COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT: MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Abstract

How far has humankind come in the last 50, 20 or even 10 years in achieving the goal of freeing people from what Mandela called “the prison of poverty”? In the year 2006, it is estimated that 1.3 billion people world-wide still live in absolute poverty. Most are in developing countries, but poverty also reaches into industrialized regions, such as North America and Europe. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the Member States of the United Nations strive to address critical poverty issues and solve some of the most pressing problems within the next decade. But will they be successful? Are citizens in donor countries fatigued by endless calls to arms? Is there really light at the end of the long, dark tunnel of inequality? Why have we not yet resolved the key problems? And have any poverty alleviation solutions of the past really worked?