Reducing Poverty on a Global Scale: Learning and Innovating for Development: Findings from the Shanghai Global Learning Initiative

In 2003 the World Bank, in partnership with the Government of the People's Republic of China, began a one year-long global learning process that focused on worldwide efforts to reduce poverty along different dimensions. A series of case studies, multi-country interactive videoconferences, online dialogues, and field visits led up to the working conference in Shanghai, on May 25 - 27, 2004. Development lessons and experiences were shared and debated at this event by policymakers, politicians, donors, academics, development practitioners, civil society groups, and representatives from development institutions. After such unprecedented knowledge exchange on worldwide poverty reduction efforts, many lessons were learnt about how to accelerate development and contribute to reducing poverty. Capturing the findings from the Shanghai Global Learning Initiative, Reducing Poverty on a Global Scale attempts to contribute to the broader existing knowledge on poverty reduction and the effectiveness of aid. The objective is to enlighten development practitioners about observed achievements towards reducing poverty and the factors behind them. Each of the chapters extracts implementation lessons learnt from a subset of case studies prepared along different poverty dimensions, focusing on such factors as the role of commitment and leadership, institutional innovation, learning and experimentation, and external catalysts. Instead of recommending particular solutions or best practices, the book distills key findings from the strategically selected examples and weaves them into a topical narrative. A companion CD-ROM contains all of the case study summaries presented at the May, 2004 Shanghai conference.