This report advocates a fundamental change in approach to entrenched
poverty in middle-income developing countries by emphasising the ‘O’ rather
than the ‘E’ of an equal opportunity ideal. Aspirations to social mobility and
justice are more effectively addressed by multiplying poor people’s access to
income generating activities that can provide routes out of poverty and into
the middle class. The best way of implementing an opportunities-first approach
is to move cities and jobs centre stage in the global and national discourse of
how to combat large-scale poverty in the 21st century. Within this framework
the focus should be on young people and women in policies and programmes
that build on job-rich economic growth strategies and increasingly formal jobs.
Promoting well-managed and effective urbanisation will create cities of hope
that offer opportunity escalators towards increased social mobility and steadily
growing prosperity. An opportunity-first approach cannot afford to ignore the
challenges thrown up by politics and history, which arise in demands for redress
and redistribution across many middle-income developing countries. The key
to this is for effective states coupled with competitive markets to expand new
opportunities for the poor, rather than redistribute a finite number of existing
ones.
