Eradicating Poverty: Pathways towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Project Information

ADAPTED

Grant agreement ID: 956909

DOI

10.3030/956909

Project closed

EC signature date 13 August 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 31 December 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 3 816 089,76

EU contribution

€ 3 816 089,76

Coordinated by

RUHR-UNIVERSITAET BOCHUM
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ADAPTED (Eradicating Poverty: Pathways towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Reducing absolute poverty and ending extreme poverty are at the forefront of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the Member States of the EU, together with all other members of the UN, have agreed to work towards by 2030. Since 1990, almost all developing countries have made considerable progress in reducing their population shares living below the poverty line. However, this progress was less dynamic in the 49 countries in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), where in 2019 out of a total population of 1.12 bn people 393 million still lived in absolute poverty. As poverty is a root cause for spreading instability and conflict the high numbers of the poor on its neighbouring continent is of special concern for the EU and the EU member states.
There is some consensus in the literature that progress in poverty reduction can be attributed to economic growth, the implementation of social protection schemes and minimum wages, and governance conditions that affect a country's performance in reducing poverty. However, a review of the literature shows that academic debates on the determinants of poverty reduction take place in disciplinary silos, that modelling and empirical analysis replicate approaches that work for high- income economies but ignore structural differences between high-income and developing countries, and that there is a large gap in understanding the determinants of poverty reduction.
ADAPTED broke the existing silos and delivered high-level training with intersectoral relevance
• in validating pathways towards poverty eradication (work package 1),
• in analysing interactions between poverty reduction and other policy areas (work package 2),
• and in optimising the impact of poverty reduction policies (work package 2)
to Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) to bridge the existing knowledge gap by equipping them with a unique skills portfolio that is equally attractive for research institutions, development organisations and internationally active firms.
Through its research and training activities, ADAPTED contributed to answering the following research questions
(1) How effective are different growth- and social protection-oriented policies in improving poverty- related outcomes, given the large heterogeneity of low- and middle-income countries and the differences in the target groups that these policies can reach?
(2) What are the poverty-related trade-offs and co-benefits within different growth- and social protection-oriented policy frameworks, and between them and other policies, and what recommendations can be derived for a pro-poor policy mix?
(3) What are mechanisms to enhance the relevance and quality of social protection schemes, to improve the coordination of fragmented social policies and to support the design and implementation of pro-poor policies in neo-patrimonial environments?
The research work of ADAPTED has shown that mainstream models, all of them written to describe growth and development in high-income countries, failed to describe the persisting differences in the conditions of production and consumption that are characterising developing countries. ADAPTED has presented such descriptions, and it has brought about empirical evidence at different levels of investigation that economic growth does not mean a continuous increase in productivity and income that is beneficial for all, including the poor, but that, in developing countries, growth is driven by structural transformation of the workforce, is not inclusive and leaves the poor behind. This finding implies that, in middle- and low-income countries, pro-poor policies may have a much more important role in poverty reduction than previous literature has suggested. With focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, ADAPTED has studied the preconditions of implementing pro-poor policies, has analysed the interactions between poverty reduction and other policy areas, has identified resulting governance challenges, co-benefits and trade-offs, and has investigated the impact that different policy approaches have on poverty.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

ADAPTED recruited 15 highly qualified ESRs from 14 different countries (Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Spain, Uganda) with backgrounds in economics, social or political science and law out of nearly 300 applications and implemented a tailor-made programme to support the use of non-orthodox and innovative approaches in poverty-related research, which included
• research training on the political dimensions of governance, the role of law, the relevance of economic growth for reducing poverty,
• training on practical approaches (social protection, development effectiveness rating) related to the ADPATED research agenda,
• training on case study analysis, the design of questionnaires and interview guidelines, data management,
• training on cross-cutting issues and in transferable skills.

Local and network-wide training was complemented by intensive exchange with supervisory teams, peer learning activities, and by individual presentations and discussions of the research projects during ADAPTED workshops and the final conference. As part of their international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral exposure, ADAPTED fellows spent secondment periods at the partner universities for the award of a joint doctoral degree, at major European development finance institutions and think tanks (DEG, AFD, SOMO), and undertook fieldwork in five different African countries (Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia). Their work has so far resulted in 14 publications authored or co-authored by ESRs, with more than 25 additional publications in preparation. An upcoming publication involving several ADAPTED members is a special issue "The Politics of Pro-Poor Policies in the Global South" of the open access journal Politics and Governance (January 2026).
For further dissemination, ADAPTED fellows participated in 38 international conferences and interacted with stakeholders in their fieldwork countries
The ADAPTED website continuously provides updated information on activities and new publications and gives insight into the results of the research through video recordings of the poster presentations made by the fellows during the ADAPTED final conference in November 2024.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

ADAPTED aimed to (1) enhance the career prospects and employability of its ESRs, (2) contribute to the structuring of doctoral training at the European level, and (3) strengthen European innovation capacity in fighting absolute poverty:
(1) ADAPTED ESRs are perfectly prepared for vacancies in academic institutions, in international and national governmental and non-governmental development organisations and in certain layers of the private sector due to the acquired highly competitive skills portfolio.
(2) ADAPTED acted as a catalyst for the implementation of structures, harmonised rules and procedures for doctoral training that are binding for the entire consortium. With its framework agreement for future joint doctoral agreements, it contributed to the definition of European standards for joint doctoral training, which is an achievement that goes beyond the requirements of signing bilateral agreements for the award of doctoral degrees.
(3) ADAPTED’s contribution to Europe's capacity for innovation in the fight against poverty is reflected in its research results, which represent an extension of the results of mainstream models.

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