Most studies on poverty reduction focus on the life of the poor, and
most researchers studying prospective income-generating opportunities
for the poor pay attention to the economic activities in which the
poor are engaged, such as agriculture and non-farm services in villages.1
These tendencies might seem obvious because of a direct and visible
link between where the poor live and what they do. However, the cause
of poverty might stem from where they live and what they do. Getting
out of these could be a solution to getting out of poverty.
The cases of Bangladesh and Cambodia presented in this chapter
exemplify how some countries have achieved poverty reduction led by
what most of the poor do not do in the place where most of them do
not live. Bangladesh and Cambodia have achieved considerable poverty
reduction at least partly through the development of a manufacturing
industry in urban areas. This is the export-oriented clothing industry
which is known to be highly labor-intensive. The industry employs
massive numbers of low-income and mostly female workers in the two
countries.