Poverty Alleviation In Poor Countries

1988 Words8 Pages

The wide developmental gap existing between the world’s countries has resulted in attempts by experts to propose solutions that would enable low income countries to escape the poverty trap by entering into the virtuous circle of growth. These propositions focus on the role of foreign aid, institutions as well as policies in changing development outcomes.
This review seeks to analyse the methods and the recommendations of the authors of Poor Economics whilst examining the extent to which the book contributes to the international development debate on poverty alleviation in poor countries. Firstly it will provide an introduction to the book and its background, secondly it will summarize the contents of the book and thirdly comment on the style …show more content…

The aim of Poor Economics is to serve as a guide to all stakeholders in the field of poverty alleviation.
Furthermore, the 365 page book, published in 2011 and divided into two parts with five chapters in each part argues that to fight poverty, experts do not need to ask big questions like the role of free markets, democracy, foreign aid etc. but rather look at how to deal with particular problems of poor people. According to them the battle against poverty is not overwhelming rather “a set of concrete problems that, once properly identified and understood can be solved one at a …show more content…

They also provide real life instances of the lives of the poor proposing that more than good intentions is needed to help. These authors employ a similar style probably because of their association with the Innovations for Poverty (IPA) an affiliate of Banerjee and Duflo’s J-PAL. Their approach is remarkable and novel for development especially as they focus on the lives of the people through first-hand experiments rather than proposing a sovereign top-bottom approach and recommendations as solutions to the problems of poor

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