'Pro-poor' is a term that has become widely used in the development literature. The general understanding that can be drawn from this literature is that pro-poor policies are those that directly target poor people, or that are more generally aimed at reducing poverty. There is also a general consensus that pro-poor policy processes are those that allow poor people to be directly involved in the policy process, or that by their nature and structure lead to pro-poor outcomes. The current definition used by the Civil Society Partnership Programme is that 'the aim of pro-poor policies is to improve the assets and capabilities of the poor'.