Creating more opportunities for the poor involves actions to stimulate overall growth, make markets work for poor people, and build their assets.
Encouraging effective private investment
Investment and technological innovation are the main drivers of growth in jobs and labour incomes. Fostering private investment requires reducing risk for private investors. But it also involves ensuring the rule of law and taking measures to fight corruption - tackling business environments based on kickbacks, subsidies for large investors, special deals, and favoured monopolies.
Expanding into international markets (the gains of globalisation)
International markets offer a huge opportunity for job and income growth - in agriculture, industry and services. All countries that have had major reductions in income poverty have made use of international trade. But opening to trade can create losers as well as winners, and it will yield substantial benefits only when countries have the infrastructure and institutions to underpin a strong supply response.
Building the assets of poor people
It is important to create human, physical, natural, and financial assets that poor people own or can use. Achieving this requires the need to focus public spending on poor people. There are powerful complementarities between actions in different areas. Because of close linkages between human and physical assets, for example, improving poor people’s access to energy or transport can increase their access and returns to education. And improving the environment can have significant effects on poverty.
Addressing asset inequalities across gender, ethnic, racial, and social divide
Special action is required in many societies to tackle socially based asset inequalities.
Grameen bank - lending to defeat poverty
Mexico’s Progresa: paying parents to send children to school
Getting infrastructure and knowledge to poor areas - rural and urban
Special action is also needed in poor areas, where a combination of asset deprivations can diminish the material prospects for poor people. Tackling this requires providing social and economic infrastructure in poor, remote areas, including transport, telecommunications, schools, health services, and electricity.