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How much would poor nations need to invest to eliminate poverty, get all children in school and provide adequate basic health care for all? Can they afford it? Financing Human Development in Africa, Asia and the Middle East provides some clear answers to these questions. The contributors assess feasible financing strategies underpinning actions to enhance human development in pursuance of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The contributors analyse these strategies in the context of broader concerns of economic development in nine countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The assessments stress the importance of redesigning macroeconomic policies so as to make these more supportive of long-term economic growth and employment creation, while ensuring sufficient investments in human development in order to end poverty and overcome deep-rooted inequalities.

Marco V. Sánchez is Economic Affairs Officer at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (UN/DESA), New York, USA, and was previously associated with the Sub-Regional Office in Mexico City of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Rob Vos is Leader of the Strategic Programme to Reduce Rural Poverty and Director of the Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rome, Italy. Previously he was Director of the Development Policy and Analysis at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (UN/DESA). He is also Professor of Finance and Development at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam.