ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that economic growth can be a powerful means to eradicate poverty and that positive gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates are important in this regard because GDP can raise the productivity and incomes of poor people, expanding opportunities and choices in a variety of ways. The majority of people in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from weak purchasing power, homelessness, and insufficient access to basic social services and necessities such as education, health, food, and clean water. The implications for the African countries are that to access assistance under the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility which is country-driven and broad-based, has to be prepared. The difficulties encountered in the World Banks current efforts to assist developing countries in Africa to develop poverty-reduction strategies that reflect the specific realities of these countries underlies the growing recognition that new tools and indices have to be developed to better understand this phenomenon.
