Assessing Strategies for Reducing Poverty

Abstract

The project of global human development is now better defined and organized than ever in human history, not least because goals have become increasingly explicit and focused. An important early statement of goals, in Article 25 of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was highly qualitative: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Over time human development goals have become more quantitative (and more gender-neutral), but they frequently have been more oriented toward input or process than toward output and goal accomplishment. For instance, in 1974 the UN General Assembly declared support for a New International Economic Order (NIEO). The NIEO called for financial aid at 0.7% of donor GDP, debt relief, industrial strategies, and increased savings. Yet over time a set of accomplishment-oriented and specific, measurable goals has emerged for the reduction of hunger, of infant mortality, and much else. The global community took an especially large step in September 2000, when at the United Nations Millennium Summit 189 countries committed to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the first integrated set of development goals with elaborated targets and quantifiable indicators. For instance, the first goal, targeting reduction of poverty, specifically called for halving by 2015 the proportion of people around the world who live on less than $1/day (relative to levels in 1990). The pursuit of such goals requires three sets of interacting activities (see Figure 1). First, measuring and assessing current conditions and the trajectory of change provides foundational knowledge concerning the specific targets …