The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) launched a joint initiative at the end of 1999, stating that they intended to set the fight against poverty at the heart of their development policies. This book provides a critical analysis of the poverty reduction strategies.

That this valuable and insightful book will be of great interest to students and lecturers involved in development economics goes almost without saying. What also needs to be understood is that the lessons and policy implications drawn from the book need to be read and acted upon by those involved with the World Bank and the IMF.

Jean-Pierre Cling, Mireille Razafindrakoto and Francois Roubaud Introduction: Have the Changes actually Changed Anything? Part I: Diagnosis and Reflections on Poverty Reduction Policies 1. Jean-Pierre Cling A Critical Review of the World Bank's Stance on Poverty Reduction 2. Denis Cogneau Poverty, Inequality of Conditions and Inequality of Opportunities: Chances and Risks of New Strategies 3. Serge Paugam The Lessons to be Learnt from Methods of Regulating Poverty in Europe 4. Mireille Razafindrakoto and Francois Roubaud Urban Poverty and Recession in Sub-Saharan Africa: Elements for an Assessment 5. Mireille Razafindrakoto and Francois Roubaud Do They Really Think Differently? The Voice of the Poor Through Quantitative Surveys Part II: Scope and Limitations of the New International Initiatives 6. Jean-Pierre Cling, Mireille Razafindrakoto
and Francois Roubaud The Participatory Process Towards Establishing New Relationship Between Stakeholders 7. Jean-Pierre Cling, Mireille Razafindrakoto and Francois Roubaud Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: Old Wine in New Bottles? 8. Idrissa Dante, Mohamed Ali Marouani and Marc Raffinot Poverty Reduction in Mali: Will the PRSP Make a Difference? 9. Jean-David Naudet Debt Relief or Aid Reform? 10. Anne-Sophie Bougouin and Marc Raffinot The HIPC Initiative and Poverty Reduction Part III: Monitoring and Evaluation Systems 11. Mireille Razafindrakoto and Francois Roubaud The Existing Systems for Monitoring Poverty: Weaknesses of the Usual Household Surveys 12. Daniel Verger The Different Approaches to Measuring Poverty in Europe: What Lessons for the LDCs? 13. Mireille Razafindrakoto and Francois Roubaud Two Original Poverty Monitoring Tools: The 1-2-3 Surveys and the Rural Observatories 14. Denis Cogneau, Michael Grimm and Anne-Sophie Robilliard Evaluating Poverty Reduction Policies: The Contribution of Micro-Simulation Techniques