ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a Pakistan-specific poverty database to assist in the production of accurate poverty and socioeconomic data for policymaking and monitoring progress on the government’s development targets and commitments.

The bank’s Pakistan Resident Mission’s (PRM) Poverty Group has compiled the database.

ADB’s Country Director, Peter Fedon, in a statement here on Monday emphasized that the database would provide information on measuring progress on poverty reduction in the country.

It would be a valuable resource for development practitioners, researchers, students, donors, the media and the government, he added.

The database is set up to monitor poverty specific matrices that have already been formalized and for which the targets, indicators, methodologies and data sources have been identified and agreed upon by the relevant stakeholders involved.

The database monitors progress in the Poverty Reduction Partnership Agreement Matrix, the Millennium Development Goals, and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Matrix.

Data is also provided on the same indicators from different sources wherever applicable for ease of comparison. Data from all the latest household surveys will be regularly updated on bi-annual basis.

ADB Pakistan Poverty Database was released on the ADB PRM external website on Dec 2, and can be accessed through the link: http:/www.adb.org/PRM/ PovertyDB/default.asp.—APP