Poverty Unpacked podcast

Are food banks a sign of the ‘big society’ coming together to help its vulnerable members? Or are they a failure of welfare and social protection systems to provide an adequate safety net for those who need it? In this episode, we discuss the role of food banks in the UK, hearing perspectives from those providing and using support. Find out more about this episode on our website: https://poverty-u...

Struggling to make ends meet reduces mental headspace and makes it harder to make long-term decisions. Applying behavioural science to anti-poverty interventions can help people to take more strategic action. But widespread poverty reduction won’t be achieved without substantial degrees of redistribution. These are some of the messages in this episode with Saugato Datta. Saugato is Managing Direct...

Many countries were on track to half multidimensional poverty by 2030, but Covid-19 may lead to a reversal of trends. More data is urgently needed to understand how the pandemic will impact people’s lives and how multidimensional poverty will evolve. In this special episode, Sabina Alkire highlights findings of the 2020 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and reflects on measurement of mul...

Eliminating poverty requires the empowerment of people to understand their own situation and find solutions for it. Agency and self-efficacy are as important for moving out of poverty as opportunities and resources are. In this episode, Martin Burt speaks about the Poverty Stoplight programme and his recent book ‘Who Owns Poverty?’. Martin is founder and CEO of Fundacion Paraguaya, an NGO devoted...

Blaming and shaming of people in poverty is endemic and needs to change. Being open to others’ experiences can create awareness that our commonalities outweigh our differences, one story at a time. In this episode, Mary O’Hara speaks about her most recent book ‘The Shame Game’. Mary is writer and award-winning journalist and has written about issues of poverty for more than 15 years. Find out more...

Poverty (measurement) is political, experiences of shame and exclusion are not exclusive to poverty alone, and if we really want to reduce poverty, we need more redistribution at both national and international level. In this episode, we interview Andrew Fischer, who is Associate Professor of Social Policy and Development Studies at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in the Hague in the Netherl...

At the height of this global health crisis, we hear that coronavirus does not discriminate and that we are all in this together. But is this really true? Is it really the case that everyone is equal in the face of a pandemic like COVID-19? In this episode – with perspectives from Bangladesh, Kenya, Paraguay and the UK – we hear that the measures put in place to contain the virus hits people living...

In this episode of Poverty Unpacked, we speak with Diana Skelton from ATD Fourth World in the UK. Key discussion points include the pervasiveness of shame and stigma in the experience of poverty worldwide; the need to co-create knowledge and formulate policies together with people with lived experiences of poverty in order to overcome poverty; and how a sense of solidarity and common purpose in wo...