This book explores the place of poor people within a rich variety of value chains, focusing upon lagging, rural regions in Africa and Asia, and how they can 'upgrade' within such chains. Upgrading is a key concept for value chain analysis and refers to the acquisition of technological capabilities and market linkages that enable firms to improve their competitiveness and move into higher-value activities. The authors examine a range of evidence to assess whether the 'bottom billion' people, living mainly in the rural areas of low-income countries, can improve their position through productive strategies and, if so, how? They propose an innovative conceptual framework of value chain upgrading for some of the most marginal producers in the poorest local economies. They demonstrate how interventions can improve poverty and the environment for poor people supplying a wide range of services and agricultural and food products to local, regional and global markets. This analysis is based on empirical research conducted in Senegal, Mali, Tanzania, India, Nepal, Philippines and Vietnam. The main focus is on poverty, environment and gender outcomes of upgrading interventions, and represents one of the key challenges of contemporary development economics.

The Closer's Song is set in Greenwich Connecticut circa 1989 just prior to the last recession. It is the story of the unique relationship between a highly successful executive and his alter ego. Gerald Calderone now wealthy, ponders the cost of his fame and fortune. We learn of his fondness for fast cars and for a particular subliminal tape that he plays incessantly. We are drawn back to his childhood in suburban New York circa 1959. Here we learn of his early pagan existence. We are introduced to an autistic child, ridiculed and abused by those around him. Shy and reserved he ultimately turns to religion for solace, only to encounter innumerable obstacles to self-fulfillment. It is in his youth that he meets a unique individual named Francis. These two outcasts form a bond, and together search out their own personal salvations. Gerald a seminarian through learning and orthodoxy; Francis a hippie, through nature and humanism. Their relationship is intense and it leads them from Sleepy Hollow to Woodstock, Greenwich Village and back. They have such a profound effect on each other that the distinction between them becomes somewhat blurred. It ultimately leads to a suicide attempt in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery at the foot of the Headless Horseman Bridge. Drugs sex and rock and roll are part of the backdrop, as is raw human emotion. Eventually they drift apart, as Gerald embraces materialism, and Francis retreats into the woods. Gerald realizes his indebtedness to Francis when at the height of his career he stumbles. Plugging in his favorite tape once too often, he reaches out to his long lost friend only to be made acutely aware, of the secret he has been carrying for twenty years.