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Metadata only record As part of the World Bank's poverty reduction strategy, Poverty Assessments have been carried out for a number of countries which analyse who the poor are, the causes of poverty and poverty reduction policies. This article reviews what can be learnt from the twenty-five Assessments prepared for countries in sub-Saharan Africa up to 1996. Whilst other factors are acknowledged in identifying the poor, the Assessments over-emphasize income-poverty defined against an inevitably arbitrary poverty line. The Assessments are shown to be weak in addressing the causes of poverty, often ignoring the historical perspective, political context, and international dimensions such as debt and commodity price trends, focusing instead on the lack of growth in recent years as the main cause of poverty. Weak understanding of the causes of poverty undermines the basis for country-specific poverty reduction strategies: policy recommendations are usually an uncritical presentation of the World Bank's three-pronged strategy of growth, investment in human capital and social safety nets. Although the Assessments do not explicitly acknowledge the point, they suggest that the number of poor people in Africa will continue to rise; nor is there any basis for confidence that policies are being put in place to redress the situation.

This paper aims to operationalise the G20 commitment to ensure that the benefits of global growth are shared with Low Income Countries. Growth is central to poverty reduction and the achievement of MDGs, and in developing countries it is episodic and volatile. However, while the current LICs have poor growth histories, the countries that started off the 1960s as LICs have had virtually the same average growth rates as other country groups. We review the evidence connecting long-run growth and growth accelerations and collapses to six areas of policy: trade, skills development, macro-stability, financial development, infrastructure investment and human development. Growth strategies have to be developed and owned by LIC governments and societies and they need to be tailored to individual country needs. However, there are some things which the G20 can do to help. We group these actions under three headings: mitigating downturns, boosting underlying growth rates and developing institutions and knowledge. A final annex describes how Korea’s spectacular growth strategy can be viewed through these lenses.

The 2012 World Development Report recognized that expanding women's agency - their ability to make decisions and take advantage of opportunities is key to improving their lives as well as the world. This report represents a major advance in global knowledge on this critical front. The vast data and thousands of surveys distilled in this report cast important light on the nature of constraints women and girls continue to face globally. This report identifies promising opportunities and entry points for lasting transformation, such as interventions that reach across sectors and include life-skills training, sexual and reproductive health education, conditional cash transfers, and mentoring. It finds that addressing what the World Health Organization has identified as an epidemic of violence against women means sharply scaling up engagement with men and boys. The report also underlines the vital role information and communication technologies can play in amplifying women's voices, expanding their economic and learning opportunities, and broadening their views and aspirations. The World Bank Group's twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity demand no less than the full and equal participation of women and men, girls and boys, around the world.