Infrastructure and Pro-Poor Growth: Implications of Recent Research

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review research of the last ten years on the role of infrastructure in development, and more briefly recent reform experience, with a view to identifying the issues in need of further attention in the infrastructure sectors if the world is to reach the Millennium Development Goals - especially that of halving, by 2015, the proportion of people who were living in 1990 on less than one dollar per day (measured in 1993 PPP prices). This target would require lifting out of extreme poverty over these 25 years about one billion people, principally in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia; the aim is for progress in all countries and regions