Transforming Uncertainties into Risks and Poverty Alleviation: Lessons Learnt from the Successful Rescuing of Miners in Chile

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to suggest how the Chilean model used to rescue the 33 miners trapped underground, can be used to accelerate the development of new means for poverty alleviation mainly in developing economies. For that, the Chilean model is described and analyzed within the framework of uncertainty and risk with emphasis on the success of all operations, under time constraints. The attained results underline that this “point in time” process can be used to extract poor individuals and households and sustain their inclusion in normal economic and social activities. But, this is conditioned on the development of further participative research-actions, innovations and monitoring processes applied to multiple small scales, well localized and targeted poverty alleviation projects