Overview

Shared growth is economic growth in which a significant share of poor people improves their well-being by contributing to and benefiting from the growth process. While there is widespread agreement that economic growth is a necessary condition for sustained poverty reduction, there is ample evidence that the pattern of growth—how growth is generated and how it is distributed—is also critical for accelerating poverty reduction. Similarly, while there is broad agreement on the basic policies that are important for shared growth, the need for strong country specific analysis has been underscored as critical for prioritizing and shaping these policies to fit country needs. Shared growth is not a new concept, yet there is still much to be learned about how to prioritize policy interventions to leverage greater poverty reduction from growth.

In early 2007, PREM launched the multi-donor Diagnostic Facility for Shared Growth to improve the quality and policy relevance of analysis for shared growth.  The program is designed to complement several recent and on-going programs at the Bank devoted to growth and/or poverty analysis. It builds directly on the Operationalizing Pro-Poor Growth (OPPG) program, and is part of the program on Achieving Shared Growth, which is a collaboration between PRMPR, PRMED, and DECRG. It complements activities of several other programs, including Employment and Shared Growth  (PRMPR), the work program on economic growth in PRMED, the Commission on Growth and Development (hotspot) (PRMVP), the DECRG research program on poverty (hotspot), and a program led by DECRG to operationalize the 2006 World Development Report on Equity and Development. Through these complementary efforts, we hope to gain a better understanding of the constraints to accelerating poverty reduction and to produce a package of practical tools and approaches that may help move us closer to achieving shared growth.

This website is organized into the following areas:

• Topics: Introduction to shared growth related topics with links to key readings.
• Tools: Methods (measurement, diagnostics, ex ante impact analysis, and ex poste impact evaluation) to analyze linkages between growth, inequality, and poverty reduction and to help develop and evaluate shared growth policies.
• Work Program: Introduction to the Diagnostic Facility for Shared Growth and summary of the Operationalizing Pro-Poor Growth work program and outputs (Pro-Poor Growth in the 1990s, country case studies, and sectoral papers).
• Publications: Recent shared growth related publications.
• Events: Announcements and materials for upcoming and recent events, such as brown bag lunches, training, and conferences.
• Related Links: Links to other sites related to shared growth at the World Bank and other institutions.

This site is maintained by the PREM Poverty Reduction Group.

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