Ever since the poverty study at the end of the 19th century, poverty alleviation captured the attention of governments of different orientations and the pro-poor activists in the academic and movement circles. The policy measures for poverty alleviation underwent alteration alongside the changes in the conceptual arena and the social economic context domestically and globally. This course introduces students to the conceptual terrain for understanding poverty, which includes the different interpretations of poverty, the conceptual turn from poverty to (in)equality and the recent dominance of the concept of social exclusion. It then interrogates the domestic and global context with which transformation has been going on in the past decade. The practical implications of the theoretical constructs are examined and contextualized. The process of conceiving strategies for poverty alleviation will be explored to equip students of the needed tools for the endeavour.