Poverty Reduction in the Developing World by encouraging Social Innovation

Eliminating poverty is one of the major goals of many  governments of the world.  Organizations  like the UN and the World Bank define poverty as not only the measure of income but other factors like, access to basic amenities of life, education , health and so on.  A glimpse at the map indicated below reveals the prevailing state of poverty in the world on income basis alone:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Percentage_population_living_on_less_than_1_dollar_day_2007-2008.png

It can be observed that rampant poverty exists in countries of Central Africa and Asia. These countries are facing  multiple problems and on top of that most of them have a very low GDP. Social innovation can be a good solution to many of the problems that these countries face. In the article “Let’s Hear Those Ideas (The Economist, August 12, 2010)” it was highlighted that the role of the government has changed from that of a provider to that of a facilitator, especially in the developed world. However, the countries of the developing world are still reliant on the Government to solve  problems of the people. Encouraging Social innovation in these countries will not only reduce the pressure on the governments but also help in solving problems of poverty , illiteracy, health etc.

The case of Brazil and Mexico was highlighted in the article “To Beat Back Poverty, Pay The Poor (NY Times, January 3, 2011 by Tina RosenBerg)” which showed how the governments were successful in not only reducing poverty but also reducing the gap between the haves and have nots.  Tina RosenBerg highlights that the programs Opurtunidades in Mexico and Bolsa Familia of Brazil have been great success.  The international donor agencies are replicating these programs in many other countries. However, the social and cultural conditions of respective countries should be kept in mind before investing huge sums in such projects. Such programs might be very difficult to implement in countries like Afghanistan, which is facing multiple problems of terrorism , extreme poverty and underdevelopment. Except for the city of Kabul and a couple other cities, the writ of the government is still weak.  Implementing such programs can be a big challenge in such countries but if social innovation is encouraged within that country some indigenous solution might be found which can help address the problems. The literacy rate in Afghanistan today is around 28 % of the total population ( Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html)  Given the situation in that country, implementing a program like Bolsa Familia in Afghanistan is going to be a challenging task. Not only the implementation of the program will be difficult but the cost of increasing the literacy rate will be enormous.

                The non profit sector has emerged as a major sector in many of the developed countries like the US  as indicated in the Article “Investing in Social Entrepreneurship and Fostering Social Innovation (Jolin, Center for American Progress, December 2007) “ However, the non profit sector in the developing world is still in the initial stages. But it is extremely important that the governments of the developing countries realize that the best approach for them would be to encourage social innovation and the non profit sector. It might take some decades for them to reach the level of the developing countries however, the lives of many people can be improved by innovative ideas. The safest way to reduce poverty is to mobilize the non profit sector. The question remains which countries are the ones where encouraging social innovation will be most challenging?