Fostering Inclusive “ Growth + ” for the Poorest

This part of the book focuses on economic growth, in particular on policies that create an environment that enables income growth for the poorest— that is, “growth+.” The ultra poor face new challenges—including economic recession and volatility—that affect strategies to enhance their assets and income. Global macroeconomic trends affect poor countries’ ability to facilitate pro-poor growth and even growth in general. Furthermore, poor countries, which are for the most part agricultural societies, face the additional constraint that agricultural growth takes place in the context of increasingly globalized agricultural value chains. Nevertheless, there is much that national governments can do to promote pro-poor growth. To that end, when they consider how to engender this type of growth, countries need to account for the potential trade-offs between economic growth and increasing inequality, particularly in the short to medium run. The chapters and the essay in this part of the book address these issues in more detail. The first two chapters look at some of the exogenous factors that affect the growth and development strategies available to developing countries, and the next five look more closely at what is meant by pro-poor growth and at the inherent trade-offs that policymakers must consider in their strategies. The final five chapters focus on specific policies—aspects of labor markets, fiscal policies, and a framework for property rights—that are important components of creating an environment that facilitates income growth for the poorest.