IFPRI Forum

September 2006

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For the past two decades, progress in reducing poverty throughout the developing world has been significant, but largely uneven. While several East Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and particularly China have made great strides, South Asia has achieved only modest success by comparison, and Africa has experienced a steady increase in poverty.

At a recent conference in Beijing entitled "Poverty Reduction Strategy in the New Millennium: Emerging Issues, Experiences and Lessons," researchers, policymakers, and representatives from nongovernmental organizations and the donor community from China, India, Ethiopia, Ghana, and other Asian, African, and Latin American countries examined why outcomes have varied so dramatically across developing countries, and identified strategies that can help promote growth and improve the livelihoods of the poor.

Dessalegn Rahmato, from the Forum for Social Studies in Ethiopia, says that one reason China has had significant success in reducing poverty where other countries have not is because it experienced exceptionally high rates of economic growth for more than two decades and invested heavily in basic infrastructure and water conservancy, services, and manufacturing enterprises. Another key factor was that the government was fully committed to these long-term growth and poverty-reduction strategies.

"There are only a few countries in Asia and none in Africa that have experienced economic growth and development comparable to China in the last two decades," he says. "Indeed, African economies have been pretty much stagnant in this period, fuelling more poverty rather than less."

Conference participants concluded that the most effective strategies for helping African and South Asian countries to reduce poverty include: (1) a strong commitment by governments to promote broad-based pro-poor growth; (2) a broader participation of various stakeholders, including nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and mostly importantly, the poor themselves; (3) and the use of different development strategies for different stages of development. According to Shenggen Fan, director of IFPRI's Development Strategies and Governance Division, promoting broad-based growth should precede the promotion of large, targeted programs. He said that without broad-based growth, targeted programs will not be sustainable and long-term poverty-reduction effects will be compromised.