Poverty reduction is a central feature of the international development agenda and contemporary poverty reduction strategies increasingly focus on targeting the poor, yet poverty and inequality remain intractable foes. The report seeks to explain why people are poor and why inequalities exist, as well as what can be done to rectify these injustices. It explores the causes, dynamics and persistence of poverty; examines what works and what has gone wrong in international policy thinking and practice; and lays out a range of policies and institutional measures that countries can adopt to alleviate poverty.