SubRegional Workshop for the North Pacific: Integrating MDGs into National Development Strategies an

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Sub-Regional Workshop for the North
PacificIntegrating MDGs into National
Development Strategies and Budgets

• DEFINITION AND TRENDS OF POVERTY AND HARDSHIP IN
  THE PACIFIC
• Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia
• 26 29 June 2007
• David Abbott
• Regional Macroeconomic and Poverty Reduction
  Advisor
• UNDP Pacific Centre, Suva, Fiji
• david.abbott_at_undp.org
• www.regionalcentrepacific.undp.org.fj

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Defining Poverty

• Poverty has many characteristics
• Material Poverty
• Low income
• Low consumption/expenditure
• Non-Material Poverty
• Lack of economic opportunities
• Poor health and nutrition
• Poor education and/or illiteracy
• Poor housing and social environment, including
  access to efficient cost-effective energy sources
• Social exclusion and/or discrimination
• Vulnerability and insecurity
• Lack of freedom, empowerment and participation

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Defining PovertyA Suggested Pacific Definition

• Poverty Hardship
• An Inadequate Level of Sustainable Human
  Development, manifested by
• - a lack of access to basic services (eg
  Education, Health, Transport and Communications)
  
• - a lack of opportunities to participate fully in
  the socio-economic life of the community
  (employment, economic activities) and
• - a lack of adequate resources (including cash)
  to meet the basic needs of the household or
  customary obligations to the extended family,
  village community and/or the church.
• Meeting cultural and family commitments, (Tuvalu
  - Fakalavelave or Fakamolemole Fiji - kerekere
  Samoa - faalavelave Kiribati - bubuti Vanuatu
  and PNG - Wantok), have been cited in many other
  countries as amongst the primary causes of cash
  shortages in households, thereby constraining
  their ability to meet normal day-to-day basic
  needs expenditure.

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Pro-poor Policy The Millennium Development Goals

• 1.Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• 2.Achieve universal primary education
• 3.Promote gender equality and empower women
• 4.Reduce child mortality
• 5.Improve maternal health
• 6.Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria other diseases
• 7.Ensure environmental sustainability
• 8.Develop a global partnership for development

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Improving Understanding of Hardship and Poverty

• Measurement of Poverty and Hardship
• Quantitative Indicators
• Poverty Lines and Incidence
• Millennium Development Goals
• Other country-specific indicators
• Household Characteristics of the poor
• Qualitative Participatory Assessments -
  community level
• Define hardship and poverty
• Identify causes and characteristics
• Understand peoples perceptions
• Poverty of Opportunity
• Access to Basic Services
• Gender other Social Issues
• Identify Priorities of the People

• Capacity Building
• Poverty analysis
• Policy development
• Incorporating MDGs into national development
  strategies
• Formulation of strategies for pro-poor equitable
  growth and hardship alleviation
• Policy Co-ordination
• Resource allocation
• Participation and Consultation

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Why Measure Poverty

• Objectives of Measuring and Analysing Poverty
• identify the poor (objectively or subjectively)
• quantify the nature of poverty
• understand the causes and characteristics
• design alleviation interventions
• measure effectiveness of interventions
• Assessing the Impact of Policies on the Poor
• Economic growth
• Pro-poor budgeting and social expenditure
• Other targeted interventions

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Poverty and Policy

• Poverty analysis can identify
• who are the poor and disadvantaged
• why are they poor
• housing conditions and household assets
• household characteristics, including energy use
  and access to water and sanitation
• age, gender and educational attainment of
  households
• employment status and income sources of
  households
• proportion of expenditure on food and non-food
  basic needs
• proportion of food produced from own resources,
  food security, nutritional status

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Poverty A Vicious Circle

• Poverty Can Be Self-perpetuating
• unemployment or low income leads to a
• poor diet and frequently
• poor health resulting in an impaired ability to
  concentrate or work
• this results in
• poor educational attainment and lack of skills
• these conditions together
• limit ability to take advantage of opportunities,
  
• and lead to
• unemployment
• low income
• social exclusion, and thus
• perpetuate the cycle
• Pro-poor policies required to break this cycle

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Poverty and Hardship as Policy Focus

• Poverty Alleviation is now a primary policy focus
• Governments are committed to achieving MDGs
• Need for better understanding of the extent of
  poverty and hardship
• Policy development based on analysis and facts
• Targeted interventions
• Measured outputs and outcomes
• Poverty Reduction Strategies
• Equitable, pro-poor growth
• Pro-poor and gender sensitive budgets

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Measurement of Poverty IncidenceNational Poverty
Lines

• A Poverty Line is a threshold level of income,
  consumption/expenditure, welfare or some other
  measure of living standards
• Can be defined either
• relative to some measure of welfare over the
  whole population
• poverty line would be set relative to a specific
  level of consumption e.g. 50 (EU) or 60 (UK)
  of median (or mean) household income
• or in absolute terms as the minimum cost of a
  reference standard of living
• how to determine and measure the reference level
• Expenditure/consumption or income
• Defined basket of goods
• nutrition, welfare, utility
• Food Energy Method
• Cost of Basic Needs Method
• US1 or US2 per day (MDG 1)

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Issues of Data Quality for MDG 1

• Household survey data of variable quality,
  especially for older surveys
• sample frames and enumerator follow-up
• measurement of subsistence production
• variance between income and expenditure estimates
• Surveys not originally designed with poverty
  analysis as primary objective
• Analysis often done many years after survey
  completed
• PPP indices not yet available - but by end 2007

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Quantifying National Poverty Lines and Poverty
Incidence

• Original estimates of National Poverty Lines and
  poverty incidence for
• FSM, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Fiji,
  Solomon Islands
• On-going/planned support for analysis of
  current/new surveys
• Kiribati, FSM, RMI, Palau, Cook Islands, Nauru,
  Vanuatu
• others as required

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Latest Available Data on Poverty Incidence
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Urban-Rural Comparisons of Poverty Incidence
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Indicators of Poverty and Inequality

• Inequality
• Poverty measures focus on the situation of those
  at the bottom of the distribution
• Inequality is a broader concept and measures the
  relative well-being across the whole population
• Distribution of consumption (or other variables)
  can be shown graphically
• frequency distribution - bar chart
• cumulative frequency distribution - cumulative
  bar chart
• Lorenz Curve

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Distribution of Income/Consumption
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Lowest Quintile Households Non-Food/Food
Expenditure
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Gini Coefficients of Selected PICs
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Participatory Assessments of Hardship

• Ten countries
• Kiribati, FSM, RMI, PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Solomon
  Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

• More than 170 communities, including
• traditional leaders
• focus groups
• womens, youth and other community groups
• individuals

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People Experiencing Hardship

• Unemployed and landless
• Children orphans and those living with
  relatives
• Youth uneducated teenage couples
• Women widows single mothers
• Men widowers elderly without support
• People own nothing no education or skills
• no support from relatives
• Families large and landless families (internal
  migrants)

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Priorities of the People From the PAH
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• Thank You
• David Abbott
• Regional Macroeconomic and Poverty Reduction
  Advisor
• UNDP Pacific Centre
• david.abbott_at_undp.org
• regionalcentrepacific.undp.org.fj