According to the UN, around 800 million people live in poverty worldwide, with "many lacking access to adequate food, clean drinking water and sanitation." In an effort to reduce these staggeringly high numbers, the university launched this week the Stanford Center on Global Poverty and Development, a joint venture between the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies, known as Stanford Seed.
As reported by Stanford News yesterday:
The center's mission is threefold: to support path-breaking research on global poverty and development within Stanford and beyond; to inspire students through hands-on research opportunities, fellowships and events; and to inform policies and practices through strategic partnerships with global policymakers and thought leaders as well as on-campus events that foster new ideas and university-wide collaborations.
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The center will expand the scope and pace of research already underway by faculty and students from across the university - experts in economics, political science, sociology, engineering and medicine, among other fields - who are generating breakthrough insights into the roots of poverty and creating solutions that work. High-resolution satellite imagery is allowing Stanford researchers to identify and study hidden pockets of poverty around the world in a way not previously possible. A new effort to map and survey employers and their employees in China - the largest research effort of its type in the world - is shedding light on key labor issues confronting the 'factory of the world.'
Stanford Medicine's Grant Miller, PhD, is director of the new center. "Global poverty is extremely complex," he explained in the piece. "It demands multidisciplinary collaboration and meaningful engagement with decision makers. Stanford has a culture and proven track record of interdisciplinary research and real-world impact, and it is now poised to lead in work confronting global poverty and promoting development."
Previously: A new tool for breaking the cycle of poverty and Stanford researchers develop accurate, cost-effective way to map poverty
Photo by Karthikeyan K
