Introduction -- 1. Reducing poverty: the two-part strategy -- 2. Analyzing country policy -- 3. Designing assistance strategies -- 4. Developing an infrmation base -- 5. Implementation.

The paper ' s objective is to demonstrate how Bank assistance strategies can be designed to contribute more effectively to the reduction of poverty. Two observations underlie the paper ' s main thrust. First, because all public policies and programs affect the poor either directly or indirectly, the Bank ' s efforts to assist countries in reducing poverty must be comprehensive. Second, because the depth and nature of poverty varies significantly among countries, the approach must be flexible enough to allow country-specific solutions. For this reason, the paper concentrates on defining a process that would lead to appropriate assistance strategies rather than defining the strategies themselves. By way of background, the paper recapitulates the two-part strategy of the World Development Report 1990 and, in doing so, establishes the intellectual underpinning for the present paper. It describes the analytical work that is required and emphasizes economic management and human resources development and covers the extent and reliability of social safety nets. The paper illustrates the link between the analysis of poverty and the design of Bank assistance strategies using country examples to illustrate the basic principles. It also outlines ways of improving the information system for analyzing poverty, with or without large-scale household surveys. Finally, the paper focuses on implementation. It brings together the recommendations implied by the preceding discussion.