Poverty Reduction and Promotion of Social Equity: Report on Activities in the Year 2000 and an Action Plan in the Areas of Special Emphasis

This report recounts the poverty reduction and social equity enhancement activities conducted by Inter American Development Bank in 2000. The paper highlights four priority areas of the bank's institutional strategy, under which innovative projects were approved. These areas include:

• Social development;
• Modernization of the State;
• Competitiveness;
• Regional integration.

The paper also describes the bank's activities in the non-lending area which take the form of:

• Knowledge building and disseminating through:
  • Research projects;
  • Dissemination of good practices.
• Assisting on improving data on poverty and living conditions in the region.
• Helping countries implement national poverty reduction strategies.

The paper presents the bank's action plan in areas of special emphasis for poverty reduction and equity enhancement. This includes focusing on:

• Supporting preparation and implementation of national poverty-reduction strategies;
• Identifying, promoting and implementing innovative projects in nonsocial areas that directly benefit the poor;
• Assisting institutionalization of comprehensive social protection systems.

The paper concludes that economic growth of the Latin American countries alone will not suffice the goal of poverty reduction and additional measures are needed to ensure that the poor benefit from growth on an equal scale.