This is the first volume on the subject of the alleviation of world suffering. At the same time it is also the first book framing the fields of global socio-economic development, world health, human rights, peace studies, sustainability, and poverty within the challenge of alleviating suffering and improving quality of life. Both international studies and global development have become specialized and fragmented, whereas this work assembles all of these development fragments together in order to determine whether common ground exists to make headway in reducing global suffering. Leading experts in these various fields of development and suffering have been recruited worldwide to give scholarly assessments of the major human problems and how they can be successfully tackled.

Ronald E. Anderson is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota and has published nine books, over 100 articles, 150 presentations at professional meetings, 15 large research grants, and at least 40 consulting positions. For two decades, Ronald E. Anderson coordinated research on information technology in education in over 25 countries, publishing several books from that international project. To support his writing he established the Foundation for Relief of Suffering, a 501c3 nonprofit organization; and to disseminate his conclusions, he built and maintained the website WorldSuffering.org. The University of Minnesota has given him several small research grants during retirement to support his research on suffering.