Solomon Islands - Asia & the Pacific

Solomon Islands: Analysis of Poverty from 2005/2006 HIESAcknowledgementsThis analysis of the household income and expenditure survey has been undertaken with the support of technicalassistance provided by the UNDP Pacific Centre in Fiji. The report and analysis is one in a series of national povertyreports that are being compiled cooperatively between national statistics offices, SPC, ADB and UNDP Pacific Centrebased on recent Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES). The work in Solomon Islands benefited fromsupport and technical inputs from the Solomon Islands Government Statistician, Nick Gagahe, who guided the analysis.In the National Statistics Office the primary collaborators were Willington Piduru, Deputy Government Statistician;Douglas Kimi, Chief Statistician (Social); Dever Reggie, Chief Statistician (Surveys and Census); Joachim Gaiafuna, ChiefStatistician (Economics); Andrew Kakate, Principal Statistician (Economics); and Anna Luvu, Senior Statistician (CPI) whowere responsible for coordinating and supervising the general conduct of the surveys and the processing of surveydata. It was a pleasure to work with these staff of the National Statistics Office and the analysis has benefited from theirinsights, technical support and dedication.The support and encouragement of the Hon Minister for Finance and Treasury and the Permanent Secretary forFinance (Economic Reform, Budget and Statistics), Shadrach Fanega, is acknowledged with appreciation.Technical support was also provided by staff of the Statistics Programme at SPC, notably by Graeme Brown andGerald Haberkorn, Regional Statisticians, as well as Chris Ryan and Greg Keeble and Kim Robertson, SPC/ADB Consultantto the Regional Poverty Programme. Valuable inputs and comments have been provided on working drafts of the paperby UN colleagues, notably Jean-Louis Rallu of UNFPA, Fiji and my colleagues at the UNDP Pacific Centre, especially CarolFlore, Jeff Liew, Roderic Evers and Kai Carter. The analysis also benefited from the insights of Michelle Llegu, Coordinatorof the SPC/ADB Participatory Poverty Assessment.However, none of those who have contributed their advice and insights are responsible for any errors in theanalysis presented here.This report and analysis of the poverty lines is not the end of the story; it focuses only on the “headline” povertylines and indicators and the broad characteristics of those in the lowest expenditure deciles. Further work is neededto make estimates of the poverty incidence of US$1 and US$2 per day for monitoring MDG 1. This is being done withassistance of both SPC and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.It is hoped that this national poverty report and analysis will lead to further and more detailed investigation ofsome of the broader socio-economic aspects of the survey data enabling greater policy substance to be added to thekey poverty indicators and characteristics. It is hoped that this will also further develop the various conclusions andhypotheses relating to poverty in Solomon Islands which are covered in this report.Further enquiries regarding the Report should be addressed to the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office inthe first instance with a copy to the undersigned.David F AbbottPacific Regional Macroeconomic and Poverty Reduction AdvisorUNDP Pacific CentreDavid.abbott@undp.orgwww.undppc.org.fjJuly 18, 2008iiEstimation of National Poverty Lines and Poverty Incidence