A farmer owning a small plot of land might be poor in overall terms but not destitute, while a landless agricultural labourer might be extremely poor. Anti-poverty interventions tend to have more success in reducing poverty among small farmers, who start out with some assets and marketable skills, than in eliminating poverty among severely disadvantaged landless labourers. Some Progress in Implementing Plans Estimating poverty is ordinarily the first step in dealing with it. Some countries then move on to develop anti-poverty plans, another explicit commitment made at the Social Summit. The nature of the plans varies widely.
Some countries have only a strategic document outlining general objectives.
Others have formulated programmes to give content to the strategy. Only a minority have action plans to begin implementing the strategy. Countries that do not have explicit poverty plans but incorporate poverty into national planning give varying importance to the issue. Many bury it in their general planning objectives, while a few make poverty reduction the central goal. Little Progress in Setting Targets Anti-poverty plans usually lack flesh and bones if they merely have general, vaguely worded objectives.