The well-off are visible. Many people living in high-income countries have formal identification, a registered birth, and a street address. They pay taxes and partake in a state-sponsored census. Put simply, they are eligible for certain economic and social benefits because they are detectable. This is a technical privilege many of us do not even think twice about. We take it for granted. Those who are not well off do not have the same privilege. They are essentially invisible—they fall through the cracks, lack essential services, and remain at the bottom rung of the social ladder. A sixth of the world’s population—nearly one billion people—live in slums, highly populated urban areas defined by over-crowdedness, decrepit housing, poverty, and disorganization. People living in slums lack formal addresses, a key barrier to accessing services and work. Alleviating poverty and providing access to essential services begins by identifying who needs help, and this means investing in information and identification systems (e.g. unified registries, poverty maps, censuses).

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Furthermore, investing in the bottom line isn’t only good, it is necessary. Evidence has shown that when a government invests in its people, as well as proper education, healthcare, and social services, that government is directly facilitating economic growth and stability within its country by improving the quality of life and creating pockets of positive feedback loops.iv For example, prosperity and renewed opportunities incentivize parents to invest in their children’s education, which leads to the emergence of an educated citizenry that demand improved governance. Economic growth and human development become a cycle: growth promotes human development, which, in turn, promotes economic growth. The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to develop solutions that focus on the “weakest links” of society. Meant to be achieved by 2030, the SDGs encompass 17 global challenges we face today and act as a blueprint to achieve a more prosperous and sustainable future for all. The goals include poverty eradication, food security, quality education, gender equality, and clean water and sanitation, among others.

 

It should be noted that the marginal cost required to deliver interventions or services to an additional person or family increases for those that are hardest to reach. In other words, how much it costs to reach an additional person or family increases based on how difficult it is to provide them with the necessary services. However, a follow-up study from the research conducted in the 2010 UNICEF report found that on average, every US$1 million “invested in the health of the poorest children prevented nearly twice as many deaths as an equivalent amount spent on providing the same interventions for non-poor children.” This is a good sign. Investing in those who need it the most works.

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There are many strong examples of reach, including Brazil’s celebrated conditional cash transfer program Bolsa Familia, which was implemented in 2003 and continues to operate today. The program provides direct cash transfers to Brazil’s poorest families on the condition that their children attend school, are immunized, and have regular medical check-ups. The program is quite genius: it not only aids in reducing poverty and improving health and education outcomes among those in Brazil’s bottom income quintile, but it also delivers cash benefits to families who may be socially excluded or geographically distant. In 2011, over 26% of the Brazilian population were covered under Bolsa Familia, and since the program’s inception, poverty in Brazil has sharply declined.

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The Reach Alliance, a multi-disciplinary research initiative housed at the University of Toronto, boasts many other examples of reach. Through the organization, students are able to investigate the pathways to success for innovative development programs around the world. So far, The Reach Alliance has looked at innovations in Palestine, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Canada, Tanzania, and Mexico, among others. By understanding how development programs have successfully reached the hardest to reach, we can support those who have been relegated to the margins of society.