increasing wealth also means that governments can increasingly afford to address the social needs of their citizens directly where this is the case social objectives and policies should evolve accordingly and reflect the newfound capacity of the economy to secure greater social cohesion growth can be seen as a rising tide but though it has lifted many boats not all have risen by the same amount strong growth is necessary to reduce poverty and deprivation sustainably in poor countries and can substantially contribute to reducing poverty in middleincome ones