COMCEC Poverty Outlook 2017
1
Introduction
The Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) has been working to enhance trade and economic cooperation
among the Member Countries since 1984. Poverty alleviation occupies a significant place in the
agenda of the COMCEC. Indeed, it is one of the six cooperation areas of the COMCEC Strategy
adopted in 2012. Within this context, Poverty Alleviation Working Group has been established.
The Working Group has held 9 meetings since 2013. The 10th Meeting will be held on October
5th, 2017 with the theme of “Education of Disadvantaged Children in the OIC: The Key to Escape
from Poverty”.
Poverty alleviation is an important component of economic and social development. Although
most of the developing countries have experienced significant progress in poverty alleviation in
recent years, poverty levels are still high in many countries. Especially, the countries in Sub-
Saharan Africa and Asia account for nearly half of the total poor living in developing countries.
The global financial crises and food shortages that have been encountered in the recent period
have also worsened this situation.
Although the total population of the OIC Member Countries accounts for nearly one-fourth of the
world’s total population, their total GDP accounted for only 8.5 percent of the total world GDP
in 2016. On the other hand, per capita GDP levels vary across the OIC Member Countries, (i.e.
$978 in Niger, $127,523 in Qatar)1. The poverty status also displays a diverse picture in the OIC
countries, since poverty headcount ratios in the Member Countries vary from zero to 69 percent.
Similar to the monetary poverty indicators that are mentioned above, non-monetary poverty
indicators also vary across the OICMember Countries. In this respect, their Human Development
Index values are between 0.864 and 0.352, Multidimensional Poverty Index values are between
0.004 and 0.584, and Global Hunger Index values are between zero and 44.3.
MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs) lead to a significant consciousness in poverty alleviation
and contribute to the national efforts to a great extent. By the end of 2015 the MDGs process was
completed. The Sustainable Development Goals and a new development agenda was launched
in 2016.
The aim of this report is to provide an overview on the human development progress both at
global and OIC level. Within this framework, in the first section the poverty situation in the
World and the OIC Member Countries is examined briefly both in monetary and non-monetary
terms. In the second section, human development progress in the OIC Member Countries is
analyzed. The efforts towards poverty alleviation are explained in the third section.
1The World Bank, 2016a.