Study Highlights Key Elements Of Successful Poverty Reduction
More than 100 Case Studies Yield Operational Lessons for Development
Press Release
WASHINGTON, November 3, 2005 - A new World Bank report concludes that reducing poverty at scale depends on several factors including leadership and commitment, institutional innovation, learning and experimentation, external catalysts such as donor assistance and sometimes even economic shocks.
Reducing Poverty on a Global Scale: Learning and Innovating for Development draws on more than100 case studies of poverty reduction worldwide prepared for the Global Learning Process and Conference on Scaling Up Poverty Reduction in 2004. World Bank analysts have identified the main factors that help or hurt in reducing poverty at scale, and what this means for World Bank and donor operations.
“We have to discover how to scale up the successful initiatives to a depth and breadth where we can really have an impact on poverty, where we can achieve the Millennium Development Goals,â€? said Jim Wolfensohn, Former President of the World Bank and currently Special Envoy, Gaza Disengagement, Quartet Principals. “The challenges we face are just too big. It’s not a hundred schools need; it’s 10,000 schools. It’s not ten bridges; it’s 5,000 bridges. It’s not a thousand people we need to reach, but millions and billions of people.â€?
A whole chapter of the report assesses China’s experiences in promoting economic growth and reducing poverty. Over the last 25 years, China has achieved the most rapid large-scale poverty reduction in human history.
“The Shanghai global learning process used the case study approach to examine how a wide range of countries scaled up poverty reduction interventions,â€? says Frannie Léautier, Vice President, World Bank Institute. “The cases looked at successful programs, projects, and practices that have something to say about what works on the ground, and in a variety of settings. The learning process was unique because it emphasized South-South knowledge sharing.â€?
Country cases analyzed in the report include Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Uganda, and Korea. Sector-specific cases cover infrastructure, judicial system reform, microfinance, health, education, and community driven development, with detailed descriptions about finding solutions by trial and error and through rigorous impact evaluation feedback. Examples include Morocco’s rural roads, Kazakhstan’s SME and microenterprise lending program, and Rwanda’s adaptation of traditional justice mechanisms.
The report concludes that although progress appears to be the result of multidimensional interventions by more than one actor, sustained and shared growth at the macroeconomic level, seems to be the a necessary foundation for poverty reduction in a particular country.
The report also stresses that rigorous impact evaluations could create the basis for scaling up poverty reduction efforts throughout the developing world. The evaluation of the Oportunidades program (previously called Progresa) in Mexico, for example, demonstrated that school enrollment ratios and years of schooling had increased which convinced the Mexican authorities to support and even scale up the program in spite of political changes.
