On 13 June 2012 the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) hosted its third DAC Development Debate (DDD). Centring on the theme New poverty patterns: Where will the poor live? the DDD discussed new data on the changing patterns of poverty, and how to handle it.
After presentations by Andy Sumner (Institute of Development Studies), Jane Sautter (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), and Robrecht Renard (University of Antwerp) the discussion led to several conclusions on the policy implications of shifting poverty patterns, with a call to donors to:
- focus on the structure of growth and examine where Official Development Assistance can be most effective,
- pay attention to resilience and social security
- work with national as well as international poverty lines,
- set the international poverty line at around USD 10/day (which would reveal that 10% of the global poor live in high income countries)
- focus on the multidimensionality of poverty,
- agree on a multidimensional indicator for poverty (for example, the Multidimensional Poverty Index [MPI] developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Index [OPHI]) and change the country classifications accordingly.)