Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of the
COMCEC Poverty Alleviation Working Group
2
1. Opening Session
In line with the tradition of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the COMCEC, the
Meeting started with the recitation from the Holy Quran. Afterwards, Mr. Burak KARAGÖL, Director
at the COMCEC Coordination Office welcomed all participants. Thereafter, Mr. KARAGÖL briefly
mentioned about the COMCEC and its activities. He also explained the details of the programme of
the Meeting.
Afterwards, Mr. Andi Zainal Abidin DULONG, Director at Ministry of Social Affairs of Indonesia, as
the chairman of the Meeting, welcomed all the participants to the 13th Meeting of the Poverty
Alleviation Working Group. After introducing himself, Mr. DULONG invited Dr. Güneş AŞIK, Sector
Specialist from the COMCEC Coordination Office, to make her presentation on Poverty Outlook in
the OIC Member Countries.
2. COMCEC Poverty Outlook
Prof. Dr. Güneş AŞIK, Sector Adviser from the COMCEC Coordination Office presented the key
findings of the COMCEC Poverty Outlook.
In her presentation, Dr. AŞIK explained the state of poverty in the world and in the OIC Member
Countries by highlighting key indicators on monetary and non-monetary poverty and gave insight
about human development and health outcomes in the OIC. Dr. AŞIK emphasized that poverty goes
beyond monetary terms and none of the indicator alone is capable of revealing the true dimension
of poverty. Poverty arises not only when people do not have enough monetary resources but it also
arises when people are deprived of basic rights such as education, health and security which limit
their ability to lead a dignified life.
Dr. AŞIK stated that the most frequently used methods to define poverty are US$1.90 a day poverty
line of theWorld Bank (inmonetary terms), or the value of aminimumcalorie requirement. Poverty
headcount ratio at $1.90 a day is the percentage of the population living on less than $1.90 a day at
2011 international prices.
Then, she briefly informed the participants about the indexes used in the Outlook. The Human
Development Index (HDI), produced by UNDP since 1990, measures the achievements in key
dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent
standard of living. The HDI is a composite index obtained from life expectancy at birth, mean and
expected years of schooling and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. She added that the
Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is also a composite index obtained from health, education,
and standard of living indicators but includes additional deprivation measures. MPI was also
generated by UNDP in 2010 and it reflects the multidimensional nature of poverty such as
sanitation, access to electricity and food. Furthermore, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) is designed
to measure and track hunger globally, by country and by region as well as calculated each year by
the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The GHI highlights successes and failures
in hunger reduction and provides insights into the drivers of hunger obtained from
undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and under-five mortality rate indicators.