UNDP Thailand - Focus Areas - Responsive Governance

Poverty Reduction

About 1.75 billion people in 104 countries (as surveyed by the UNDP Human Development Report for 2010) live in poverty — measuring deprivations in health, education and standard of living. This exceeds the estimated 1.44 billion people in those countries who live on $1.25 a day or less (though it is below the share who live on $2 or less). South Asia is home to fully half of the world’s poor population, or 844 million people.

Poverty Reduction - Thai Fisherman in Khon Kaen

A Thai fishermen sits on the front porch of his makeshift home along the river bank in Khon Kaen province. Drought has affected his livelihood, which is dependent upon the health of the local environment.

Thailand has shown remarkable economic growth over the last 20 years, reducing poverty from from 21 percent in 2000 to around 8.5 percent in 2007. However inequality is still pervasive. UNDP Thailand's approach to poverty reduction is a close partnership with the Royal Thai Government on a broad range of policy issues, from Overseas Development Assistance, the creation of a Creative Economy in Thailand, and promoting pro-poor development, which take into account the poorest people in Thai society.

Current Programme

Inequality: A broad measurement of poverty is the degree of inequality in a society. This remains a rather pervasive problem for Thailand--to the point where citizens believe it to be a natural byproduct of economic growth. Inequality, measured in UNDP's 2009 Thailand National Human Development Report as the income ratio between the top fifth and bottom fifth of households. In Thailand the ration is as high as 15. These divisions are more stark in the North, the South, and in Bangkok—an arrangement that has deep political implications. Still, Thailand has made considerable progress on MDG1, which aims to lift millions from poverty.

Creative Economy: In an effort to transform its economy from a “single-engine” agriculture and export driven economy driven almost exclusively by external demand, the NESDB, the Ministry of Commerce (with substantial consultation from UNDP) have proposed increasing Thailand’s “Creative” output. Although a single definition of a creative economy is difficult to put to paper—in general, it is the economic benefits realized through creative outputs, such as arts, film, video production, advertising, arts and crafts, and more. The Government has two policy goals with respect to Creative Economy: to promote Thailand as a hub of creative industries in south-east Asia and to boost these industries’ share of GDP from 12% to 20% of GDP by 2012. It makes 12 key commitments on infrastructure, education, society, and business development. Creative Economy is a part of the NESDB’s 11th National Plan, and is generally seen as a positive economic development by a broad cross section of the country. UNDP has been working with the NESDB (and recently, the Ministry of Commerce) on the initial preparations for this new Creative Economy, most recently by bringing in known Creative Economy expert John Howkins, an early architect of Creative industry in the United Kingdom. UNDP was also a sponsor of the successful Thailand Creative Economy Forum or TICEF, held in late 2010.

The Poverty-Environment Initiative: PEI is a joint collaboration between the UNDP and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), launched in 2005. The overall aim is to help countries to integrate poverty-environment linkages into national and sub-national development planning, from policymaking to budgeting, implementation and monitoring. It is also expected to motivate key actors to increase investment in pro-poor environmental and natural resource management. PEI currently operates in 22 countries in Africa, South America, Europe, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. PEI in Thailand started in March 2010 and will end in December 2012, with the total budget of USD 700,000. The Ministry of Interior is leading PEI in Thailand, focusing on the recent decree on integrated local planning and the need for greater decentralisation which are central to the ongoing political turmoil in Thailand. The focus is on better management of both public and private investment in selected provinces in ways that promote poverty reduction through better ecosystem and natural resource management. Other key agencies include Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Office of National Economic and Social Development Board. As part of the PEI, a Sub-Global Assessment (SGA), which is a derivative from Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, has been applied as a policy tool to illustrate the link between ecosystem and human-wellbeing. The aim is to define available ecosystem services, possible future scenarios and what polices to use to reach a preferred scenario.

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