Each New Year invites reflection — not only on what lies ahead, but on what truly matters. As some of you are aware, I am working with ChatGPT to eventually bring my poverty reduction into the knowledge pool of AI.
Over the past months, work on the Poverty Reduction Knowledge Portal has continued more quietly than planned. Life, health, and responsibilities intervened, as they often do. Yet the direction has become clearer: to re-centre poverty reduction as the heart of development and economics, grounded in field experience rather than abstraction.
This Portal is not being built in a hurry. It is being shaped carefully — beginning with the question of why poverty reduction disappeared from mainstream economics, and closing with principles drawn from decades of practice. The practical chapters are largely in place; the opening and closing are now being polished so the whole can speak with clarity and purpose. The portal should be released shortly.
In the coming year, I hope this space will grow steadily — not through frequent posts, but through thoughtful ones. Poverty reduction deserves patience, honesty, and dialogue, not slogans.
As we step into the New Year, my hope is that we can continue learning together — practitioners, students, policymakers, and communities — and keep the poor at the centre of our thinking and action.
Wishing you a thoughtful and hopeful New Year 2026.
Rajaratnam Abel
#NewYear #PovertyReduction #Development #LearningTogether
Rajaratnam Abel 