The School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS) and the South African Research Chairs initiative (SARChI) will host a workshop on Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment on the Howard College Campus on 19 and 20 June. The overall purpose of the workshop is to review the state of poverty research in South Africa in relation to the past, current and future work programmes of the SARChI Chair in Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment. Holder of the SARCHi Chair in Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment within the School, Professor Sarah Bracking, said: ‘In particular we will explore research which can inform policy makers on the means to increase the efficiency of service provision and social grants. Also, we are introducing new work on economic justice and the macro economy. ‘The workshop is at an important time in international development as the debate on what will happen after the Millennium Development Goals is potentially detracting attention away from the still nearly 1 billion people globally suffering from chronic poverty.’ Bracking said the workshop would benefit those attending by allowing them to reach a new focus on what could be done by researchers reaching out to activists in South Africa and beyond. The workshop is supported by the National Research Foundation and the South African Department of Science and Technology. Some of the topics to be covered are black economic empowerment policy and economic justice; white elephants and development; poverty production in South Africa’s extractive economy and ICTs and poverty reduction.