Trickle-up is an approach in which we invest primarily in poor and vulnerable groups – the bottom of the pyramid – and additionally set up local, national and international facilities that benefit the poor. For the latter, we think about fair and sustainability-oriented trade chains and tax systems. Trickle-up is intended as a complementary counterpart to Trickle-down. Trickle-down stands for neoliberal policies predominantly aimed at investing in and benefiting the upper and middle classes. With the promise that the poor will eventually benefit too. You can instead read this as: policies aimed at the formal sector, large corporations and financial institutions. The informal sector (accounting for more than 80% of the economy in Africa) gets the short end of the stick. Trickle-down falls short of adequately combating poverty, inequality and exclusion. The publication ‘Trickle up: How pro poor investments drive economic development; synthesis study’ offers explanations. The publication is a first step for us.