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Regional Expert Meeting on Capability-Building 
to Alleviate Rural Poverty

Foreword

The impacts of economic reforms on rural poverty are still not adequately known. While the developing countries of the region have embarked on the reforms path to increase economic growth rates and integrate national economies within the global economies, millions of poor, particularly in rural areas have been deprived of the basic necessities -food, shelter and social services. These economic reforms should, therefore, aim to not only touch but benefit the rural disadvantaged groups, through income generation, employment and access to productive assets and skills.

On the face of such challenges, ESCAP had initiated a project to understand the interplay of poverty alleviation and the new economic liberalization regimes on the rural sector in selected developing countries of the region. The experiences of 11 developing countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam, were analysed and discussed at a regional expert group meeting held in Beijing in 1997. That meeting came up with a number of major recommendations and project ideas. This publication is a compilation of those country studies and the report of the meeting.

The meeting stressed the urgency of alleviating rural poverty as a priority, and the need for governments and other relevant organizations at all levels to work towards this goal. We hope that this initiative taken by ESCAP will encourage national governments to forge partnerships with all related organizations to pursue the common goal of rural poverty alleviation.

We at ESCAP are pleased to advocate growth with a human face under the changing economic regime and act as a regional catalyst to stimulate discussion on this important developmental challenge currently facing all developing countries of the region. We do hope that this publication can provide an insight into critical issues and sharpen the focus on the problems facing the rural disadvantaged groups.

• Regional Review of rural poverty (pdf file: 85 kb)
  
• Rural poverty alleviation under changing economic conditions: Bangladesh perspective. (Prepared by S.M. Farid, Secretary, Ministry of Planning, Dhaka) (pdf file: 49 kb)
  
• Attempts to solve issues of loan shortages and low repayment rates in China (Prepared by Du Xiaoshan and Sun Ruomei , Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing) (pdf file: 36kb)
  
• Poverty alleviation in the transition of rural China (pdf file: 66 kb)
  
• Policy on subsidized poverty loans in China: A dicsussion (Prepared by Wu Guobao, Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing) (pdf file: 26 kb)
  
• Assessment of rural poverty in India (Prepared by Alok Kumar Sharma, Director, Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment, New Delhi) (pdf file: 42 kb)
  
• Poverty alleviation in Indonesia: An overview (Prepared by Gunawan Sumodiningrat, Chief of Bureau for District and Rural Development National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Jakarta) (pdf file: 44 kb)
  
• Poverty reduction in Malaysia, 1971-1995: some lessons (Prepared by Mohd. Arif B. Abu Bakar, Principal Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Kuala Lumpur) (pdf file: 43 kb)
  
• Nepal: Rural poverty alleviation under changing economic conditions (Prepared by Shree Kant Regmi, Joint Secretary, National Planning Commission, Nepal) (pdf file: 32 kb)
  
• Poverty lessons and integrative remedies in Pakistan (Paper presented by Abdullah, Director, National Institute of Public Administration and Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Peshawar) (pdf file:23 kb)
  
• Rural poverty alleviation under changing economic conditions in the Philippines (Prepared by Truman T. Cainglet, Regional Director, National Economic and Development Authority, Region VI, Iloilo City) (pdf file42 kb)
  
• Rural Poverty in Sri Lanka (Prepared by W.M. Abeyratna Bandara, Advisor, Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sports and Rural Development, Colombo) (pdf file: 75 Kb)
  
• Rural poverty alleviation in Thailand (Prepared by Kitisak Sinthuvanich and Chitti Chuenyong, the National Economic and Social Development Board, Bangkok) (pdf file: 20 kb)
  
• Viet Nam A study on rural poverty alleviation (Prepared by Hoang Huu Hai, Senior Expert, Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hanoi, Viet Nam) (pdf file: 50 kb)
  
• Report of the regional expert group meeting on rural poverty alleviation under changing economic conditions (Beijing, 25-28 march 1997) (pdf file: 53 kb)