Report No: AUS0000479 . Malaysia Public Expenditure and Equitable Growth End Poverty Day 2016 Event – Synopsis . December 12, 2016 . POV . . Document of the World Bank . © 2017 The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org Some rights reserved This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this work is subject to copyright. Because The World Bank encourages dissemination of its knowledge, this work may be reproduced, in whole or in part, for noncommercial purposes as long as full attribution to this work is given. Attribution—Please cite the work as follows: “World Bank. {YEAR OF PUBLICATION}. {TITLE}. © World Bank.” All queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to World Bank Publications, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2625; e-mail: pubrights@worldbank.org. END POVERTY CAMPAIGN PRACTICE AND POLICY PERSPECTIVES TO END POVERTY OVERVIEW The World Bank Global Knowledge and Research Hub in Malaysia partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for an End Poverty Campaign event on November 8, 2016. Around 100 policy makers, development practitioners, civil society organizations and members of the media attended the half-day session, which addressed poverty, shared prosperity, and inequality issues at the global and community levels. This was the first joint World Bank-UNDP event in Malaysia, and represents a first step toward future collaboration. Johan Mahmood Merican, Deputy Director Development Research Group took a global General of the Economic Planning Unit view on poverty and inequality with a (EPU) gave the opening remarks and presentation on main findings from the touched on the Malaysian context of poverty “Taking on Inequality” report. eradication, as after reducing the incidence of poverty to 0.6 percent of households, the Following that, Christopher Choong, main focus has shifted to addressing the Economist for UNDP Malaysia, reported on bottom 40% household income group (B40). their recent field work from their Bottom 40% National Consultations project which From there, Dr. Ken Simler from the World featured a series of vignettes from Bank’s Poverty and Equity Global Practice interviews with people in the B40 from and Dr. Michael Woolcock from the Bank’s various places in Malaysia. Report published on: 09 December 2016 The main part of the event consisted of two The panelists agreed that on a macro level, panel sessions – one highlighting Malaysia’s record in reducing poverty has grassroots civil society organizations been impressive, being successful in nearly working to reduce poverty in Malaysia and eradicating poverty – extreme poverty is the other featuring public policy makers. less than 1 percent. However, a pertinent These sessions sparked a lively exchange point raised was on the need for more of ideas, drawing from respective best specificity in eradicating the poverty of the practices and challenges in translating poorest among the poor. Reaching the research into policy and policy into results remaining poor will require more customized on the ground. and creative measures. ENGAGING THOSE IN NEED: Policies and programs must think PERSPECTIVES ON THE GROUND and efficient reach Poverty today exists in small and diverse pockets of society in the country. Therefore, policies and programs would have to think “from the ground up” to be able to reach out more effectively and efficiently to ensure nobody gets left behind. Prof. Dr. Sulochana had made the observation that many programs were designed without consultation with those on the ground. In The first panel session brought out the addition, many poor people are not experiences and viewpoints of leaders of cognizant of the fact that they are deprived non-profit and civil society groups that have themselves. They are unaware of their connected and engaged with poor people entitlements and the available facilities to across the country. The four panelists were empower them. Munirah Abdul Hamid, Pertiwi Soup Kitchen founder, Deborah P. Henry, World Vision’s Furthermore, moving out of poverty remains Child Rights Advocate and Fugee School a big challenge for many low income Co-Founder, Prof. Dr. Sulochana Nair, households. For Deborah, these Yayasan Sejahtera board member, and Dr. households are treading on a thin line Colin Nicholas, Center for Orang Asli between surviving and falling back into Concerns Coordinator. Suriani Kempe, poverty. According to Munirah, civil society UNDP Program Manager for Gender groups are focused on these people, who Equality and Women Empowerment, led the tend to “fall between the cracks” of current discussion as moderator. poverty eradication policies and programs. 2 A subsequent point raised was on the towards inclusive development. Taking into service delivery aspect of programs. While account vulnerabilities in areas such as civil society initiatives have been vibrant, health, living standards and educational government-led initiatives have the scale attainment, the Multidimensional Poverty and resources to provide a sustained Index broadens the definition of poverty and measure of impact. However, the panelists departs from the traditional practice based agreed that misdirection and leakages had on an income threshold known as the sometimes led to ineffective implementation Poverty Line Index (PLI). The MPI will be of otherwise well-meaning government complementary to the PLI in identifying the initiatives. extent of poverty in the country. Measuring poverty is another key area of On the more qualitative aspects of policy concern. For Dr. Colin, while he agrees with making and program design, a key the big improvements at the national level, consideration highlighted was the need for poverty on the ground, especially among planners and implementers to acknowledge the Orang Asli community remains the diverse backgrounds of the poor. Anti- prevalent. The poverty rate for Orang Asli in poverty policies and programs should not be Peninsular Malaysia remains high at 34%, homogenized. Formulation of policies and as well as for the Bumiputera Sabah programs ought to be bottom-up and hence, (20.2%) and Bumiputera Sarawak (7.3%). proper understanding of community needs For these groups, poverty is not only a should come first. matter of lack of income, but also poverty in education, health, and basic amenities. A broader scope of society mentioned as needing attention was the B40, the low- income group, who makes up the bottom 40% of Malaysian households (those with a monthly household income of RM 3,855 or less). These households are at high risk of shocks and at any given time may be susceptible to falling back into poverty given the state of their finances and limited safety Dr. Colin took this point a step further in the nets, assets, and coping strategies. case of Orang Asli – there may be areas beyond the expanse of policies and The panelists welcomed the shift from programs for poverty eradication. Towards focusing on the income-centric absolute this end, he suggested that it would be best poverty level to a multidimensional poverty to leave the Orang Asli communities alone. index, as announced in the 11th Malaysia According to Dr. Colin, these communities Plan (11MP) as a step in the right direction have good track records in being their own 3 custodians of local programs, built for their context. This leads not only to better Strong delivery platforms need to designed initiatives but also initiatives that be built and supported by good command local credibility and trust, allowing stakeholder collaboration for communities to walk their own path of development. Taking his cue from the earlier discussion This point raised a broader imperative for on poverty, Muhammad described the design and implementation of initiatives: human condition as complex and dynamic policies and programs need significant with varied manifestations across socio- community ownership to ensure collective economic levels among those in buy-in which will heighten odds of overall deprivation. While governments and their success. partners have been working over decades towards eradicating poverty, the solution to IMPLEMENTING POLICIES TO ending poverty remains elusive, as does the more challenging goal of reducing REDUCE POVERTY AND inequality. INEQUALITY However complex the condition, there had to be a starting point and for the Government of Malaysia, a baseline reference was the PLI, which focused only on the income dimension. However as illustrated by the preceding panel, the approach has evolved to take into account a multidimensional approach via the MPI as After hearing from a very elucidating first defined in the 11MP. panel discussion on conditions on the ground, the second panel discussion shifted Expounding on the priority group for to the policy level. Moderated by Dr. intervention, the B40, Muhammad agrees Norman Loayza, Lead Economist in the that they are not homogenous and a varied World Bank’s Development Research and customized approach leading to Group, two distinguished panelists took the different types of intervention is the way stage for this discussion – Muhammad Idris, forward. However, the challenge Director, Distribution Section, Economic underpinning public policy and programs on Planning Unit and Dr. Amjad Rabi, UNICEF poverty eradication is to meet the different Deputy Representative and Senior Social sets of needs and expectations. Policy Specialist. However, from a policymaker lens, the delivery system is the top priority when it 4 comes to poverty eradication. Strong and practitioners to address the poor as platforms need to be built and this can be people with varied and distinct contexts and reinforced with good stakeholder not benign objects or statistical figures. collaboration. He also pointed to initiatives that are moving beyond the scope of CONCLUSION distribution into areas where improvements in social mobility can be facilitated. To end the event, Jakob Simonsen, ad- interim UNDP resident representative for Dr. Amjad took this idea further by delving Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei into the area of labor productivity. He Darussalam provided for closing remarks, advocated for the need to lift the level of thanking the panelists and appraising the education amongst the poor. Through key learnings from the session. education, children in poor communities will stand a better chance to get better jobs or The event explored the multiple dimensions get into business. in the discourse on poverty, tapping on the narratives of global development He pointed that skillsets, especially amongst institutions, to the national policy level and the B40, would need to match market all the way to those mobilizing resources on demand. A mismatch could lead to an the ground. inadvertent rise of inequality. Those with the relevant skills will have the capability to While the concern of poverty may be too scale upward and those who do not will fall large and complex to be thoroughly dealt behind. with over a half-day session, the rich exchange was certainly a good effort to He described Malaysia’s early successes. embody and reflect on this challenge of He pointed out that the first big push by humanity. It is hoped that this event had Malaysia was to tap its demographic spurred thoughts and ideas towards poverty window of opportunity which provided for a eradication in the country, continuing the suitable and sufficient labor supply to the good work towards seeing the day when economy. This brought the country towards nobody gets left behind. its upper middle-income level. However as an economy in transition towards high income, there is a need to think more about marginalized people and to usher them into For further enquiries, contact: the wider, mainstream opportunity for KENNETH SIMLER JOSHUA FOONG upward social mobility. Senior Economist Consultant World Bank Poverty & Equity World Bank Global Knowledge In closing, the panelists raised the point that Global Practice and Research Hub in Malaysia in order to eradicate poverty in Malaysia ksimler@worldbank.org jfoong@worldbank.org there is a need to ensure that policy makers 5