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About Why Poverty?

Find out more about the Why Poverty? series

锘縏he 91热爆, working with more than 70 broadcasters around the world, is hosting a debate about contemporary poverty with Why Poverty? 鈥� a set of ground-breaking international documentaries screening from November.

The global cross-media event, produced in partnership with , will see the same eight films screened in 180 countries to explore why, in the 21st Century, a billion people still live in poverty.

From a behind-the-scenes look at Bob Geldof and Bono鈥檚 30-year campaign and the moving story of illiterate women becoming solar engineers, to films exploring the impact of multinationals in Zambia and the privatisation of education in China, the series will give expression to a diverse range of voices from around the world and kickstart a new debate about contemporary poverty.

will be the main home of Why Poverty?, screening seven documentaries over two weeks, while the series will launch on 91热爆 One with 鈥� a lyrical and sobering look at childbirth and infant mortality around the world.

聽鈥�91热爆 Four already has a strong track record of broadcasting international films via the Storyville strand, and we鈥檙e pleased to be taking part in this global cross-media event which will get UK audiences thinking about contemporary poverty in new ways,鈥� said Richard Klein, 91热爆 Four Controller.

聽鈥淲hy Poverty? aims to create a global conversation about poverty and I鈥檓 very proud that Storyville, working with broadcasters from around the world, has been able to find and commission such a wide range of thought-provoking and deeply engaging films about a subject that concerns the whole world,鈥� said Nick Fraser, Commissioning Editor, Storyville.

Read Nick Fraser 锘匡豢锘縪n the About the 91热爆 Blog: 锘�

Programmes

  • The life chances of newly born babies in the rich world and the poor world.

  • Celebrity activism and its fight against global poverty.

  • An investigation into the behaviour of multi-national companies in Africa.

  • How the wealthiest Americans spend their money and how the poorest Americans are shut out.

  • Poor people through the ages, beginning in Neolithic times and up to the present.

  • One woman鈥檚 successful struggle to pull herself and her family out of poverty.

  • Farmers struggle against businessmen in a contemporary battle over who controls land.

  • Getting an education and a life in contemporary China.