The eradication of poverty has traditionally relied on growing the economy, combined with redistribution: GDP growth, in this approach, is essential to the fight against poverty, a condition for financing public services and social policies.
Prof Olivier De Schutter argues that we now need to move beyond this approach, and to expand our toolkit in the fight against poverty. Understood as the increase of the output of economic activity measured in monetary terms, economic growth remains important in certain areas, such as housing, education or public transport, especially to raise living standards in low-income countries. This is especially true if it is guided by the duty to realise human rights.
Leave a Reply