This project examines the demographic aspects of poverty reduction in developing countries. Poverty reduction is the cornerstone of current development efforts by the World Bank and the United Nations (UN). Under the aegis of the Millennium Development project, development institutions seek to halve the current poverty rates by the year 2015.

Much of the scientific work guiding existing policy interventions has been carried out by economists and there is a growing need at the World Bank to incorporate insights from other disciplines including sociology and demography. I have been contacted by the World Bank`s Poverty Reduction Unit to draft a series of four papers that outline the conceptual and empirical insights of demography to the understanding of poverty reduction in developing countries.

I began with a draft of a conceptual paper, which outlines the main demographic processes that impinge on poverty reduction efforts. This new framework integrates insights from demography and economics and sociology. The papers were presented to the World Bank, with a series of discussions in from December 2005 through late 2006. Based in part on this work, I have also been invited by private foundations or non-governmental organizations to guide new research funding in this area of research.

This work will add to the stock of knowledge and will feed into World Bank operations on the ground. We anticipate making an impact in four main areas, including guiding investments in the areas of secondary and higher education, social safety nets, family planning, and international migration and remittances.

• Mayra Buvinic (World Bank)
• Juan Carlos Guzman (World Bank)
• Rachel Nugent (Population Reference Bureau)