DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, June 24, 2015. The Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan (TajStat) has launched a new official poverty series and methodological note using a new approach in measuring poverty, marking a significant milestone in Tajikistan’s ability to monitor and strengthen the country’s poverty reduction efforts. The new National Poverty Measurement Methodology for Tajikistan was endorsed in April 2015 by Tajikistan’s Council for Poverty and Middle Class Measurement (Poverty Council) under the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. The new approach is based on international best practice and was developed in partnership with the World Bank Group and with financial support from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).
“The new methodology will help us measure and report on the welfare of the population on a quarterly basis, which, in turn, will enable poverty trend tracking and inform important policy decisions,” said Mr. Qiyomuddin Norov, Deputy Director of TajStat. “The new method calculates poverty using the quarterly Household Budget Survey, which has been in continuous operation and improvement since 2009.”
The World Bank Group and the Government of Tajikistan have been partnering in collecting, analyzing, and reporting high-quality poverty data. A series of trainings, study tours, and conferences were organized to strengthen the capacity of the TajStat and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, making TajStat equipped to measure poverty independently using this new approach. The methodology is a critical step in the design and monitoring of Tajikistan’s National Development Strategy for 2016-2030 and Mid-Term Development Strategy for 2016-2020, as it will help the Government to collect comprehensive and reliable household data and to report on poverty trends and indicators on a regular basis.
The World Bank Group and DFID will continue to work with TajStat and the Poverty Council to further improve the management and implementation of the Household Budget Survey in Tajikistan to enable its wider use and utilization for broader policy decisions.
The figure below shows poverty trends in Tajikistan calculated by TajStat using the approved methodology and Household Budget Survey data, and reported on a quarterly basis. The national poverty rate in Tajikistan dropped from 37.4 percent to 32 percent between 2012 and 2014, and the extreme poverty rate (measured by food poverty line at 2,250 Kcal per person a day) dropped from 20 percent in 2012 to 16.8 percent in 2014.
