The research network PEGNet (Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network) was founded in 2005 as a joint initiative of the Kiel Institute for World Economics (IfW), Prof. Rainer Klump (University of Frankfurt), Prof. Stephan Klasen (University of Göttingen), and the German Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ) as well as the two development cooperation agencies GTZ and KfW. The motivation underlying this initiative was to foster research cooperation between German academic institutions working on poverty issues in developing countries and to intensify the exchange of knowledge between academia and development cooperation. Recognizing that the magnitude and quality of economic growth will have an important bearing on achieving the Millennium Development Goals, PEGNet’s research agenda is focusing on selected topical and methodological research areas. These are expected to have a strong leverage as regards sustainable poverty reduction and/or to provide a significant contribution towards evaluating and monitoring progress in poverty reduction, with the overriding objective of identifying pathways out of poverty in the developing world.
