Antipoverty Programs, Asset-Based

Poverty is a situation that prevents one from enjoying one’s basic rights, and leads to further denial of one’s choices and capacity. Eradicating poverty is one of the aims of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The multidimensional focus of the MDGs has encouraged attention to focus on a range of dimensions of poverty, including building capabilities such as education, health, water, and sanitation. According to the World Bank, three ways to tackle poverty are promoting economic opportunity, facilitating political empowerment, and enhancing economic security. Asset-based antipoverty programs fall under the first category. An asset is anything of value that can be converted into cash.

Asset-based antipoverty programs may be of two types: individual asset-endowment programs, whereby a polity consciously plans to provide productive and remunerative assets ...