A main focus of poverty research is the question of how to alleviate poverty. Poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon involves soft factors and hard factors - poverty alleviation has to consider all these aspects. In many cases interactions with institutions limit or enhance poor people's right to freedom, freedom of choice and action. In many cases, institutions play an important role in empowerment processes. The contributions of this volume identify approaches to poverty alleviation from different perspectives and analyze the role of institutions in poverty reduction efforts.