Poverty is an unacceptable human condition. It is not immutable. Public policy and action can, and must, eliminate poverty. This is what development is all about. The Asian Development Bank’s vision is to create an Asian and Pacific region free of poverty. Therefore, it has a clear and single-minded mission, so much so that reduction of poverty has become the ADB’s overarching goal. To this end, the other strategic objectives such as economic growth, human development, sound environmental management and elevating the status of women will be pursued in ways that will contribute, most effectively, to poverty reduction. This strategy paper sets out the ways in which this will be implemented.