Peter Townsend was Professor of International Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Acting Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights there until his death in June 2009. He was also Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of Bristol. David Gordon is Director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research at the University of Bristol.
The great value of this collection is that it tackles the complexities of international poverty analysis head on. The authors leave us with the inspiration to pursue a clear and ambitious research agenda and the campaigners amongst us may well be spurred on by the Manifesto for International Action to Defeat Poverty laid out in the Appendix. World Poverty is essential reading for social policy students and scholars. SPA News This publication will make a valuable contribution to the integration of human rights values into world poverty reduction strategies. The authors provide concrete suggestions on how to translate human rights norms, such as the right to social security, the right to an adequate standard of living, the rights of the child, the right to health and the right to education, into effective anti-poverty strategies. Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights