Rule of Law Can Rid the World of Poverty

October 3, 2012

By Fazle Hasan Abed, George Soros

Poverty is on the retreat. Despite the global economic downturn, the World Bank and UN reported this year that the number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped in every region of the world for the first time since record keeping began. Though progress on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals has been uneven, we should be heartened that we have already reached, three years before the target date of 2015, the first of these eight goals – that of halving the number of people still living on less than $1 a day. However, we risk allowing these gains to come undone if we fail to strengthen the rule of law in developing countries. Without basic legal empowerment, the poor live an uncertain existence, in fear of deprivation, displacement and dispossession.

Read the full article which originally appeared in the Financial Times on September 26. From September 9-19, The Asia Foundation hosted the co-author of this article, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of BRAC, the largest nongovernmental development organization in the world, as a Chang-Lin Tien Distinguished Visiting Fellow. Read an interview with Sir Fazle conducted by In Asia on September 19.

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