The Seminar on Poverty Statistics, organized
by the secretariat of the Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), was held from 21 to 23 June 1999 in Bangkok.
Financial support for the Seminar was provided
by the Government of the Netherlands, while
the United Nations Development Programme, through
its country offices, provided support for the
attendance of several participants.
A. Attendance
2.
The Seminar was attended by 30
participants from the following 18 members of
ESCAP: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India,
Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lao People=s
Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar,
Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
3.
The Seminar was also attended by representatives
of the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),
United Nations Children=s
Fund (UNICEF), Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO), International Labour
Organization (ILO), Asian Development Bank (ADB),
International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW),
and the Statistical Institute for Asia and the
Pacific (SIAP).
B. Opening
of the Seminar
4.
The Seminar was inaugurated by Mr Adrianus
Mooy, Executive Secretary of ESCAP. In his opening
statement, the Executive Secretary expressed
his gratitude to the Government of the Netherlands
for its generous financial support which enabled
the secretariat to organize the Seminar and
to the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) for providing financial support for several
of the participants. He also acknowledged the
excellent cooperation of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC), ADB, FAO and the ILO in providing
technical papers and reference material for
the Seminar.
5.
The Executive Secretary noted that over the
years the number of poor persons had been increasing
steadily, particularly in the developing countries
throughout the world. The largest proportion
of the world=s
poor was concentrated in the ESCAP region where
the recent economic crisis in Asia had resulted
in deterioration of the poverty situation.
6.
During the past several decades, governments
had been according high priority to alleviating
poverty and had therefore been allocating more
resources for that purpose. However, in many
countries the formulation and implementation
of appropriate poverty alleviation programmes
had to a large extent been hampered by the lack
of reliable relevant data. The inadequate database
had also inhibited the development of appropriate
methodologies for obtaining reasonable estimates
of poverty incidence.
7.
The Executive Secretary noted that with increasing
demand for quality data and information the
statistical systems in most countries had come
under growing pressure to generate more reliable
and up-to-date information for accurately measuring
the incidence of poverty and for formulating
and monitoring poverty alleviation programmes.
He emphasized that in order to respond to those
needs the national statistical offices should
focus on, among other things, improving the
scope and content of existing data sources and
tapping potential sources to obtain more direct
data in sufficient detail. He also highlighted
the need for a continuing dialogue between data
producers and data users to strengthen national
poverty databases. In that connection, the Executive
Secretary also referred to the growing involvement
of the international community in the realm
of poverty statistics, notably in regard to
poverty concepts and measures.
C. Election
of officers
8.
The Seminar elected Mr Faizullah
Khilji (Pakistan) as Chairperson, Mr P.V. Thomas
(India) as Vice-Chairperson, and Ms Carmelita
Ericta (Philippines) as Rapporteur.
D. Adoption
of the agenda
9.
The Seminar adopted the following agenda:
Opening of the Seminar.
Election of officers.
Adoption of the agenda.
Review of poverty
concepts and measurement.
Poverty measurement
in the context of policy, plan and programme
formulation at the national and subnational
levels in ESCAP region.
Data requirements
for formulating poverty alleviation programmes
and for monitoring their implementation.
Strengthening statistics
on poverty.
Recommendations.
Adoption of the recommendations.
E. Documentation
10.
The documents presented at the Seminar are
listed in the Annex to the report.
II.
REVIEW OF POVERTY CONCEPTS AND MEASUREMENT
11.
The Seminar had before it the following documents:
"Evolution in the Nineties and Structural Factors
Behind Poverty and Income Distribution in Latin
America" (STAT/POV/1) prepared by ECLAC, a secretariat
note entitled "Poverty Concepts and Measurement
in Developing ESCAP Countries" (STAT/POV/2),
and documents submitted by FAO entitled "Note
on FAO=s
Work Relating to the Measurement of Poverty"
(STAT/POV/3); and "Guidelines on Socio-Economic
Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluating Agrarian
Reform and Rural Development" (STAT/POV/4).
Presentations were also made based on 20 country
papers as listed in the annex.
12.
The Seminar noted the remarkable homogeneity
across most countries of ESCAP region in the
conceptualization of poverty as a state of deprivation
with reference to socially accepted norms of
basic human needs. Practically all developing
countries in the region had adopted absolute
poverty as the relevant poverty measure, with
a poverty line based on the basket of goods
and services approach being the most widely
used measurement indicator of poverty.
13.
Legal recognition was also accorded to the
definition of the poor. For example, in the
Philippines through a Republic Act known as
the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act,
the poor had been defined as those individuals
and families whose incomes fell below the poverty
threshold as defined by the National Economic
and Development Authority and/or those who could
not afford in sustained manner to provide their
minimum basic needs of food, health, education,
housing and other essential amenities of life.
14.
The Seminar noted that although there was
general agreement on conceptual definition,
there was less agreement on the statistical
measurement of poverty. The diversity in measurement
methodologies between as well as within countries
had largely resulted from difficulties in specifying
the basket of minimum needs (food and non-food)
and from lack of relevant data and limitations
of available data and information.
15.
While the minimum food needs had in most cases
been determined on the basis of a recommended
minimum nutritionally adequate diet, the Seminar
noted that the per capita food intake for survival
assumed for deriving the food poverty line varied
across countries as well as within countries
from 2100 calories to 2750 calories per capita
per day. There were also problems in determining
the items that constituted the basket of non-food
needs because those needs varied not only across
countries but also between regions and population
groups within the same country. Whereas there
was a scientific basis for determining an individual=s
minimum need for food, there was hardly any
method to determine accurately the norms for
non-food items. Consequently, researchers had
perforce to adopt tailor-made but crude techniques
for estimating the non-food component of the
poverty line. The Seminar, therefore, underscored
the importance of developing normative yardsticks
for measuring not only the nutritional requirements
but also other basic needs such as housing,
clothing, education, and transport to obtain
reliable estimates of poverty incidence.
16.
The Seminar also highlighted the need for
establishing separate poverty lines to allow
for significant variations in the minimum needs
baskets, the consumption patterns, and in prices
of goods and services between various areas
within a country. In that connection, the Seminar
noted that in large countries, poverty lines
were being derived separately in respect of
each geographically/administratively distinct
region and for each socio-economically divergent
population group. In Thailand, for example,
separate poverty lines had been established
for urban and rural areas in four administrative
regions and for Metropolitan Bangkok region.
In India, separate poverty lines had been derived
for each of the constituent States and for urban
and rural areas within each State.
17.
The Seminar was of the view that poverty measures
should go beyond the traditional income/expenditure
- based assessments to capture other dimensions
of the poor. The choice of the right tools was
considered to be critical not only for determining
the number of poor people but also for understanding
the causes and correlates of poverty. The Seminar
noted the efforts made in many countries of
the region to expand the analysis of poverty
in a multi-dimensional manner and additionally
to examine the welfare aspects of the poor including
their access to specific goods, services and
functions on the basis of carefully selected
indicators.
18.
The Seminar was also briefed on the activities
of the Expert Group on Poverty Statistics
(also known as the Rio Group) established
by the United Nations Statistical Commission.
The attention of the Seminar was particularly
drawn to three basic considerations which
had influenced the activities of the Rio Group:
Poverty being a multi-dimensional
social phenomenon, data and information
needed for its analysis should be developed
and used on the premises that the meaning
of indicators and their value would always
be conditioned to a particular social and
political phenomenon. Hence, attempts to
give a world-wide meaning to poverty indicators
were unlikely to succeed;
In the area of poverty,
as in many other areas, statistics served
at least two different objectives: to meet
the demands of the political system for
synthetic indicators, and often for one
synthetic indicator; and to satisfy the
information needs of planners and policy-makers,
for comprehensive data on the different
socio-economic groups affected by poverty,
to enable them to determine the interventions
best suited to the problems specific to
each group;
Given the current inchoate
stage in the development of poverty statistics,
it would be more practical to identify and
adopt best practices than to indulge in
prolonged discussions aimed at deriving
one or more standards related to poverty
indicators. In the same vein, it would be
perfectly possible to define different indicators
of poverty and to use them in a complementary
fashion instead of starting arguments about
the supremacy of any one of them. In practice,
at least in Latin America, a good combination
of a well defined indicator and the possibilities
of measuring it systematically and frequently
had proved more important than going in
depth into the definition of indicators
that had little chance of being estimated.
19.
The Seminar was also informed that the concept
of absolute poverty had been adopted as the
relevant poverty measure in developing Latin
American countries. The two most frequently
used methods to measure absolute poverty were:
(i) income or consumption insufficiency method
(poverty income lines), and (ii) unmet basic
needs method. Since most of the calculations
of unmet basic needs were based on data from
the decennial population and housing censuses,
poverty lines could in most cases be constructed
only once in ten years.
20.
The Seminar also noted that governments that
had adopted an official measurement of poverty
or were working towards that goal normally had
an objective closely related to policy. In most
of those cases, there was a prior decision about
the range of resources that would be made available
to establish policies in that field. In such
situations, the estimates needed to be viewed
from an empirical approach and not on the basis
of any theoretical background.
III.
POVERTY MEASUREMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF POLICY,
PLAN AND PROGRAMME FORMULATION AT THE NATIONAL
AND SUBNATIONAL LEVELS IN ESCAP REGION
21.
For discussions under the agenda item, the
Seminar had before it documents STAT/POV/5,
entitled "Conceptual and Estimation Issues in
the Incidence and Alleviation of Poverty", prepared
by a consultant to the secretariat, and STAT/POV/INF.6,
entitled "Poverty Incidence in the Asia-Pacific
Region: Data Situation and Measurement Issues"
submitted by ADB. The Seminar also considered
relevant sections of the country papers.
22.
The Seminar was provided with a historical
perspective to the concerns about poverty measurement
and poverty alleviation in developing countries.
The government in many of those countries had,
over the years, promised to reduce or even eradicate
poverty, malnutrition, diseases and illiteracy
upon gaining political independence from colonial
powers. However, in most countries, those promises
remained unfulfilled, and in some the poverty
situation had deteriorated after independence.
Although the benefits of the growth-oriented
development strategies of the 1960s were expected
to trickle down to the vulnerable and poorer
sections of the population, that hope had seldom
been realized.
23.
The disillusionment with "growthmanship" and
failure of accompanying foreign aid policies
led to a shifting of focus towards poverty at
the national and international levels during
the subsequent decades. The impact of the "oil
crisis" of the 1970s on the political economy
of international economic cooperation resulted
in a demand for a New International Economic
Order by the developing countries and in an
emphasis on the importance of domestic policy
reforms by developed countries. Those developments
culminated not only in the emergence of poverty
as a prominent agenda item on the international
development scene, but also in efforts to bring
poverty measurement and poverty alleviation
into the mainstream of policy planning and programme
formulation in many of the developing countries.
24.
The Seminar also noted that in recent decades
the concept of income poverty had been broadened
to embrace a wider set of basic needs including
those in the social sphere. Thus, poverty had
come to be defined not just as lack of income
but also as lack of access to health, education,
and other services. The concept of basic needs
had spawned a number of policy initiatives such
as integrated rural development, basic health
services, universal literacy, and access to
clean water and housing.
25.
The Seminar agreed that given the broader
perception of poverty and the commitments of
national governments to poverty alleviation,
measurements of poverty needed to be expanded
to provide not only reliable estimates of poverty
incidence, but also comprehensive data on the
causes and correlates of poverty. While information
regarding the number of poor persons was no
doubt of political and administrative interest,
the Seminar underscored the importance of providing
planners and policy-makers with up-to-date information
on the basic characteristics of the poor in
terms of their geographic distribution, socio-economic
grouping, household size and demographic composition,
employment, occupation and living conditions
of household members as well as their access
to and control over resources. Besides improving
the understanding of the complex combination
of factors responsible for the incidence of
poverty, such information would enable the formulation
and implementation of the types of interventions
best suited to the various poverty groups.
26.
While acknowledging that the desired
information on the basic characteristics of
the poor was not readily available in most developing
countries, the Seminar noted the efforts made
in several of those countries to gather the
required data for assembling profiles of the
poor in terms of their dominant characteristics.
For example, the Seminar was informed that in
India a Below Poverty Line (BPL) census was
being regularly undertaken by various state
governments to identify the poor households
and the causes of their impoverishment so as
to design anti-poverty programmes specific to
their needs. In Cambodia, data collected through
the Socio-Economic Survey had been used to compile
poverty profiles along a variety of descriptive
characteristics of the poor.
27.
In underscoring the importance of expanding
the analysis of poverty in a multi-dimensional
manner, the Seminar emphasized the need for
developing a minimum set of social indicators
to obtain a clear picture of the various dimensions
of poverty. It noted that social indicators
served as potentially important tools for creating
wider public and political awareness of the
poverty syndrome and for helping national planners
and international donors in redirecting efforts
towards enabling of the poor to meet their own
essential needs.
28.
The Seminar also discussed the question of
national versus international requirements of
poverty estimates and measures. It agreed that
the first priority in the collection and processing
of data was to meet the demands of national
planners and policy-makers for reliable information
and measures on the incidence, causes and consequences
of poverty at the national and sub-national
levels. However, it was necessary to develop
an objective basis and mechanism to comply with
some unavoidable international needs. The Seminar
emphasized the importance of balancing the information
needs of donors for making inter-country comparisons
and those of the national governments that had
to follow several diverse, often conflicting,
national objectives.
29.
The Seminar also noted that in addition to
the baseline information needed for programme
formulation, data collection and analysis on
a continuing basis was essential for assessing
the efficiency of programme implementation and
for evaluating the programmes' impact on the
poverty situation. The data and indicators required
for those purposes would relate to changes in
poverty incidence and in the basic characteristics
of the poor and were usually obtained as a by-product
of programme implementation or through special
surveys. They would help to determine the appropriateness
of the poverty alleviation programmes to the
intended beneficiaries, the problems encountered
in the implementation process, and to ascertain
the extent to which the programmes had contributed
to improve the conditions of the beneficiaries.
The Seminar also acknowledged that those data
and indicators would be needed not only by national
authorities but also by international donors
to assess the impact of their interventions
on the poor.
30.
The Seminar agreed that the strategy
to address poverty data requirements should
aim at meeting the needs of national authorities
for adequate information for formulation and
implementation of effective poverty alleviation
programmes as well the reasonable demands of
donors for comparable data and indicators for
inter-country comparisons. The Seminar therefore
underscored the importance of a programme of
synchronized poverty measurement activities
with national authorities assuming responsibility
for the collection and analysis of primary data
and with donors providing assistance to build
and/or strengthen national capacities and to
support studies for enhancing the understanding
of the poverty syndrome.
31.
The Seminar also discussed the frequency at
which data needed to be collected and analysed
and measurements undertaken to monitor poverty
reduction programmes. It agreed that most national
statistical systems would find it expensive
to carry out annual poverty measurements, especially
in times of severe economic crisis when, ironically,
rapid assessments would be most needed. It therefore
suggested that updating of poverty data and
indicators for smaller areas within countries
could be undertaken at longer intervals of five
or more years, and that depending on individual
country situations, monitoring in between quinquennial
large-scale synchronized surveys should be carried
out at least once in respect of larger subnational
areas and for the country as a whole.
IV.
DATA REQUIREMENTS FOR FORMULATING POVERTY ALLEVIATION
PROGRAMMES AND FOR MONITORING THEIR IMPLEMENTATION
32.
The Seminar discussed the topic on the basis
of documents STAT/POV/5, STAT/POV/8 entitled
"Poverty Data Requirements" prepared by the
secretariat, and relevant sections of the country
papers.
33.
The Seminar noted that in addition to continuing
national political commitment to reduce poverty,
the emphasis on human development placed by
various international summits had brought into
focus the need for accurate, consistent and
timely statistics on the incidence of poverty
as well as on the socio-economic characteristics
of the poor. Further, the recent economic crisis
and the resultant heightened priority accorded
to poverty reduction had also drawn attention
to the need for improving the understanding
of the inter-relationships of economic events,
good governance, and the dynamics between the
poor and the non-poor.
34.
However, the Seminar noted that most developing
ESCAP countries lacked the knowledge base essential
for adequately addressing poverty issues and
for formulating and monitoring effective poverty
alleviation programmes. That situation had largely
been due to the fact that measurement of poverty
had been overly preoccupied with the estimation
of poverty incidence while other important dimensions
such as understanding of the deprivation of
the poor, the causes and consequences of poverty,
and the monitoring of poverty alleviation programmes
had received less attention. The Seminar stressed
the need for redressing that imbalance.
35.
The Seminar also noted that the substantial
gaps and serious defects in available poverty-related
statistics had led to compromises in the use
of data and rendered the task of poverty analysis
more arduous. It observed that poverty studies
undertaken in respect of most developing countries
lacked the depth that a historical wealth of
information could provide. In order to bridge
the increasing gulf between the development
of conceptual analysis and statistical implementation
of poverty-related issues, the Seminar underscored
the urgent need for a poverty statistics information
policy or strategy to address the inadequacies
and limitations of statistical data on poverty.
36.
The Seminar observed that the first logical
step in designing poverty alleviation strategies
was the undertaking of a situation analysis
to determine the extent of poverty, its possible
causes, and the characteristics of the poverty
groups. That analysis, based on available data
and studies, would help in understanding the
problems and needs specific to various poverty
groups and to formulate the interventions best
suited to each of those groups. The Seminar
agreed that the minimum statistical data required
for the situation analysis should cover such
areas as demographic composition, socio-economic
characteristics of the population (e.g., education,
health and nutrition, housing, employment, occupation,
income) and access to and control of resources
including land, credit facilities etc., with
disaggregation at subnational levels.
37.
The Seminar also agreed that the planning
and formulation of effective anti-poverty programmes
required the use of a range of statistical indicators
to ascertain who the poor were, where they lived,
the social groups for which special alleviation
programmes would be implemented, and households
and individuals that needed to be assisted.
Such indicators would help to identify the prospective
target groups for programme intervention, to
understand the conditions of poverty that needed
to be changed, and to determine the most appropriate
interventions. Those indicators, which should
be measurable, factual, valid, verifiable and
sensitive, could be based on micro-level statistics
from household surveys and special case studies.
However, the Seminar noted that in most countries
of the region, very little effort had been made
to measure poverty at the micro-level to identify
the target beneficiaries.
V.
STRENGTHENING STATISTICS ON POVERTY
38.
The Seminar had before it secretariat documents
STAT/POV/9, entitled "Sources and Limitations
of Poverty Statistics in Developing ESCAP countries"
and STAT/POV/10, entitled "Improvement of Household
Incomes and Expenditure Surveys for Collecting
Data for Poverty Measurement", and background
information presented to the Seminar through
country reports.
39.
The Seminar noted the great diversity among
developing countries of the region in regard
to the availability of poverty-related statistics.
In several of those countries, the available
data were considered to be inadequate for accurately
estimating the incidence of poverty and for
comprehensively analysing the socio-economic
characteristics of the poor. Further, the practice
in poverty analysis of utilizing data obtained
for other purposes had restricted the choice
of statistical indicators and given rise to
misleading interpretations.
40.
The Seminar also noted that data on income,
expenditure and other aspects gathered through
household sample surveys had mostly been used
to derive poverty lines and to address public
concerns about poverty in developing countries
of the region. However, the Seminar observed
that as a main source of statistical information
for poverty analysis, those surveys were of
questionable reliability for various reasons:
The surveys might not
be frequent enough, being carried out at
intervals of five years in some countries
and three years in several others;
Generally the samples
were not large enough to obtain reasonably
valid estimates of poverty incidence in
respect of small regions and socio-economic
groups;
Since those surveys were
not specifically designed to collect poverty
data, information available for poverty
analysis was usually limited, thus necessitating
the combination of information from one
survey with that from another which might
differ in several respects including sample
coverage and timing;
The quality and reliability
of the data gathered were, in many instances,
considered to be doubtful due to non-sampling
errors such as timing of the survey, duration
of field investigations, and mis-reporting
of income and consumption by respondents.
It was generally acknowledged that there
were serious errors in survey data on incomes
arising from tendencies to deliberately
under-report incomes, and non-reporting
of income in kind and transfer incomes.
Often surveys did not contain sufficient
data on expenditure on individual food items,
quantities of different items consumed and
food consumed outside the household.
41.
While the Seminar noted that the quality of
household surveys had improved markedly in recent
years, it nevertheless felt that there were
still serious problems of standardization which
needed to be resolved in order to render the
comparability of the data collected over time
and across countries reliable with a high degree
of confidence. The Seminar also noted that in
most countries the results of even officially
conducted surveys were seldom used for building
up macro-economic aggregates, a large part of
which continued to rely on dubious interpolation
or time trends for intercensal or inter-survey
years. Consequently, macro-economic analysis
in many countries was often confronted with
reconciling trends on poverty based on household
survey (cross-section) data and growth based
on national income (time series) data generated
by different agencies. The Seminar underscored
the need for creating institutional mechanisms
for reconciling such conflicting evidence through
transparent research and discussions to make
optimum use of available data and information.
42.
The Seminar also noted that population and
housing censuses constituted another important
source of data for constructing a number of
poverty-related indicators such as family size,
literacy, educational participation and attainment
levels, employment and occupation etc. In some
countries, census data on income and consumption
were utilized to derive poverty lines. By providing
detailed data and information for smaller areas
and population groups, censuses also promoted
development of analytical studies of greater
geographical disaggregation.
43.
However, the Seminar observed that since censuses
were conducted at ten year intervals in most
developing countries, census data were not useful
for frequent assessment and monitoring of the
socio-economic characteristics of the poor.
44.
The Seminar also noted that, although a considerable
amount of statistical information continued
to be gathered routinely as part of the administrative
process, very few countries in the region used
administrative records for analysing the incidence
of poverty and the characteristics of the poor.
45.
The Seminar recognized that with increasing
commitments of governments to poverty alleviation,
there was a growing demand for more relevant
and reliable data to derive meaningful estimates
of poverty as well as to design appropriate
poverty alleviation strategies and to evaluate
the impact of those strategies. Consequently,
the national statistical systems were under
heavy pressure to improve the poverty databases
in terms of their scope, coverage, reliability,
and, more importantly, relevance for policy-making.
46.
The Seminar was of the view that national
poverty databases could be adequately strengthened
by adopting two broad, but complementary, measures.
The first measure involved improving the scope
and content of existing data sources such as
surveys and censuses to obtain more direct data
in sufficient detail needed for development
of statistics and indicators relevant to a comprehensive
understanding of the poverty situation at the
national and sub-national levels. Those efforts
included expanding the content of the questionnaires
to elicit detailed data on the composition of
consumer expenditure in terms of those goods
and services that constituted the basis for
deriving poverty lines, and on the household
characteristics considered to be correlates
of the poor households.
47.
Since sample household surveys were the most
frequently used sources of income and expenditure
data used for deriving the poverty line, the
Seminar emphasized that improving the quality
and reliability of income and consumption data
should be a major goal for those in charge of
such surveys. In that connection, the Seminar
recognized that incorporating social transfers
in kind would improve household surveys as an
instrument to measure poverty and monitor poverty
alleviation interventions, and would harmonize
the concepts and practice at the micro and macro
level statistics. However, the Seminar was conscious
of the enormous problems in imputing the value
of the services, particularly in the health
sector where there was a wide variation in the
quantity and type of services availed of by
the households.
48.
The Seminar noted that although a considerable
amount of statistical data and information relevant
to poverty analysis was being collected routinely
by various agencies in many countries, efforts
were not being made to exploit those data in
a systematic manner to obtain quantitative information
on a wide range of social, demographic and economic
aspects relating to the poor. The Seminar underscored
the need to process those data on a continuing
basis to provide much needed additional information
for estimating poverty incidence and for the
formulation and monitoring of poverty alleviation
programmes.
49.
The Seminar recognized that the types of data
employed in poverty measurements were not only
closely related to the statistical capabilities
of each country but also depended on the needs
voiced by the main users of such data. It therefore
underscored the importance of a continuous dialogue
between data producers and data users to identify
data-cum-conceptual gaps.
VI.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
50.
The Seminar on Poverty Statistics reviewed
the current situation relating to the incidence
and alleviation of poverty in the ESCAP region
in the context of the prevailing global economic
situation and domestic policy environment. The
main concern of the Seminar centered on the
availability and development of statistical
data and methodology for the understanding and
measurement of poverty. In making that review
the Seminar was guided by the opening statement
of the Executive Secretary of ESCAP and the
rich and varied documentation presented by the
country participants and the ESCAP secretariat
and its consultant, along with that contributed
by other international agencies and organizations,
especially the Asian Development Bank, ECLAC,
FAO, and ILO.
51.
The Seminar noted with satisfaction that the
overall poverty situation as indicated by the
number of poor as a proportion of the total
population in the developing ESCAP region had
shown steady, if slow, improvement over the
past few decades. However, the total number
of poor people remained disquietingly high in
view of the high rates of population growth
still prevailing in many of the developing countries
of the ESCAP region. It was also noted that
much of the improvement in the poverty situation
of the region in the last two decades in quantitative
terms was attributable to significantly lower
poverty incidence in the most populous country
of the region, China. The Seminar also noted
with concern the reverses in the poverty situation
in the East Asian economies, which had previously
succeeded in reducing the high rates of poverty
incidence during the last two decades through
their successful export-led development strategy,
as a result of the East Asian financial crisis,
which coincided in some of those countries with
the El Nino phenomenon. Although precise statistical
evidence was lacking, the poverty situation
in the transition economies of the Central Asian
republics was presumed to have worsened severely
in the 1990s in view of the continued declines
in per capita incomes and the withdrawal of
access to a variety of goods and services previously
available at subsidized rates.
52.
The country papers presented at the Seminar
gave a vivid account of the efforts being made
by the governments and statistical authorities
to quantify the poverty situation and to provide
assistance in the implementation of the poverty
alleviation programmes being launched by those
countries. The country papers reflected the
diversity of the situation both in terms of
the objective reality and the extent to which
it had been possible to capture it through various
statistical measures . Some countries had been
monitoring the poverty situation in a systematic
manner, but many others, especially the least
developed and transition economies, had launched
those efforts only recently. While most countries
of the region had received technical and financial
assistance from donor agencies, especially the
World Bank and UNDP, the overall financial situation
in the face of the need for structural adjustment
and reduction in government budgets had in many
instances seriously constrained such efforts
from becoming institutionalized on a sustainable
basis.
53.
The Seminar also devoted considerable attention
to the objectives of poverty studies and the
complexity of the concepts which had emerged
in recent research. While the initial interest
in poverty research was focused on the proportion
of people falling below the poverty line, more
recent work had stressed the need for treating
poverty as a complex issue which could not be
captured by a single statistic, notwithstanding
the usefulness of such a summary measure for
purposes of arousing public concern and cultivating
donor support for alleviating poverty. In that
context the Seminar also considered the competing
demands on poverty research made, on the one
hand, by national planners and policy makers
for the purpose of formulating, implementing
and innovating strategies for the country=s
long-term development and, on the other, by
the pressures for inter-country comparability
of poverty statistics for the purpose of mobilizing
donor support. The Seminar felt that since the
primary responsibility for poverty alleviation
was that of the national governments, the former
consideration should receive precedence, given
the restricted availability of resources. Nevertheless,
the Seminar fully appreciated and endorsed the
need for continued efforts for meaningful comparisons
of the poverty situation among different countries,
especially on a regional basis. In that context,
the Seminar noted with great appreciation the
studies undertaken by ECLAC for comparative
inter-country research on the poverty situation
in that region. The Seminar expressed the need
to launch similar research studies in the ESCAP
region, subject to the availability of funds
and in cooperation with other agencies and institutions,
especially the ADB and the World Bank.
54.
As a result of the discussions
held during its deliberations, the main features
of which have been highlighted above, the
following principal operational recommendations
emerged from the Seminar.
The Seminar endorsed the
need for continuing and accelerated in-depth
research on the poverty situation at the
national, regional and international levels.
It was recognized that poverty alleviation
was increasingly regarded as a principal
objective of development policy. In that
regard, the Seminar stressed the need for
greater clarity and objectivity in specifying
the goals of poverty alleviation and its
time frame in order to lend credibility
to the objective and dispel cynicism about
the possibility of its achievement among
the public at large, especially the poor.
In view of the complex
and intransigent nature of the poverty problem,
the Seminar endorsed the need for a differentiated
approach to its study, measurement and formulation
of strategies in the context of a country=s
specific situation, development stage and
medium-term objective, national capability
and available resources. The Seminar stressed
the need to consider the goal of poverty
alleviation as part of a strategy of equitable
growth, rather than in either a static or
inequitable growth setting. The Seminar
considered that the essential objective
of poverty research should be to provide
a deeper understanding of the extent and
nature of deprivation and the causes and
consequences of poverty in the countries
of the region. In that regard national statistical
offices should accommodate in their collection
and dissemination the need to develop social
indicators to complement income-based monitoring.
The Seminar recommended
that while maximum efforts should be made
to choose indicators of poverty and its
correlates on a broadly comparable basis,
the countries should make the choice that
best suits their national needs at the given
time. While most medium-sized countries
with broadly homogeneous population and
regional characteristics might choose a
single, national poverty line, it was felt
that more disaggregated poverty lines would
be required for most countries with heterogeneous
population groups and ecological differences.
There was a need to focus attention on the
problems of Ahard
core@
or Aacute
poverty@
situations. Studies also needed to be conducted
on the seasonal and cyclical aspects of
the poverty problem.
There was a need for a
participatory approach in the choice of
methodology and data; the methodology chosen
should be fully documented and disseminated.
That approach would also help in reducing
the confusion that often accompanied the
multiplicity of poverty estimates. Expert
groups, NGOs and other relevant groups should
openly debate and discuss the appropriateness
of each methodology.
There was a need for more
concerted, well thought out and better designed
methods for inter-country comparison of
poverty estimates. The existing methods
such as those using the World Bank-sponsored
$1 a day poverty line needed to be viewed
with scepticism and should be employed with
caution. Nevertheless, the search for more
appropriate methodologies or international
comparisons should continue with greater
transparency, debate and additional resources.
The exchange of experience
and expertise at the regional level for
both estimation and alleviation of poverty
should be promoted. ESCAP might consider
mobilizing donor support to launch such
a regional project and convene a regional
expert group meeting for that purpose. Such
a meeting could also discuss the possibility
of adopting more comparable definitions,
procedures and methodologies for poverty
measurement.
The Seminar emphasized
that the burden of poverty measurement could
not be carried by statisticians alone and
required the active collaboration not only
of economists, development planners, and
policy makers, but also of those engaged
in related disciplines such as anthropologists
and sociologists. In addition, the NGOs
active in the field of poverty alleviation,
many of which were stakeholders and produced
poverty related statistics, could provide
useful insights into the underlying nature
and dimensions of the poverty problem, and
play a catalytic role in the design of statistical
indicators. The Seminar recommended that
statisticians and researchers consult those
diverse groups actively and involve them
as appropriate in the various stages of
poverty measurement and of the monitoring
and evaluation of poverty alleviation programmes.
If poverty alleviation
as a major objective of development policy
of the government was to be realized, considerably
larger resources would have to be devoted
to the task of building and strengthening
adequate national capacity for the development
of statistical methodologies and databases
for the measurement of poverty and the monitoring
of the performance of poverty alleviation
programmes. The resources available at present
for undertaking those tasks had largely
been provided by donor agencies on an ad
hoc basis, sometimes with little regard
for the sustainability of those efforts.
The Seminar recommended that donor assistance
for poverty research should contribute towards
the building of such a sustained capability
and the institutionalization of the needed
research and data collection. The Seminar
recognized that it included the use of information
technology in data processing and dissemination,
as well as specialized training on monitoring
and evaluation.
The tasks of poverty measurement
and monitoring had grown in complexity and
scope in recent years due to the increasing
integration of developing economies with
the global economy and their increased vulnerability
to external shocks. That required that the
statistical systems of the countries should
stand ready to undertake ad hoc studies,
with the help of truncated surveys, panel
data, modelling and other methods to provide
policy makers with the required information.
Similar efforts might be required in the
event of natural disasters such as floods,
earthquakes, crop failure and other serious
disruption of economic activities.
The Seminar recommended
that countries might consider undertaking
more frequent household income and expenditure
surveys where required, preferably with
larger samples and more intensive coverage
of the vulnerable groups of the population.
In that regard, the Seminar felt that the
activities of the informal sector needed
to be covered as adequately as possible
by suitable changes in the design of the
present surveys or by undertaking separate
surveys for the informal sector. It was
also recommended that suitable modifications
be made in other data collection instruments
such as censuses and administrative reporting
systems. The Seminar also emphasized the
need to exploit and utilize data already
available in relevant administrative records.
Annex
LIST OF
DOCUMENTS
Symbol
Title of document
Relevant agenda item(s)
STAT/POV/L.1
Provisional Agenda
3
STAT/POV/L.2
Annotated Provisional
Agenda
3
Seminar documents
STAT/POV/1
Evolution in the Nineties
and Structural Factors Behind Poverty and Income
Distribution in Latin America
4
STAT/POV/2
Poverty Concepts and
Measurement in Developing ESCAP Countries
4
STAT/POV/3
Note on FAO=s
Work Relating to the Measurement of Poverty
4
STAT/POV/4
Guidelines on Socio-Economic
Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluating Agrarian
Reform and Rural Development
4
STAT/POV/5
Conceptual and Estimation
Issues in the Incidence and Alleviation of Poverty
5, 6
STAT/POV/8
Poverty Data Requirements
6
STAT/POV/9
Sources and Limitations
of Poverty Statistics in Developing ESCAP Countries
7
STAT/POV/10
Improvement of Household
Income and Expenditure Survey for Collecting
Data on Poverty Measurement
7
STAT/POV/CRP.1
Recommendations
8, 9
Country papers
STAT/POV/7[Bangladesh]
Country paper
4,5,6,7
STAT/POV/7[Cambodia]
Poverty Measurement in Cambodia
STAT/POV/7[China]
Poverty Statistics
in China
STAT/POV/7[Fiji]
Poverty Measurement
Discuss
STAT/POV/7[India]
India Country Paper
on Poverty Measurement
STAT/POV/7[Indonesia]
Poverty Measurement,
the Case of Indonesia
STAT/POV/7[Kazakhstan]
Measurement of Poverty
in Kazakhstan
STAT/POV/7
[Kazakhstan]Add.1
Country Paper, Kazakhstan
STAT/POV/7[Lao PDR]
Poverty Measurement
in Lao People's Democratic Republic
STAT/POV/7[Malaysia]
Malaysia: Poverty
STAT/POV/7[Mongolia]
Mongolia: Poverty
STAT/POV/7[Myanmar]
Country Paper, Myanmar
STAT/POV/7[Nepal]
Country Paper: Nepal
STAT/POV/7[Pakistan]
Pakistan Country Paper
STAT/POV/7[Philippines]
Country Paper, Philippines
STAT/POV/7[Singapore]
Country Paper, Singapore
STAT/POV/7[Sri Lanka]
Measurement of Poverty
in Sri Lanka
STAT/POV/7[Thailand]
Poverty Measurement
in Thailand
STAT/POV/7[Viet Nam]A
Concepts, Contents and Measurement of Poverty
in Viet Nam
STAT/POV/7[Viet Nam]B
Concepts, Contents and Measurement of Poverty
in Viet Nam
Background documents
STAT/POV/INF.1
Poverty Measurement=s
Present Status of Concepts and Methods
4
STAT/POV/INF.2
Summary of the Debates
4
STAT/POV/INF.3
Role of SIAP in Providing
Training on Poverty Statistics
4, 5, 6, 7
STAT/POV/INF.4
The Statistical Measurement
of Poverty
4
STAT/POV/INF.5
Poverty Statistics
- Some Useful References
7
STAT/POV/INF.6
Poverty Incidence in
the Asia - Pacific Region: data situation and
measurement issues
