This book addresses one of the most intractable problems in development – what can poor people in rural areas do to improve their lives? Most of the one billion people living in rich countries and about three-quarters of the 5.6 billion people living in developing countries have left poverty behind and are enjoying improving livelihoods. There are, however, about one billion people living in rural areas who have not benefited from globalization and are being left behind – often in extreme income poverty – and many more face deprivation even if their income is above the poverty line. Their livelihoods are stagnant
and the prospects for ending this humanitarian disaster are not encouraging.