Accelerating shared growth: Making markets work for the poor in South Africa

Key Points:

Making markets work for the poor (MMW4P) is not a radical new paradigm, but rather a new approach that builds on lessons learnt in practice in the development field.
It is not anti-state, nor does it advocate leaving the poor to their own devices.
Instead, it aims to promote interventions that will help the poor to help themselves, make existing markets work more inclusively of poor producers and consumers, and make the benefits of well-functioning markets more widely accessible.

This report explores the market-driven approach to development.
It builds on numerous specially commissioned case studies (tourism, farming, banking, radio, telephones and education) illustrating how markets are working for the poor in different economic sectors in South Africa and elsewhere. And it identifies ways in which markets could be made to work better for poorer people.