The Private Sector and Poverty Reduction : Lessons from the Field

Independent Evaluation Group

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: poverty reduction;    private sector;    access to services;    perspective of the poor;    corporate engagement;   

RP-ID  :  99697

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The mission of the International FinanceCorporation (IFC) is to create opportunities for people toescape poverty and improve their lives. There is asubjective dimension to poverty which relates to peoples’perceptions and translates into such basic human concerns asself-confidence, motivation, and hope. Successfuldevelopment projects tap into this dimension and enhance themeaning people give to their endeavors so that people becomethe architects of their own development. Independentevaluation group (IEG) selected four case studies in as manycountries. The countries for these case studies were drawnfrom the two areas of the world with the highest incidenceof absolute and proportional poverty - Asia and Africa. Theprojects represented four different sectors of economicactivity, each important to poverty reduction: amicro-credit and savings financial service in a largeCentral African country; a telecom project in a small EastAfrican country; a farm forestry project in a large SouthAsian country; and a water and sanitation project in amiddle sized East Asian country. This report will discuss anumber of issues relating to the poverty reductioneffectiveness of these four projects: the rationale behindtheir support; understanding the perspective of the poor(demand assessment); adjusting supply to market realities(how companies engage with beneficiaries); access toservices; affordability; and effects (results), followed bya summary and conclusion.