ABSTRACT
In 1993, the Right to Development (RTD) was declared a universal and inalienable right at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. The politics of development starts from the very pinnacle of the development industry in the guise of how development funds are allocated by multilateral and bilateral development agencies. Studies from a variety of countries show that communities in which inequality is high have worse outcomes, especially where political, economic, and social power are concentrated in the hands of a few. Work on social capital has tended to emphasize the positive attributes of social networks and institutions, rather than paying attention to those negative aspects that might contribute to the production and reproduction of poverty. The politics of poverty can be seen, at its simplest level, in rates of absolute poverty across the Southeast Asian region. The only countries in Southeast Asia not to have national poverty lines are Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.
