Poverty Reduction

Vulnerability and Targeting the Poor

Recent developments brought new challenges for poverty reduction in the Asia and Pacific region. Major natural disasters (such as Tsunami and earthquake) and civil conflicts particularly affect the vulnerable poor.

More and more people become vulnerable to poverty because of age, illness, disability, eroding family support systems, or rapid economic shocks such as the Asian Financial crisis of the late 1990s.

Social protection comprises programs designed to assist individuals, households and communities to manage risks better and to ensure economic and social security. Such programs include

• Old age pensions, catastrophic health and disability insurance
• Social safety nets and smart transfer systems including unemployment benefits (mainly for the youth), and
• Reforms to improve the efficiency and financial sustainability of social protection systems.

Social protection under a pro-poor growth approach suggests concentrating more on the vulnerable poor [ PDF: 93kb | 11 pages ], i.e. the poor around the 1-2 USD poverty line. Special mechanisms for poverty reduction are also required to successfully address protection of vulnerable groups such as indigenous people that often cannot be integrated in the pro-poor growth process of a country.

View ADB's knowledge products vulnerability and targeting the poor.