Poverty is generally associated with deprivation of health, education, food, knowledge, influence over one’s environment – and the many other things that make the difference between truly living, and merely surviving. The World Bank recently released its 2001 World Development Report on poverty, which recognized the manner in which risk and vulnerability affect both development processes and the lies and prospects of the poor. This new report is meant to stimulate those working in the South Asia region by providing concrete ideas on how these can be mitigated and how coping mechanisms can be made more efficient. Particularly through effective public policies the report aims to build on poverty work already being done and, given the pervasiveness of poverty, deals with issues of critical importance to the fundamental goal of reducing poverty in South Asia.