ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has announced the launch of a new ‘Commission on Global Poverty’ to prepare a report by April next year on the best ways to measure and monitor poverty around the world.

The new commission, made up of 24 leading international economists, will be chaired by Sir Anthony Atkinson, a leading authority on the measurement of poverty and inequality, the Centennial Professor at London School of Economics, and a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University.

Announcing the new advisory body, the World Bank’s Chief Economist, Kaushik Basu, said on Monday that he expects the Commission to also provide advice on how to adjust the measurement of extreme poverty as and when new Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and other price and exchange rate data become available.

PPP calculations allow economists to compare different global exchange rates to assess household consumption and real income in US dollars, since nominal exchange rates do not accurately capture differences in costs of living across countries.

This year, United Nations members are expected to agree in New York to a set of post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the first and foremost of which is the eradication of extreme poverty everywhere, in all its forms.

Last year, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim announced the bank’s commitment to two goals that would direct its development work worldwide. The first was the eradication of chronic extreme poverty, defined as those extremely poor people living on less than $1.25 PPP-adjusted dollars a day, to less than 3 per cent of the world population by 2030.

The second is the boosting of shared prosperity, defined as promoting the growth of per capita real income of the poorest 40pc of the population in each country.

Livelihoods fund launched

Meanwhile, the Islamic Development Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have formally launched a $500 million grant facility, to be known as “The Lives and Livelihoods Fund”, to address poverty and diseases in IDB member countries which include Pakistan.

Through this innovative facility, IDB, the Gates Foundation and other donors will support over five years poverty-focused programmes worth $2.5 billion in primary healthcare, disease control, smallholder agriculture and basic rural infrastructure in IDB member countries, especially in low income countries.

IDB President, Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali the $500m from the fund will be deployed alongside $2bn from IDB to scale-up support to pro-poor programmes in IDB member countries over five years.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2015

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