Raising the Floor

World Politics Review features are original, in-depth analyses of key public-policy issues by leading experts. This feature focuses on successes in eradicating poverty.


Summary: Over the past decade, poverty reduction has been a focus of attention among policymakers, development planners and trade advocates alike. In South America, dramatic progress has been made in part due to conditional cash transfers, but future gains will depend on political accountability and governance. Meanwhile, the common language of poverty reduction ushered in by the Millennium Development Goals will have to be applied to a dramatically changed development landscape in 2015. And while trade liberalization produces both winners and losers, its impact on poverty reduction is on average positive.