ABSTRACT
The 1980s saw a shift in developmental approaches from redistribution and basic needs to structural adjustment and market-oriented economic reforms. The introduction of economic austerity measures, declines in support and subsidies to the social sector, and increased emphasis on privatization led to serious setbacks in survival and livelihoods of a large majority of people. During the 1990s, a “new poverty agenda” surfaced in World Bank’s World Development Report 1990 as a counterpart to the “Washington consensus” on structural reforms. Income generating programs targeting poverty reduction through micro-credit were deployed as part of the new social safety nets. Micro-credit has since been incorporated in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.2
