How inclusive is inclusive growth?

The interest of the international development community in
‘Pro-Poor Growth’ appears to have waned.1 This Development
Viewpoint examines the pros and cons of adopting its most
popular replacement, ‘inclusive growth’.
A ‘pro-poor’ approach did have the advantage of focus:
concentrating on the most deprived. Judging progress involved attaching greater weight to the advance of the poor (e.g., “the incomes of the poor grew faster than those of the non-poor”).
But what about the great mass of the non-poor, many of whom
have only meagre incomes? Don’t they need greater equity?
‘Inclusive growth’ appears to address this concern. But the question remains: what exactly do we mean by including them?

Author:
Terry McKinley, Director, Centre for Development Policy and Research, SOAS
Publisher:
SOAS