Status: Poverty has been reduced from 47 percent in 1993 to 30.1 percent in 2007 (against a projected value of 29.5) and is therefore on track to achieve the goal.

Challenges: While poverty reduction is on track, almost one third of the population is still below the poverty line and inequality is increasing: instead of rising as expected, the share of the lowest quintile in national consumption has fallen from 8.5 percent in 1993 to 6.6 percent in 2007, which is much below the projected target for that year of 10.1 percent. This means that special measures must be taken to address this problem to achieve the goal of 11 percent in 2015. Insufficient information is available on reducing child labor, but progress in this area appears to be slower than expected.

Food poverty decrease was slower than overall poverty because of higher inflation on food prices than on non-food prices. Food poverty has only fallen from 24 percent to 18 percent (instead of 15.1) and is off track to achieve the 10 percent by 2015.

While good progress was made in short term malnutrition indicators, the high food prices and economic crisis have caused progress to slow down in these areas: underweight children has been constant at 28.8 percent since 2005 and wasted children has increased from 8.4 in 2005 to 8.9 in 2008. Both may still be on track to achieve their targets if recent trends are reversed. At 39.5 percent, the level of stunted children (a long term indicator of malnutrition) is higher than it should be (36.3 percent) making it difficult to achieve the target of 25 percent.

The way forward: What is needed in this area is diversifying growth, with focus on the poorest segments, strengthening the important role that agriculture must play in poverty reduction, and the coordination and vigorous implementation of economic growth, food security and nutrition, and social protection strategies.

Evolution of Planned and Actual Poverty Reduction

Source: CSES 2007