About the Blog  "End Poverty in South Asia"

Recent economic growth has led to impressive poverty reduction in South Asia during the past decade.  But millions still live in dire conditions.

The economic growth we are witnessing today and the need for even faster growth, is helping bring South Asia’s key problems to the fore, creating pressures to deal with them.

On one hand, growth is breeding greater public demand for addressing urgent challenges; on the other, it gives politicians the opportunity to make tradeoffs through strategic prioritization.

This means South Asia faces an unprecedented opportunity:  a chance of ending poverty in a generation, if the main obstacles that stand in the way are addressed right now.

This blogs gathers analysis, ideas and news on the reforms necessary to seize the opportunity created by growth, and end South Asian poverty in a generation.

About Shanta Devarajan

This blog is maintained by Shanta Devarajan, the Chief Economist of the South Asia Region at the World Bank.

Since joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, as well as the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network.  He was the Director of the World Development Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People. Before 1991, he was on the faculty of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. 

The author or co-author of over 100 publications, Shanta’s research covers public economics, trade policy, natural resources and the environment, and general-equilibrium modeling of developing countries. Born in Sri Lanka, he received his A. B. in mathematics from Princeton University and his Ph. D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

About the Host

This Blog is hosted by the South Asia Regional Team  of the World Bank.  The South Asia Region at the World Bank includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.