Global

• Economically least developed countries (ELDCs)


  Low-income countries facing severe structural constraints to sustainable development, with low levels of human assets, highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks
• Strategies to promote growth and development

  • Trade strategies
  • Diversification
  • FDI
  • Provision of merit goods
  • Institutional change
• Provision of merit goods

  • Education programs
  • Health programs
  • Infrastructure
  • Sanitation
  • Water
• Institutional change


  • Improved access to banking, including microfinance and mobile banking
  • Increasing women's empowerment
  • Land rights
  • Reducing corruption
  • Property rights
• Non-government organisation (NGOs)


  Organizations that are not part of the government that promote economic development and/or humanitarian ideals and/or sustainable development
• Multilateral development assistance


  • The World Bank
  • International Monetary Fund
• Social enterprise


  A company whose main objective is to have a social impact rather than to make a profit for their owners or shareholders. It operates by providing goods and services for the market in an entrepreneurial and innovative fashion and uses its profits primarily to achieve social objectives
• Market-based policies


  • Trade liberalisation
  • Privatisation
  • Deregulation
• Interventionist policies

  • Redistribution policies including tax policies, transfer payments and minimum wages
• What works in one context might not work in another!
• Often, policies work in tandem and an integrated and cohesive approach may be necessary
• Investments in health care, education and infrastructure create a foundation for other policies such as trade and diversification to be successful
• The role of good governance in distributing the gains from enhanced trade, for instance, cannot be overstated
• Strengths of market-based approaches

  • Allocative efficiency and lower prices
  • Better product quality as a result of competition
  • Improved allocation of resources as a result of the profit motive
  • Larger market sizes and economies of scale
• Weaknesses of market-based approaches


  • Market failure
  • Inequity, income inequalities and poverty
  • Weak institutions
  • Formation of monopolies and oligopolies
  • Negative externalities of production and consumption
• Strengths of interventionist approaches


  • Correction of market failure
  • Investment in human capital
  • Strong institutional framework
  • Support for smaller businesses
  • Macroeconomic stability
• Weaknesses of interventionist approaches


  • Corruption
  • Poor governance
  • Favouritism/Crony capitalism
  • Capital flight
  • Excessive bureaucracy and red-tape
  • Budget deficits, opportunity costs and accumulating debt
  • Absence of profit motive resulting in inefficiency
  • Protection of inefficient producers
• The links to growth and development must be made explicit
• The discussion must strike a balance between economic theory and practice
• The discussion must be in the economist's rather than layperson's language