Economic growth and the private sector

Trading again in Port au Prince, Haiti. Picture: Russell Watkins/DFID

Economic growth is the most important means of raising incomes and reducing poverty in the developing world. Evidence based policy can create the right conditions for growth and investment, creating jobs, markets and opportunities for people to lift themselves out of poverty.

By 2015 we will:

Provide more than 50 million people with the means to help work their way out of poverty
Help up to half of the countries in Africa benefit from freer trade
Secure the right to land and property for more than six million people

In depth

Private sector

Private sector is the engine of economic growth - creating jobs, increasing trade, providing goods and services to the poor and generating tax revenue

Women and business

By helping 2.3 million women access jobs we will increase their incomes. We will also support 18 million women to access financial services like bank accounts, savings and insurance

Growth

The most effective way to alleviate poverty is through sustained economic growth and creating the environment for the private sector to create jobs and to raise peoples incomes

Trade

Trade, not aid, is the key to Africa’s future prosperity and could be better enhanced through economic restructuring, more inward investment, improved infrastructure and good governance

Business regulation

Our aim is to ensure that business can invest without fearing it will lose out on opportunities to grow because of bureaucracy, poor market access or corruption