Poverty & Inequality Initiative (PII)
The Poverty & Inequality Initiative (PII) was set up at UCT to tackle the question of why, in a country of rich resources, poverty and inequality are persisting and even, in the case of inequality, deepening.
The PII comprises high-profile members from diverse disciplines. It aims to identify all major role players inside and outside the university, including academics, research groups and NGOs who are doing poverty-alleviation-related work, be it in policy or at intervention levels.
The group, under the chairmanship of Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Crain Soudien, met Minister Trevor Manuel of the National Planning Commission (NPC) to present its ideas and to discuss possible synergies with government. The result was the establishment by the Vice Chancellor of the fourth of his institution-wide, multi-disciplinary, initiatives dedicated to addressing critical social challenges. In addition to the support of the NPC, the Vice Chancellor was also able to persuade the Carnegie Corporation of New York - main funder of the two earlier Carnegie Commissions/Inquiries into Poverty in South Africa - to support this initiative both by providing significant seed money and by allowing the university to use the Carnegie name.
In this process the original UCT initiative has become a national venture with the aim of drawing in serious research and ideas from universities around the country as well as from other relevant institutions, including different levels of government and NGOs with solid experience in the field.
Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor for Poverty and Inequality
Emeritus Professor Francis Wilson is serving as acting Pro Vice-Chancellor for Poverty and Inequality until September 2012.
Wilson's main responsibility is to organise a national conference, to be called the Carnegie III Conference on Poverty and Inequality - Phase I, to inform and influence the work of the National Planning Commission. In preparation for this, he is identifying all research across faculties at UCT that are relevant to this theme, and developing a research agenda for the next few years.
The conference, which will be held in the first week of September 2012, will aim to:
- Provide a platform for meeting and debate across a wide spectrum.
- Identify, for consideration by government and other relevant institutions, the most important research and ideas currently circulating within the university, NGOs and other communities pertaining to issues of poverty and inequality in the country.
- Develop a set of suggestions and guidelines - not prescriptions - of the key areas of research that could be focused on in preparation for what could be the final conference of the Carnegie3 Inquiry in 2014 or 2015.
Read more details about the Carnegie III Conference on Poverty and Inequality
Links
PII Project Database
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Conference pools SA insights into poverty
Monday Paper article 20/8/2012
Poverty project aims high
Monday Paper article 7/5/2012
