The Research Cluster on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development offers a valuable opportunity for interdisciplinary research on a wide variety of development-related topics.
Developing countries face numerous challenges of low levels of human development and high levels of poverty and deprivation. In the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA), this cluster seeks to provide a research portal for trans-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and disciplinary research to address these critical issues. It is the aim of this cluster to seek out new frontiers and perspectives on poverty reduction and sustainable development, as a means to promote the asset base of people, their livelihoods, their empowerment, and their quality of life. This cluster will predominantly focus on the non-metropole areas of South Africa.
Our research includes quantitative, qualitative, and normative research. It will promote practical outcomes and impacts, by means of a ‘scholarship of engagement’, in the sense of being policy-relevant, practice-oriented, problem-solving, empowering and collaborative. Research will be relevant and responsive to the needs of practitioners and stakeholders. Our research will be closely integrated with all aspects of the policy ‘cycle’, including status quo analysis, policy and programme design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
This Cluster will pose new questions in terms of conceptual definitions, unintended consequences, good and bad practice, policy dilemmas, and choices of resource allocation. The concepts of holistic and integrated development will be critically unpacked and investigated, to highlight neglected dimensions of human and community development. Specifically, issues of human wellness, quality of life, and cultures of poverty will be explored.
The Research Cluster will promote international linkages and exchanges, in order to situate our work in the context of international debates.
The Cluster contains four Focus Areas, which are all based on the available assets, capabilities and resources of inpiduals and communities, including natural, physical, financial, social and personal assets.