Since the anti-globalization movement burst into the mainstream during the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, multinational corporations (MNCs) have come under increasing scrutiny for their business practices in developing countries. The debate has often centered on whether MNCs and globalization contribute to poverty or help to eliminate it. A more appropriate question may be whether or not MNCs can (and should) contribute to poverty alleviation, and if so how?

In a two-part series, Harvard professor George C. Lodge and International Finance Corporation economist Craig Wilson argue that multinational corporations (MNCs) have contributed enormously to reducing global poverty.

According to the authors, "MNCs exist to provide value for their shareholders, but are also in a position to serve as driving engines of social change, even in countries troubled by corruption and mismanagement."� They argue that "the reduction of poverty depends on the growth of business, especially small, domestic businesses. And increasingly for a local business to flourish it must have access to the world: to markets, credit, and technology, all facilitated by MNCs."� They also maintain that "poverty reduction requires systemic change, and MNCs are the world's most efficient and sustainable engines of change."