Poverty Reduction And Pro Poor Growth The Role Of Empowerment

Empowerment of those living in poverty is both a critical driver and an important measure of poverty reduction. This report aims to build donor understanding of empowerment and how best to support it.

Empowerment of those living in poverty is both a critical driver and an important measure of poverty reduction. This report aims to build donor understanding of empowerment and how best to support it.

This publication offers a framework for the empowerment of people living in poverty throughout the world that concentrates on increasing people's freedom of choice and action to shape their own lives. Based on analysis of practical experiences, the book identifies four key elements to support empowerment: information, inclusion and participation, improved accountability and local organisational capacity. This framework is then applied to five areas of action to improve development effectiveness: provision of basic services, improved local governance, improved national governance, pro-poor market development, and access to justice and legal aid. It also offers twenty 'tools and practices' which concentrate on a wide-range of topics to support the empowerment of the poor.

Economic growth is the most important determinant of poverty reduction. But countries with similar rates of growth can experience different poverty reduction rates.

Poverty reduction has become a key international development priority in recent years. This publication examines some of the most important current conceptual frameworks and initiatives related to poverty reduction and identifies approaches taken by major international and bilateral organisations. It goes on to explore the conceptual dimensions of poverty and local governance, and the comparative advantages of decentralised governance in tackling poverty. It argues that greater involvement of local populations in decision-making processes may contribute to significant poverty reduction.

'To take birth as a poor man itself is a big punishment. We are facing many difficulties and there is none to support us. We cannot die also. ... Our condition is like applying perfumed oil to mustache when there is no food to eat.' - Male focus group discussion, Appipuram, Andhra Pradesh India has experienced accelerating growth in the last 10 years, yet millions of Indians remain mired in poverty. Why? Most books on growth and poverty reduction are dominated by the perspectives of policy makers and academic experts. 'Moving Out of Poverty: The Promise of Empowerment and Democracy in India' brings together the voices of poor men and women from 300 villages across Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, as it seeks to understand how these people have managed to escape poverty, while others remain stuck, and still others fall into poverty. The study explores the role of institutions such as family, markets and local panchayats, and factors such as aspiration, empowerment, social exclusion and conflict, health and asset accumulation, in explaining escape from poverty and falling into poverty.