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Equitable Growth<br />
While acknowledging the central role economic growth can potentially play in human<br />
development, poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development<br />
Goals, it is becoming widely understood among the development community that<br />
special efforts must be made to ensure poorer sections of society are able to participate<br />
in economic growth. The effect of economic growth on poverty reduction – the growth<br />
elasticity of poverty – can depend on the existing level of inequality. For instance, with<br />
low inequality a country with a growth rate of 2% per head and 40% of its population<br />
living in poverty, can halve poverty in ten years, but a country with high inequality would<br />
take nearly 60 years to achieve the same reduction. In the words of the Secretary<br />
General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon: "While economic growth is necessary, it is<br />
not sufficient for progress on reducing poverty." Competition policy intending to prevent<br />
companies from abusing market power contributes to inclusive growth.<br />
Housing<br />
In many poor and developing countries, much land and housing is held outside the<br />
formal or legal property ownership registration system. Much unregistered property is<br />
held in informal form through various associations and other arrangements. Reasons for<br />
extra-legal ownership include excessive bureaucratic red tape in buying property and<br />
building, In some countries it can take over 200 steps and up to 14 years to build on<br />
government land. Other causes of extra-legal property are failures to notarize<br />
transaction documents or having documents notarized but failing to have them recorded<br />
with the official agency.<br />
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