THE WORLD BANK'S STRATEGY FOR REDUCING POVERTY - From analysis to action
The product of the Bank's analytical work, including World Development Reports, continues to shape the way the Bank fights poverty in the Latin American and Caribbean region. For instance, much of the Bank's support for poverty reduction programs include components aimed at empowering people and their communities, while improving the investment climate of countries to accelerate growth.
Particular to the countries of the Latin American and Caribbean region, the Bank is leveraging its resources on some key objectives to reduce poverty:
- Generating employment
- Reducing risks and building better safety nets
- Improving basic services -- infrastructure, as well as human development
- Reducing corruption; Improving governance to empower poor people to imporve their well-being
Generating employment can be accomplished vis a vis macroeconomic policies targeted to achieve high, but stable growth. Unstable growth often leaves countries and their people vulnerable to economic instability and, as a result, the possibility of increased poverty. This was the case in Colombia, after the effects of an economic recession, increased macroeconomic instability, and persistently high levels of violence led to a significant increase in poverty. Those who were the most adversely affected included children, internally displaced populations, and households with unemployed heads and non-homeowners.
Labor market policies are also instrumental in generating employment. Steep labor taxes and rigid regulations can undermine efforts to create employment.
The World Bank has also been working with borrowing countries to improve the effectiveness of safety net programs designed to help the unemployed.
For example, in the recent Colombia Poverty Report, the World Bank identified that heads of households in that country face twice the risk of suffering extreme poverty than non-heads of household. What's more, this demographic quadrupled its population share between the years 1995 to 2001. To address the vulnerability faced by unemployed heads of households, the Bank is working with Colombian authorities on innovations to safety net programs for the unemployed.
Infrastructure can be a critical asset for the poor. Since the LAC region is heavily urbanized and 70% of the poor live in cities, public services such as water, sanitation, electricity, and public transport play a pivotal role in enabling the poor to lift themselves out of poverty.
As LAC's urbanization trend persists, it is imperative that people who continue to live in rural areas have an opportunity to improve their welfare. Reliable access to markets vis a vis road networks, irrigation and electricity are essential for agroindustry workers and their dependants.
Equally as important is that those who remain in rural areas have an opportunity to provide for themselves. Roads, irrigation, electricity are key infrastructure for securing the future of people residing in rural areas.
An educated workforce is critical to attracting higher-paying jobs. While access to primary and secondary education in LAC is generally good, the quality of education is often low, especially in rural areas where there is the highest concentration of poverty and indigenous people. Secondary education is characterized by high dropout rates. Subsidies for higher education often make it easier for the rich to attend while the poor continue to lack access.
In the developing world, poor people generally receive inferior public services, and in the LAC region, health care is no exception. The Bank continues to work with countries to provide the poor with increased access to preventative health care, such as immunizations or family planning.
Through its lending, policy dialogue and analytic activities, the Bank also works to strengthen the capacity of poor people and socially vulnerable groups to influence development processes as a means to improve their well-being and empowerment. Regional initiatives include measures:
- Promoting and strengthening civil society engagement in projects and in programmatic and adjustment loans;
- Supporting new and more effective social accountability mechanisms in Bank operations
- Mobilizing and strengthening strategic alliances; and
- Enhancing civil society capacities to contribute to the formulation, implementation and monitoring of policies and programs to reduce poverty.
Some successful examples of integrating civil society into the formulation, implementation and monitoring of poverty reduction programs include a recent programmatic loan in Peru that aims to enhance transparency, accountability and civil society participation in the delivery of social services. Also, in October 2002, a regional forum on "Governance for the Empowerment of Poor People," brought together more than 100 governmental, private sector and civil society participants from 18 countries.
For more information on World Bank assistance to poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, visit:
http://www.worldbank.org/lacpoverty |
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