Expert Meeting on Social Inclusion Programmes and Their Impact on Sustainable and Inclusive Development and Growth

With widespread economic growth in the 2000s, including in some of the poorest economies in the world, there was high expectation that growth would lead to inclusive development. However, the growth experienced in developing countries has not always induced a genuinely inclusive development process, particularly when growth performance did not generate substantial or durable employment opportunities.

The jobless growth experienced by many developing countries has intensified the debate on inclusiveness and equity in the growth and development process. In response to growing concerns about inequality and the failure in some developing countries to achieve inclusive development, Governments have turned to special programmes and strategies specifically aimed at enhancing the inclusiveness of growth and development.

The objective of the expert meeting is to identify social inclusion programmes that could benefit disadvantaged groups within the framework of structural transformation efforts, with a view to highlighting the expected poverty reduction effects of relevant policies.

The meeting is expected to:

1. Promote among participants a better understanding of social inclusion programmes and the synergies with structural transformation efforts from a poverty reduction perspective;

2. Identify best practices in the development of economic sectors with inclusive effects, particularly agriculture, small industries and tourism, and provide access to finance for smallholder farms and small and medium-sized enterprises;

3. Cast light on ways to maximize the impact of social inclusion programmes on overall economic performance.