Promoting Shared Prosperity in South Asia

The geography of poverty has changed. More than 70 percent of the world s poor live not in low-income countries, but in middle-income countries. In 2008, nearly 570 million people lived on less than US$1.25 a day in South Asia, compared to 385 mill...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Ghani, Ejaz, Iyer, Lakshmi, Mishra, Saurabh
Format:	Brief
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	ABSOLUTE POVERTY ANTI-POVERTY ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAM BANK POLICY CENTRAL GOVERNMENT CENTRAL GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES CHANGES IN POVERTY COMMERCIAL INVESTMENTS DEBT DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ECONOMIC POLICY EFFICIENCY OF RESOURCE USE EXPENDITURE EXPENDITURES EXTREME POVERTY FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FINANCIAL RESOURCES FISCAL CAPACITY FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION FISCAL DISCIPLINE FISCAL TRANSFERS FOOD SALES GLOBAL POVERTY GOVERNMENT FINANCE GOVERNMENT REVENUES GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT GROWTH PRO-POOR GROWTH RATE GROWTH RATES HEADCOUNT POVERTY HEADCOUNT RATIO HEALTH CARE HEALTH OUTCOMES HIGH POVERTY HOLDING INCOME GROWTH INSURANCE INSURANCE MARKETS INVESTMENT RATES LAGGING REGIONS LEVEL PLAYING FIELD LIVING STANDARDS LOCAL GOVERNMENTS LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES MACROECONOMIC STABILITY MARKET INTEGRATION MARKET PRICES MINISTRY OF FINANCE MONETARY FUND NATIONAL POVERTY NATIONAL POVERTY LINE PER CAPITA EXPENDITURES PER CAPITA INCOME PERSISTENT POVERTY POLICY MAKERS POLICY RESEARCH POOR COUNTRIES POOR PEOPLE POOR POPULATION POOR REDISTRIBUTION POOR REGIONS POORER REGIONS POVERTY ACROSS COUNTRIES POVERTY ANALYSIS POVERTY CHANGE POVERTY GAP POVERTY LEVEL POVERTY LINE POVERTY RATE POVERTY RATES POVERTY REDUCTION POVERTY TRAPS PRIVATE INVESTMENT PRO-POOR PROPERTY RIGHTS PROVINCE PUBLIC ECONOMICS PUBLIC EXPENDITURE PUBLIC EXPENDITURE REVIEW PUBLIC FINANCE PUBLIC FINANCE STATISTICS PUBLIC SECTOR REDUCING INEQUALITY REDUCING POVERTY REGIONAL DISPARITIES REGIONAL LEVEL REVENUE PER CAPITA SAFETY NETS SOCIAL SPENDING SQUARED POVERTY GAP SUBNATIONAL SUBNATIONAL GOVERNMENTS SUBNATIONAL REGIONS TAX TOTAL EXPENDITURE TOTAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES TRANSPARENCY WELFARE PROGRAMS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/03/17429860/promoting-shared-prosperity-south-asia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17028

Description
Summary:	The geography of poverty has changed. More than 70 percent of the world s poor live not in low-income countries, but in middle-income countries. In 2008, nearly 570 million people lived on less than US$1.25 a day in South Asia, compared to 385 million in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, nearly 70 percent of the poor people in South Asia live in the lagging regions. Improving the living standards of these regions is crucial to achieving the goal of shared prosperity. Economic growth is not sufficient to enable the lagging regions of South Asia to catch up with the leading regions, in terms of proportional reductions in poverty rates. Policies must be specifically targeted toward achieving greater growth and poverty reduction in these regions. One particular policy channel to achieve shared prosperity is pro-poor fiscal transfers. For the most part, interstate fiscal transfers in South Asian countries do promote equity through transfer of resources to poorer regions, but this outcome usually occurs when pro-poor redistribution has explicit rules and transparency. Further, simply directing financial resources to lagging regions may not be sufficient, and may need to be complemented with increases in capacity, transparency, and participation to facilitate accountability at the local level. Policy makers need to boost shared prosperity and take another look at the millennium development goal paradigm. A new lens is needed- one that shifts the focus of policy from national to subnational level, and from leading to lagging regions, where poverty, gender disparity, and human misery are concentrated.

Promoting Shared Prosperity in South Asia

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