Options for Reaching the Poor More Effectively: Some New Thinking

Abstract

In the last few years, and especially with the 1996 International Poverty Reduction goals for 2015, some rethinking on approaches has been emerging. Several donors — more especially Danida, DFID, Sida, the European Union; the SPA working group on poverty¹ as well as the OECD-DAC Secretariat in Paris — have espoused changed approaches to poverty reduction. Some new ideas are reviewed here: the concept of partnership, the consensus on a single country strategy, a shift towards using sectoral approaches to poverty reduction and mechanisms for linking debt relief to poverty reduction. At this early stage it is only possible to assess the options largely on a priori grounds although there is some relevant partial evidence.