The design and management of sustainable projects to alleviate poverty in South Asia: collected papers10

Approximately 420 million people in Asia live in absolute poverty, suffer from nutritional deficiencies, and do not earn enough income to obtain even the basic necessities, despite high and sustained rates of economic growth. The alleviation of poverty is a primary objective of all South Asian governments, however, there is still debate on how to achieve this objective. This report presents the findings of a seminar held to review experiences with different approaches to poverty alleviation and to draw from them general lessons that can be used to improve the design and management of future poverty alleviation projects and programs. The report covers strategies for poverty alleviation; sector experience with poverty alleviation in Asia; and guidelines for the selection, design, implementation and sustainability of poverty alleviation programs. It concludes that many poverty alleviation projects fail because of a weak policy environment, poor project design and management, insufficient attention to administrative and organizational details, the opposition of powerful stakeholders, and the lack of attention to gender issues.