One of the major tools of attaining proper development all around the world is creating wealth and economic inclusion, such that all classes of people can secure their lifestyles through access to financial services from formal sectors. Expanding access to resources and increasing self-employment opportunities help reduce poverty and improve social development. Wealth Creation and Poverty Reduction: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice examines trends, challenges, issues, and strategies related to the creation of livelihood options through the redistribution of resources, foreign aid, private sector activities, and other methods. Highlighting a range of topics such as microfinance, poverty alleviation, and socio-economic development, this publication is an ideal reference source for government officials, policymakers, executives, economists, analysts, researchers, academicians, professionals, and students interested in wealth creation in areas of extreme poverty.

This book takes a unique approach to the topic of poverty reduction, primarily employing an international business framework as opposed to the usual economic or political lens. Some of the key ideas explored in the book include: poverty is primarily the lack of choices, not the lack of material possessions; attacking inequality of opportunity might be a more effective means to reduce poverty than attaching inequality of wealth; political systems matter, but individuals and for-profit firms also have a vital and indispensable role in helping to create the wealth needed to reduce poverty; and an effective corporate social responsibility strategy to help reduce poverty may include finding innovative and creative ways to operate profitably in areas of the world where poverty is currently robbing too many people of the opportunity to live their version of the good life. Building on such ideas, the book advocates for private companies to expand operations into the least developed regions of the world as part of their corporate social responsibility programs and to reframe the debates away from ones focused on exploitation and economic nationalism to one of creating opportunities across political borders.

Fundamentally, poverty reduction is about bringing growth processes to poor areas. Because poor areas can benefit from technical and organizational innovations made elsewhere in the world, it is possible today to create productive jobs faster and in greater quantity than ever before. The puzzle is what helps spread such "best practices." Saving, investment, education, resources, and new technology are all needed-and fairly easy to obtain. What is hard to obtain are the institutions that allow these factors of production to be combined and translated into productive job creation. Firms are the key vehicles that spread best practices and productive jobs to areas where poor people live. Because we can never be sure which firm will be successful, it is necessary that new firms can enter markets, that substandard firms are allowed to fail, and that good firms face few barriers to growth. This is the definition of competition, and competition is what selects good firms and thus drives the spread of best practice and productive jobs. Governments need to provide the framework in which capable firms can emerge. Yet, the right mix of state activity and how it best interacts with firms are not fully understood. Some selection mechanism, which allows for policy experiments and selects successful ones, is valuable for national, provincial, and local governments. Thus competition among jurisdictions and firms is an integral part of dynamic social systems that hold promise for creating wealth and ending poverty.

This book, A Poverty-Free World: From Dream to Reality, further awakens us to the fact that poverty is a universal problem. It is everywhere, affecting every person and every nation, rich and poor. This book underscores the obvious fact that despite long-time effort, poverty eradication remains elusive. In literature, policy design, and practice, we often profess to be targeting poverty eradication, when, in fact, our actions and goals are typically directed at poverty reduction instead. The question is-why? What is holding us back from ending poverty? In this book, poverty expert Dr. Rotimi Nihinlola, with almost two decades of related research, banking the poor, and a background of growing up in poverty, shares new perspectives on how we can reposition our thinking and efforts to terminate poverty altogether, worldwide. He guides us in uncovering disempowering myths and beliefs around poverty-and how those are contributing to the condition of poverty itself and hindering our effort to eradicate it. He shows the disconnect at play between our objectives and goals around poverty reduction and eradication, and how to create much-needed alignment there. He outlines new paradigms and sets of actions to move us away from merely reducing or managing poverty to actually eradicating it. In the book, we see how all of us are needlessly paying a heavy price for poverty. With the right orientation, more effective actions, and-most importantly-the will, as explained by Dr. Nihinlola in this book, it is possible for us to realise our dream of eradicating poverty. Indeed, we can know a "poverty-free world" in our lifetime.