Sustainable Economic Development: Policy Document

This paper presents a broad outline of the Hivos vision on the root causes of poverty and describes how Hivos intends to direct its activities in the coming years.

The paper states that Hivos's assumption is that more inclusive and transparent decision-making processes, at the national and international level, will lead to better outcomes for poor people and to more sustainable development. It states that Hivos, along with its partners, is addressing the following issues from a market perspective:

• Access of poor people to material and non-material resources, markets and supporting organizations;
• Representation of their interests and claim making capacity through capacity and organization building, institutional development, linking and networking;
• Improving the conditions for, and quality of decision-making processes.

This document is divided into eight chapters:

• Chapter 1: the broad policy context within Hivos, which surrounds the sustainable economic development sector;
• Chapter 2: the present situation within the economy and environment sectors;
• Chapter 3: the sustainable economic development problems that most affect the poor according to Hivos and the Hivos perspective of why these problems occur;
• Chapter 4: the solutions that Hivos considers most appropriate;
• Chapter 5: goals and objectives of the sustainable economic development sector;
• Chapter 6: strategies to achieve these goals;
• Chapter 7: the instruments that Hivos has to implement these strategies.

In conclusion, the paper states that Hivos will continue to support a variety of organizations active in different fields, but in the perspectives of the objectives outlined in this document.