Rural poverty is often unseen or misperceived by outsiders. Dr Chambers contends that researchers, scientists, administrators and fieldworkers rarely appreciate the richness and validity of rural people's knowledge or the hidden nature of rural poverty. This is a challenging book for all concerned with rural development, as practitioners, academics, students or researchers.
Robert^^Chambers
Since the 1980s, he has been one of the leading advocates for putting the poor, destitute and marginalised at the centre of the processes of development policy. In particular he argues they should be taken into account when the development problem is identified, policy formulated and projects implemented. He popularised within development circles such phrases as "putting the last first" and stressed the now generally accepted need for development professionals to be critically self-aware. The widespread acceptance of a "participatory" approach is in part due to his work.[1] This includes participatory rural appraisal.
Robert Chambers and G.R. Conway provided the first elaborated definition of the concept of sustainable livelihoods which reads:
"a livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (stores, resources, claims and access) and activities required for a means of living: a livelihood is sustainable which can cope with and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net benefits too there livelihoods at the local and global levels and in the short and long term"