Poverty Reduction

Regional Cooperation for Poverty Reduction
Enhancing trade, incomes and regional public goods

Regional cooperation can directly contribute to pro-poor growth and inclusive social development.

Poverty often has regional and cross-border dimensions. This applies particularly to geographical areas with natural resources constraints. Such areas are often also home to indigenous people which comprise the core of the rural poor.

Of particular importance for poverty reduction are enhanced trade and income opportunities for the poor, the usage of export earnings, sharing of information and infrastructure services such as regional energy, and promoting mobility transfer of remittances.

Regional cooperation also addresses global public goods in environment and health, such as degradation of sub-regional waters and land, global warming, and the transmission of HIV/AIDS and Avian Flu.

It can strengthen global partnerships as expressed in the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 8.

Regional cooperation is therefore a thematic area of ADB's strategy for reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region

ADB's regional cooperation strategy focuses on:

• Cross-border infrastructure
• Regional trade and investment
• Money and finance; and
• Other regional public goods.

ADB promotes regional cooperation through sub-regional cooperation programs and capacity development on Asia Regional Integration Center (ARIC).

View ADB's knowledge products and operational expertise on impacting poverty reduction through regional cooperation.