Critical Elements in the Design of Poverty Alleviation Programmes

Abstract

In general, poverty alleviation programmes (PAPs) have been ineffective because of various factors : the selection of the activity is faulty or the intended beneficiaries are not clearly defined or the procedures for identifying beneficiaries leave much to be desired. An important need, therefore, is to identify certain critical elements which will help in improving the design of PAPs.Based on the experiences of some governmental and voluntary efforts in the Asian region, Anil Bhatt discusses the more critical components and concludes that poverty alleviation is a tough and difficult proposition and calls for imaginative and unorthodox political and administrative changes.