Reducing poverty South Asia

Despite recent rapid growth and poverty reduction, the South Asia region (SAR) continues to suffer from a combination of insufficient economic growth, slow urbanization, and huge infrastructure gaps that together could jeopardize future progress. It is also home to the largest pool of individuals living under the poverty line of any region, coupled with some of the fastest demographic growth rates of any region. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day in South Asia decreased by only 18 percent, while the population grew by 42 percent.

In an effort to shed light on all of these questions, this report takes a critical look at the status of infrastructure in SAR compared with other regions, as well as among and within SAR countries.