Poverty and human development: hat does the future hold?

What will the level of poverty and human development in the world's developing regions be in the next century? We present projections of poverty and selected human development indicators for the year 2015 for three policy variants - pro-poor policy, neutral policy and anti-poor policy - and four growth scenarios. The projections show poverty will remain a major problem in many world regions. Indicators of human development improve considerably, although sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia continue to lag behind the other regions. We find policy orientation can be as important as economic growth to reduce poverty and increase human development.