Local Governance and Poverty in Developing Nations

This volume examines the persistence of poverty - both rural and urban - in developing countries, and the response of local governments to the problem, exploring the roles of governments, NGOs, and CSOs in national and sub-national agenda-setting, policy-making, and poverty-reduction strategies. It brings together a rich variety of in-depth country and international studies, based on a combination of original data-collection and extensive research experience in developing countries. Taking a bottom-up and multi-dimensional perspective of poverty and well-being as the starting point, the authors develop a convincing set of arguments for putting the priorities of poor people first on any development agenda, thus carving out an undisputable role for local governance in interplay with higher-up governance actors and institutions.

Nicky Pouw is a development economist and assistant professor in International Development Studies at the School of GPIDS at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of the University of Amsterdam.

Isa Baud is professor in International Development Studies at the School of GPIDS at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of the University of Amsterdam.