governments north and south, citizens rich and poor, even the private sector-are united in fighting. Campaigns for debt relief are couched in terms designed to appeal to the ‘generosity’ of rich countries; and in a similar fashion non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Oxfam appeal to the compassion and generosity of individuals in the West.3 A recent report compiled by the UN, World Bank, IMF and OECD finds (with apparent surprise) that
the number living on less than $1 a day has actually grown, to 1.2bn from about 1bn in 1995. The World Bank admits that the number will not fall in the next eight years unless something is done.
