Consequently, unleashing the potential inherent in the vast majority of the rural poor who rely on agriculture for employment and incomes can speed up poverty reduction.

Noticeably some countries have impressive records in adopting fresh ideas to tackle rural poverty. Exchanging experiences of what works in the fight against poverty should be encouraged. As former World Bank Director James Wolfenson, in 2004 exhorts:

Beyond resources, we need fresh approaches to development that can take small successes in one country and scale them up to reach numbers that makes a difference in reducing poverty. We need ideas that can travel from province to province, country to country, and around the globe. These ideas exist, and in many cases have been turned into reality by the poor themselves. But until now they have remained isolated, recognized only by the handful of specialists and pockets of grateful beneficiaries.

Numerous case studies have illustrated how countries have taken poverty reduction programmes to a larger scale, what they did, and most importantly, how they did it. There are varying reasons for each country's success. While there are certain shared features of rapid growth by these countries such as export orientation, macroeconomic stability, employment creation, education, and a favourable environment for private investment- the precise growth strategies followed by each country are quite varied (Zagha, and Shvets, 2004). Each country adopted different poverty reduction strategies. Drawing upon case studies from these strategies tells us that scaling up is possible when countries have the right ideas, and the support to implement them.

China, Viet Nam, and Indonesia, have lifted many people out of poverty. China has embarked on an integrated multi-sectoral development approach to poverty reduction. The programme involved the expansion of social services, including education, and health; labour mobility; rural infrastructure, including roads, drinking water systems, electricity; land and farmers' development, including support for grain and cash crop, tree crop, and livestock production; development of town and village enterprises; and institution building and poverty monitoring.

The government of Viet Nam's poverty reduction programme (referred to as programme 135) operates in over 2,300 communes across 49 provinces in upland and border areas (DFID Viet Nam, 2006) with a multi-sectoral scope. Among other targets of the programme are the reduction of poor households in 135 communes, increasing the proportion of school age children attending school, the provision of adequate clean water and roads to inter-communes centres, and provision of rural market infrastructure. The government also focused on providing poor people access to financial services in rural areas.

In Indonesia the expansion of education and health services, as well as agricultural development policies in the 1970's were both important in reducing poverty. The village grant programme that started in the seventies evolved into the village improvement programme that, in turn, largely influenced the establishment of the Kecamatan Development Programme (KDP). The KDP began in 1998 and aims to strengthen local government and community institutions. It is the largest successful community development programme in the world (Zagha, and Shvets, 2004). From 1998 to 2006, KDP has covered 34,233 of the poorest villages in Indonesia, approximately 49 per cent of the entire villages in the country (World Bank, 2006). It is focused on community participation, transparency and information sharing through the project cycle, and includes an open menu where villagers can propose an activity. Also there is healthy competition for funds between villages, and decision-making and management occurs at the local level and essentially has simple strategies and methods.

Asia remains a bright spot in the global economic picture but the region faces number of challenges. Rapid growth over the past 15 years has created three challenges for its own continuation; inadequate infrastructure; energy shortages and insecurity, depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation (Humphrey, 2006). These challenges need to be managed to ensure sufficient funds for the continuation of poverty reduction programmes. Also efforts should be made to exchange ideas on thriving programmes on poverty reduction and their scaling up across the region.

Written by William Deyegbe, Associate Researcher, UNESCAP-CAPSA, Bogor, Indonesia.
(References available upon request)