In recent years the international community has shown increasing concern with poverty in the developing world. At the Social Summit in Copenhagen, the issue was placed at the top of the agenda and more recently the Millennium Summit set a target to halve poverty by the year 2015.

In this paper we analyze whether the employment/productivity profile of growth as well as its sectoral pattern matter for poverty reduction. We also identify some conditions of the labor market which are associated with employment intensive growth or specific sectoral growth. We find that, in the short run, while the overall employment intensity of growth does not matter for poverty reduction, the sectoral pattern of employment growth and productivity growth is important.

The brief provides a summary of how asset based policies are implemented, and research findings on its improving asset-based policies in Nicaragua.