Effective Policies and Experiences for Poverty Reduction in Asia

Purpose

In light of the new poverty data update, ADB and ADBI will hold a joint workshop to better understand the driving forces behind poverty reduction in the region and explore effective government poverty-reduction policies.

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Background

According to ADB's recent poverty data update, Asia and the Pacific region saw a major drop in poverty from 2005-2008. About 150 million people exited extreme poverty during this period-from 903 million in 2005 to 753 million in 2008, lowering the percentage of people living under the extreme poverty line of $1.25 per day from 27% to 22%. Despite the decline in the number of extreme poor, the decline for the moderately poor group (those living on between $1.25 and $2 per day) was marginal-only about 18 million for the region.

The new poverty data highlights challenges facing ADB developing member countries:

1. It is plausible that people who exited extreme poverty became moderately poor and are vulnerable to slipping back.
2. Poverty reduction was uneven across countries and between sub-regions.
3. The ranking for the large, poor countries remains the same.
4. Some 47.4% of the region's population (over 1.6 billion) live under the $2 a day poverty line.

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Objectives

• Explore the impact of government policies and programs on poverty reduction.
• Exchange ideas for poverty reduction programs based on each country's poverty reduction experiences.
• Share and identify best practices for possible adaptation and replication.
• Understand how poverty data governance differs between DMCs in order to identify gaps and challenges in poverty data governance methodologies.

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Outputs

Poverty Reduction Policies
1. Deeper understanding of the driving forces underlying poverty reduction in the region.
2. Knowledge-sharing of best policies and practices in alleviating poverty in the region.

Poverty Data Governance
1. Sharing of as-is state of economic data governance (with an emphasis on poverty data reconciliation and extrapolation techniques) for participating countries.
2. Identify areas within data governance space with the biggest needs for improvements for future training programs.

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Participants

Senior government officials

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How to Register

By invitation only.

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Language

English

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Responsibilities

Actively participate in discussions and share views and experiences with others. Collaborate with participants to prepare and make presentations during the course.

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Partners

ADB Economics and Research Department
Research Institute for Indian Ocean Economies
Yunnan University