This volume presents a variety of papers on issues related to growth, development and poverty prepared by specialists in their particular development-related fields. While the living standards of most people around the world have improved over time in absolute terms, many are still in desperate poverty. The major bulk of humanity lives in the continent of Asia, and it is here that some of the more spectacular contrasts in both economic growth and levels of affluence and destitution can be found. Whether India and China can continue to grow as fast as they have done in recent years remains to be seen. More importantly perhaps, whether growth alone can reduce poverty in these countries and in others is a question that needs to be discussed and understood. Outside of India and China, the African continent, particularly the nations in Sub-Saharan Africa is home to large numbers of poor and deprived humanity. Many of these countries are natural resource rich, but that has not enabled many of them to achieve adequate growth and reduce poverty. As countries grow, they put extra pressure on both global resources and the natural environment. The question as to whether there are finite limits to economic growth in a global sense is one that has long exercised thinkers. Technological progress has often enabled countries to economise on resource use without sacrificing growth. Whether that can continue indefinitely is also a question that has acquired a new urgency with the recent faster growth experience of the most populous countries.

This book provides practical policy recommendations that are useful for developing Asia and for accelerating poverty reduction plans in the rest of the world. Poverty reduction in all its forms remains one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. In developing Asia, rapid growth in countries and sub-regions such as China, India, and Southeast Asia has lifted millions out of poverty, but progress has been uneven. On the other hand, the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the global economic recession that it has caused are pushing millions of people back into poverty. Poverty reduction, inclusive growth, and sustainable development are inseparable, and poverty reduction is the premise for sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a bold commitment to finish what we started and end poverty in all forms and dimensions by 2030. However, because of the current global recession, the world is not on track to end poverty by 2030. Given the aforementioned situation, if we plan to achieve the no-poverty target in line with the SDGs, governments need to reconsider their policies and economies need to allocate their resources for this aim. Owing to the importance of the topic, this book provides several thematic and empirical studies on the roles of small and medium-sized enterprises, local businesses and trusts, international remittances and microfinance, energy security and energy efficiency in poverty reduction, and inclusive growth.

This book looks at the major policy challenges facing developing Asia and how the region sustains rapid economic growth to reduce multidimensional poverty through socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable measures. Asia is facing many challenges arising from population growth, rapid urbanization, provision of services, climate change and the need to redress declining growth after the global financial crisis. This book examines poverty and related issues and aims to advance the development of new tools and measurement of multidimensional poverty and poverty reduction policy analysis. The book covers a wide range of issues, including determinants and causes of poverty and its changes; consequences and impacts of poverty on human capital formation, growth and consumption; assessment of poverty strategies and policies; the role of government, NGOs and other institutions in poverty reduction; rural-urban migration and poverty; vulnerability to poverty; breakdown of poverty into chronic and transitory components; and a comparative study on poverty issues in Asia and other regions. The book will appeal to all those interested in economic development, resources, policies and economic welfare and growth.

Poverty reduction remains a major development challenge in much of Asia and the Pacific. Historically, technology has played a central role in raising living standards across the region, including those of the poor. The Green Revolution and various ...

Asia’s rapid economic growth has led to a significant reduction in extreme poverty, but accompanied by rising inequality. This book deals with three questions: What have been the trends of inequality in Asia and the Pacific? What are the key drivers of rising inequality in the region? How should Asian countries respond to the rising inequality? Technological change, globalization, and market-oriented reform have been the key drivers of Asia’s remarkable growth and poverty reduction, but they have also had significant distribution consequences. These three drivers of growth cannot be hindered because they are the sources of productivity improvement and betterment of quality of life. This book will be useful to those interested in policy options that could be deployed by Asian countries in confronting rising inequality.

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2017 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 3.21, Gazi University Ankara (Social Science), course: International Economics, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to highlight different stakeholders’ competence to get rid of poverty in Asia-pacific and how these measures have impacted the country’s welfare. Poverty continues to be a global problem affecting people either directly or indirectly. Even though there are several factors which can be recognized to being the cause, human factors play a huge role in creating it. Asia-pacific is one of the areas with the chief levels of poverty. Even though there are some areas which can be regarded to be having minimal poverty rates, it is imperative to take into contemplation some areas which have significantly been able to nurture economically regardless of the harsh conditions available in the area. The people's republic of china is a pronounced example when it comes to such a case. However this region might have been able to develop over time, it is imperative to remember that critical measures have been undertaken. Some of the ways this has been made possible include through; Stakeholder involvement in the extermination of poverty in Asia-pacific, the management of urbanization for inclusive development, and Infrastructural development. To them to do so, different stakeholders have actively been involved towards making sure that relevant measures have been undertaken. The regulation of populations in either setting allows the government and other stakeholders to derive relevant plans aimed at enhancing development. This case is not any different to Asia-pacific countries. As such, countries are adequately prepared with strategies of ensuring that all these processes aimed at combatting poverty have sufficiently been integrated into a country's development activities.

In this book, a group of distinguished authors addresses three broad questions: what broad strategies and macroeconomic policies best support poverty reduction efforts in Asia; what role should targeted antipoverty interventions play, and how should such interventions be designed; and how is poverty measured, what new approaches are needed, and how does measurement affect our understanding of poverty. Each of these three broad themes is also considered together in chapters examining the poverty situations in a number of countries in Asia and the Pacific.

Despite the considerable economic growth of the Asia-Pacific, poverty continues to be a major problem. One key way to create sustainable livelihoods and to provide poor households an escape route from poverty is microfinance. Since the early 1980s, microfinance practitioners have proven that the poor are creditworthy, capable of utilizing scarce capital efficiently in viable incom-generating projects and able to pay back their loans. This book collects the experience of microfinance practitioners in 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region to describe the present state of the art. It is designed to provide an overview of the subject: why it is so essential to poverty reduction; what is the best practice; what kind of policy framework and regulatory environment is required. It offers both an extensive survey of the academic literature and a selection of case studies, all from authors who have been active practitioners in microfinance for many years. The case studies cover four key countries in South Asia and three countries in East Asia in which microfinance had become particularly important. There is also a regional chapter covering the Pacific islands.

This publication summarizes the papers and presentations in Workshops on Economics of Infrastructure in a Globalized World, funded by the Asian Development Bank through a regional technical assistance project. The discussions at the conferences focused on three themes: (i) the role of infrastructure in supporting inclusive growth and poverty reduction; (ii) the need for appropriate soft infrastructure, including the policy environment and regulatory institutions; and (iii) the potential for public and private partnerships in infrastructure provision. Each theme elaborates the premise that extensive, efficient infrastructure services are essential drivers of economic growth and sustainable poverty reduction.