Poverty alleviation with reference to gender has been the
focus of attention of national and international organizations since the
seventies. Massive international assistance, both financial and
technical, has been given for such programmes. However, the success rate
of such projects has been fairly low. Two major reasons can be given for
this low rate of success: (i) the projects have been imposed from the
top without due regard to the local conditions, and the target group,
i.e., the women, have been treated as objects rather than subjects; (ii)
the donors and the implementing agencies have not always focused on the
ultimate goal of sustainable development The success stories are quoted
quite extensively but they have not been followed. The underlying factor
behind their success was a strong faith in the capabilities of the
masses at the grassroots level and the maximum use of local talent and
expertise. Ponna Wignaraja has produced a wealth of infonnation by
providing an in-depth review of the successful poverty alleviation
projects amongst women which can lead to sustainable development in
South Asia. He first analyses the successful cases in detail, and then
he looks at the not very successful projects in Africa and Latin
America, suggesting guidlines from specific successful projects in South
Asia.
