Countries Learn from Development experiences: World Bank-sponsored Scaling Up Poverty Reduction Conference in Shanghai
 
Join the process leading up to a poverty reduction conference in Shanghai next May, and find out what makes development work, what doesn't, and why.

Why this conference now?
The World Bank with partners is sponsoring this conference in Shanghai, from May 25-27, because it is critical to share experiences and "unlock" knowledge to expand development results in developing countries through south-south solutions.

For the first time developing country practitioners and policymakers from around the world will share their expertise about what works, what doesn't, and why, analyzing 70 cases of poverty reduction, and identifying key success factors throughout those efforts.

The goal
The main goal of  the Conference, hosted by the Chinese government, is to uncover the economic, social, and governance components that enabled countries to achieve poverty-reducing development results on a large scale; sharing these lessons across regions and countries; and disseminating them widely to policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.

Context
More than half the people in developing countries -- 2.8 billion -- live in poverty, on less than $2 a day.

Any hope of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 will depend not only on increasing resources but also on sharing knowledge and experience to accelerate successful results within and across countries.

However, gaps in knowledge, capacity, and policies have kept development successes "landlocked" or isolated, meaning that good work and experience, which could be making a positive difference in the lives of millions of people, are not being widely shared and utilized.

How is the conference being prepared?
Through a series of interactive videoconferences, and field visits that started last December, and will continue on through April, the Bank is bringing together practitioners, policymakers, politicians, donor agencies, academics, civil society groups, and development institutions, in a nine-month process, known as the Global Learning Process.

This process provides the space for analyzing and debating lessons from successful, and not so successful experiences with scaling up poverty from around the world. This learning process will be the backbone for further discussions at the conference in May, and beyond. The conference aims to be not an end in itself but the beginning of a continuous learning process.

This interactive process leading up to the conference includes:

• More than 70 case studies, representing most economic and social sectors, which form the backbone of the global exchanges.
• Site visits to some 10 project sites in several countries which complement the cases and add a human dimension through interviews and dialogues with experts, stakeholders, and other central actors.
• Twenty global videoconferences which will help broaden the dialogue and give access to thousands of practitioners who may not attend the videoconferences and the conference in Shanghai.

To read a story about the first site visit that started the learning process last December, please go to: Indonesia site visit

Who will attend this conference?
Heads of state from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, public, and private sector executives, development practitioners, and academics are expected to attend the conference.

How to register?
The World Bank is registering journalists now so they can participate in the process leading up to the conference in Shanghai.  For more information, please contact:

Li Li

Tel: (86-10) 5788+2030

Fax: (86-10) 6554+1686

Email: Lli2@worldbank.org

Mauricio Rios

Tel: (202) 319-0452

Email: mrios@worldbank.org

For further information on the conference and the registration process, you can also visit:  www.reducingpoverty.org  

(China.org.cn March 23, 2004)