TERMS OF REFERENCE
Committee on Poverty Reduction

Poverty is the leading development challenge facing developing countries in Asia and the Pacific, with two thirds of the world’s poor living in this region. The urgent need for effective action on poverty reduction is reflected in the United Nations millennium development goals, which call for the proportion of people living in extreme poverty to be halved by the year 2015. Poverty is a multidimensional and dynamic phenomenon with complex and interlinked issues requiring an integrated focus on economic, social and environmental areas.

Against this background, the Committee on Poverty Reduction shall serve as a regional forum to assist members and associate members in meeting the objectives of

• developing strategies and policies to reduce poverty in a rapid and sustained manner and improve the quality of life of the poor,
• strengthening national statistical infrastructure to collect, analyse and disseminate statistics through the promotion of common methodologies for intercountry comparisons and improvement in the quality of statistics, and
• developing and sharing experiences concerning best practices in poverty reduction in both urban and rural areas.

The goal of the Committee shall be to enable the members and associate members of ESCAP to better design and implement pro-poor policies and strategies to attain the millennium development goals.Under the overall supervision of the Commission, the Committee shall:

1. Review the progress made and obstacles encountered in achieving both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the relevant millennium development goals.
2. Analyse global and regional trends and developments, including emerging economic and social issues, which have an impact on poverty levels in the region, with a special focus on recommending policy options that support pro-poor economic growth and prevent social inequities.
3. Review and analyse progress in the development of statistics in the region, assist in the strengthening of national statistical infrastructure and promote the improvement of the quality of statistics, with emphasis on the following areas:
   (a) Improvement and harmonization of methodologies for poverty measurement and related economic and social statistics;
   (b) Priority fields of statistics identified by members and associate members, including, but not limited to, national accounts, the informal sector, gender statistics, environment statistics and statistics on information and communications technologies and the knowledge-based economy.
4. Promote the exchange of experiences and the transfer of best practices on poverty reduction, as well as human and institutional capacity-building, with special emphasis on:
   (a) Integrating poverty reduction, sustainable development and environmental protection;
   (b) Integrating poverty reduction and population dynamics and migration;
   (c) Strengthening the economic and social position of the poor through a needs-, development- and rights-based approach;
   (d) Enhancing the participation of the poor in decision-making through community-based organizations;
   (e) Fostering the development of sustainable and affordable information and communications technology focused on the needs of the poor.
5. Review and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the relevant programme of work of ESCAP and make recommendations to the Commission concerning future programmes of work and, in this process, ensure that cross-sectoral issues such as the special concerns of the Pacific island countries, landlocked developing countries, least developed countries and economies in transition, the environment, human resources development and women in development are adequately addressed.
6. Strengthen liaison with governmental and non-governmental, regional and bilateral organizations as well as private sector entities to support poverty reduction policies and strategies that maximize synergies and avoid duplication of effort.
7. Promote closer collaboration and joint activities with relevant agencies of the United Nations system to minimize overlap and duplication as well as promote increased liaison with financial institutions, development agencies outside the United Nations system, private sector organizations, non-governmental organizations and donor countries within and outside the ESCAP region so as to maximize the use of available resources and enhance the effectiveness and impact of the Commission’s work in addressing critical development challenges in the region.
8. Work closely and coordinate with other subsidiary bodies of the Commission.
9. Carry out such other activities as the Commission may direct from time to time in matters relating to poverty reduction.

Within the context of its terms of reference,

• the Committee shall identify the tasks to be undertaken during a specified period.
• The Committee shall indicate the outcomes expected for each task, set a time frame for the achievement of each task and monitor its implementation and effectiveness.
• The Committee shall be composed of all members and associate members of the Commission.
• The Committee shall meet biennially and present its report to the Commission to facilitate deliberations on the reduction of poverty.

• Subcommittee on Poverty Reduction Practices;
• Subcommittee on Statistics

• The subcommittees shall meet in the intervals between sessions of the Committee, preferably in alternate years.
• The Committee shall provide overall direction to the subcommittees on the issues to be addressed and the prioritization of their work, which shall guide the subcommittees in determining their agendas.
• The Committee may decide that, in addition to meeting in years when the Committee does not meet, the Subcommittee on Statistics could meet in the alternate years to deliberate in particular on matters referred to in 3 (b) above.
• The reports of the subcommittees shall be submitted to the Committee at its subsequent session as a basis for deliberations at an intersectoral/thematic level.
• With regard to the reports of the Subcommittee on Statistics covering issues related to 3 (b), the Committee on Poverty Reduction should review those reports and also make them available to the other committees, as appropriate, taking into account the recommendations of the Subcommittee on Statistics.