The World Development Report, 1978 deals with fundamental problems currently facing the developing countries, and explores the relationship of those difficulties to the underlying trends of the international economy. Many of the conclusions the report reaches are sobering. One of them is much more than that; it is shocking. Even if the projected-and optimistic-growth rates in the developing world are achieved, some 600 million individuals at the end of the century will remain trapped in absolute poverty. Absolute poverty is a condition of life so characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency. The author want to examines the current projections for economic growth in the developing countries, and the implications of that growth for the absolute poor, outlining briefly the ways in which the World Bank itself can assist in the achievement of these twin goals of accelerating economic growth, and reducing absolute poverty.