The CPRC and other researchers, policymakers, practitioners and activists met  to attempt to raise awareness of the need to prioritise the poorest; identify policies, practices and tools to support them; and examine how they can get their voices heard in the public arena.

The report outlines sucessful strategies and measures to address employment and decent work. In particular, it notes that the challenge of climate change adaptation is being addressed through a global programme involving a major partnership between various organizations, namely the Green Jobs Initiative. It informs that the Initiative was launched jointly by the ILO, UNEP, the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Trade Union Confederation, and the International Organization of Employers in order to promote opportunity, equality and just transitions to sustainable economies, and to mobilize governments, employers and workers to engage in dialogue on coherent policies and effective programmes leading to a green economy and decent work for all. The report provides details on the participation in a Green Jobs Programme through the implementation of Decent Work Country Programmes in 2008 by Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Haiti, India, the Philippines and Somalia.

This country study evaluates the experience of the South African economy with respect to growth, poverty and inequality trends since the advent of democracy in 1994. The post-apartheid government took a definite turn toward greater spending on social security, while job creation and a narrowing of the gap between the so-called first and second economies – the latter defined as the informal part of the economy that is also largely removed from formal sector activities – enjoyed priority in its economic strategy. Despite this focus on uplifting the poor it remains unclear as to what extent government has been successful. Some controversy exists around whether relatively fewer South Africans are poor ten years after the democratic government came into power. There seems to be greater consensus among analysts that inequality has increased. This study attempts to shed some light on these issues, drawing on recent South African literature and data.

Poverty reduction is a central feature of the international development agenda and contemporary poverty reduction strategies increasingly focus on "targeting the poor", yet poverty and inequality remain intractable foes.

Combating Poverty and Inequality argues that this is because many current approaches to reducing poverty and inequality fail to consider key institutional, policy and political dimensions that may be both the causes of poverty and inequality, and the obstacles to their reduction. Moreover, when a substantial proportion of a country's population is poor, it makes little sense to detach poverty from the dynamics of development. For countries that have been successful in increasing the well-being of the majority of their populations over relatively short periods of time, the report shows that progress has occurred principally through state-directed strategies that combine economic development objectives with active social policies and forms of politics that elevate the interests of the poor in public policy.