Gemma Ambuyoc, 38, did not have an easy life growing up. Born out of wedlock, Gemma was raised by her grandmother, who struggled to support her. “I would not have been able to finish high school without my teacher, who gave me a job and a place to live,” Gemma recalled.
Fifty-two-year-old Touch Phalla dropped out of school when she was 12, just after finishing primary school. It was in the 1980s when her father had abandoned the family, leaving her mother to fend for Touch and her sister. Young Touch needed to become the family’s breadwinner. She baked traditional Khmer cakes and sold them on foot in the streets around her neighbourhood in Phnom Penh. Growing up as a cake vendor, she set aside her dream of becoming a doctor.
Poverty in Old Age
The current method of tracking old-age poverty involves disaggregating the current poverty measure according to age. However, poverty in later life is not the same as it is in youth and early adulthood. Older people are less likely to emerge from long-term poverty because of receding capability, deteriorating health, and limited access to financial resources. Thus, research on poverty must analyse old-age poverty within a context-specific framework.
While we often describe or ascribe income values when discussing poverty, there is a recognition that poverty is a multidimensional concept (Saidatulakmal Mohd et al, 2018). Income can be useful as an indicator to capture general trends. In Malaysia, the income-based categories of wealth, such as the T20, M40, or B40, are also useful for locating one’s household income. These categories represent the top 20 per cent (T20), middle 40 per cent (M40), or lower 40 per cent
Every two years, ASEAN hands out the ASEAN Rural Development and Poverty Eradication Leadership Awards to outstanding private sector and non-government or civil society actors in each ASEAN Member State. Winners are chosen for their impact on rural communities and poverty reduction; innovative approaches to addressing rural development challenges; sustainability, scalability, and replicability of anti-poverty initiatives; and partnership with government and other institutions.
“The outstanding practices we celebrate feature practical approaches and solutions that enable and empower people in local communities. Such approaches feature dynamic collaboration that strengthens resilience to demographic shifts and challenges that converge at the community level. These efforts uplift people from poverty and transform their lives for the better,” said Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary-General of ASEAN, during the awarding ceremony on 21 November 2023 in Singapore.
Rural development is a top priority in the Southeast Asian region, where more than 60 per cent of the ASEAN population resides in rural areas. Recognising rural development’s pivotal role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Indonesia, with its expansive rural landscapes, champions the ASEAN Village Network (AVN) as an innovative strategy.
ASEAN has made great strides in reducing extreme poverty. The region’s prospects for growth signal that the tide is turning after the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Monetary Fund forecasted that economies in ASEAN will see growth of 4.2 per cent in 2023 and 4.6 per cent in 2024.
Minister Zulkifli highlights ASEAN’s achievements in poverty reduction and emphasises the need for continued cooperation to ensure a stable and prosperous region. He says that Singapore has focused on the role of families and communities in tackling poverty and promoting social inclusion, particularly among vulnerable groups.