And with increasing mobility from continent to continent there is no way to confine poverty to any region. Since poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, the ways to overcome poverty are manifold. From several angles efforts are undertaken to reduce poverty. In light of the specific poverty profile, sector policies are reviewed, particularly in health and education, but also in agriculture, infrastructure etc. Budgets are analysed whether the various policies are coherent in their focus on poverty reduction.
Self help is mainly a phenomenon at grass roots level.
There is no societal space where people are not organised in one way or another. In non-Western societies their way of functioning is different from the way of modern type Western organisations. The Buddhist concept of compassion and the Islamic concept of Zakat are working in a specific way in their respective societies. These forms of solidarity are an enormous untapped potential for modern development cooperation. When poverty reduction is based on these self help organisations, one can be sure that efficiency and sustainability is assured.