Prosperity Initiative is finding ways to reach large numbers of poor people more efficiently - to impact poverty at scale. We believes that industry systems are themselves a tangible and practical system for analysis and intervention to achieve this goal.

Our work in the Northwest Viet Nam industrial bamboo sub sector confirms the importance of investing appropriate resources to prove the mass poverty impact potential of a sector. Smaller value-chain analysis and rapid appraisals have their place, but a deeper understanding is needed to justify heavy development investment and is part of a strategy to target large numbers of poor. This gives confidence that results can be achieved once analysis turns into action. A scaled approach allows quality assessments of markets and poverty impact to be achieved with an affordable per unit cost. Overall, a scaled approach is required to help solve the scale of the global poverty challenge.

This process also demonstrates to our development partners that industry systems that support the poor are an important vehicle for development change. High impact sustainable change is dependant on private firms investing, making profits and growing. This creates the demand for farmer products and new jobs to help the poor move out of poverty. Prosperity Initiative's system approach helps build the skills of government actors to understand the comparative poverty and development potential of different sectors and investments.

We understands that directing activities only to the poorest of the poor can be expensive per individual beneficiary, and such activity will struggle to achieve sustainability to target mass poverty successfully. Prosperity Initiative therefore focuses on the needs of the poorest of the poor through income and jobs and works to ensure selected market systems can generate them without the need for ongoing donor support.