In any year nowadays between half a billion to three fourths of a billion people are living in starvation conditions. At the same time it has to be admitted that in the years since the end of the Second World War we have witnessed a more sustained growth in output of almost all goods than at any other time in history of mankind. Population has grown, life expectancy has increased and at the same time incidents of catastrophic mortality in any part of the world have attracted sympathy.

But still a vast percent of the population of Earth is ill fed, ill clothed, ill housed, under-educated and prey to preventable disease. Some believe that over time the laws of supply and demand will establish an optimal equilibrium in the national and the international markets. In that case, governments in LDC's have to stop interfering with the operation of these laws.

Obviously the roote of the problem often referred to as poverty, is not as easy to explain and equally so is its solution.

By far the most important reason for the failure of previous efforts to mitigate poverty and its symptoms in the develop

Progress in the underdeveloped world has not least been retarded by the acute shortage of skilled manpower, especially in the vital rural sector. This could be due to poverty itself, or even by religious or tribal attitudes, which are incompatible with individual social responsibility and economic incentives. It should also be mentioned that many of the above mentioned problems are the consequence of deep-seated institutional and social factors, which themselves have been results of past failures.

Investments in the human capital of the poor will only be productive if there are opportunities for the poor to utilise their skills to improve their income and wealth. Countries that have been most successful have been ones in which economic growth increases the productivity and returns to labour, particularly in the rural agricultural sector. This requires a balance between policies to promote economic growth and policies that enable the poor to participate in growth. Developing countries must often improve the infrastructure, particularly in poor agricultural regions that would otherwise be bypassed by economic growth. The provision of transportation, communication, credit, markets and so forth may require government investments to complement the limited private investments in the poorer regions. Countries that have successfully pursued such a balanced growth policy are Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand

ing world, has been the explosive increase in population. This has been the result, principally, of the deep disturbance to ecological balance brought about by the antibiotic-therapeutic revolution in the highly developed areas of the world, which, was transplanted to the less developed countries after the Second World War.

In retrospect, what investment there has been made seems to have been rather less effective than had been hoped in bringing about an expansion of incomes, despite all the planning and analysis that had been undertaken with the reinforced help of both the rich donor countries and the multilateral agencies.

But the establishment of subsidiaries or long-term contractual suppliers by giant, technologically advanced firms in LDC's can open opportunities for employment at wages far higher than the average natio

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Approximate Word count = 1511
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)