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Abstract
Poverty reduction has been an underlying goal of governments and the development
community since the Second World War, but it was the 1973 Nairobi address
of Robert S. McNamara, then President of the World Bank, that created a new
commitment to directly address poverty reduction in the quest for development
(McNamara 1973). More than half a century after the war and close to 30 years
after Robert McNamara’s speech, poverty is still rampant in many parts of the
globe. Reflections on why this scourge remains, and what we as agricultural economists
can do about it, were the driving forces behind our paper with the late John
L. Dillon entitled ‘Agricultural economists and world poverty: progress and prospects’
(Rola-Rubzen
et al.
2001). The part of our paper that Johnson, Rossmiller
and Sandiford-Rossmiller (JRS) have reacted to was deliberately provocative to
stimulate thinking on ways to combat poverty. We are pleased that someone has
taken the bait. As the two surviving authors, we find ourselves in agreement with
much that JRS have written. However, in preparing this rejoinder we have sadly
missed John Dillon, especially his broad international experience. We note that in
several respects JRS amplify and support some of our points, as well as adding a
new perspective of their own, dealing with the new institutional economics. We find
it hard to work out just where they differ from us.