OIC member states record decline in poverty: IINA Report

Jeddah, (IINA) - The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) issued a report on Thursday that revealed a decline in the number of people living below the poverty line, which is estimated at $ 1.25 a day, among its 57 member states. The report indicated that there are 322 Million people below the poverty line, compared to 396 million in the last century, which represents an 18.7 percent decline.
However, the report also pointed out that despite the improvement in numbers of poor people, OIC member states are currently home to 33.1 percent of poor people in the world, while it only contained 22 percent of poor people in 1990. Experts on the subject also expressed fears of a rise in the number of poor people due to the sudden changes of social statuses in some OIC member states.
The report, obtained by the International Islamic News Agency (IINA), unfolded that the geographical distribution rates of poverty in the member states have not seen significant changes over the past two decades. It also noted that all OIC member states achieved a decrease in the percentages of poverty with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa.
On the contrary, the report displayed that the total number of people living under poverty line in the Southern African desert region jumped from 137 million in 1990 to 192 million in 2011, which represents 46 percent of the region's total population of 418 million, amounting to 60% of the total number of poor people in Islamic Cooperation states.
South Asia also showed limping progress against poverty, as it witnessed a limited improvement from 119 million poor people in 1990 to 83 million in 2011, which represents 26% of the total number of poor people in the member states.
The report also pointed to the great strides against poverty, achieved by member countries of the Organization, particularly in East Asia, where the number of poor declined from 145 million in 1990 to 83 million in 2011, with the poverty rate reduced by 41%.
It revealed that about 59% of the poor in OIC member states are living in countries that give medium-income, but below the international average, while the remaining 41% are living in low-income countries, pointing out that the pace of poverty reduction in low-income countries was much slower during the past two decades compared to middle-income countries and high.
It showed that the total number of poor people in above average- and high-income countries fell by 73 percent between 1990-2011, while the number in below-average-income countries fell by 26 percent, as for low-income countries the number recorded a small decline of only 4 percent.
The report revealed that the total number of poor people in OIC member states is highly concentrated in a small group of countries, indicating that poverty is still very high in sub-Saharan African countries and regions of Southeast Asia. It highlighted that 276 million (86 percent) of the poor live in ten countries of the member states, seven of which are located in the sub-Saharan Africa region.
The report, which was compiled by the Statistical, Economic, and Social Research Center for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), attributed poverty to several factors and split them into two divisions: poverty caused by low-income and multi-dimensional poverty. The first is caused by poor management of demographics, economics, environment, social, and politics while the multi-dimensional is caused by the lack of health services, education services, and lack of property.
In its monitoring of the size poverty in the member states, SESRIC recorded the existence of 214 million multi-dimensional poverty cases, which represents 68 percent of the total number of poor people in the Muslim world.
AG/IINA

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