The expert group meeting on methodological tools for evaluating poverty and inequality reduction policies was organized by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), and was held on 11 December 2020.

The aim of the meeting was to develop a more holistic social policy framework to address poverty and inequality; present three advanced methodological tools to measure poverty and inequality, identify policy gaps, and assess social policy implementation; and lead an expert-level dialogue on the soundness of the approaches.

Participants from international organizations, academia and UN DESA together with ESCWA discussed proper mechanisms for measuring the multiple dimensions of poverty and inequality; identifying policy gaps and formulating social policies put forth in response; and pre-evaluating them before comprehensive implementation.

The following three advanced methodological tools were presented: ESCWA’s Multidimensional Poverty Index Assist Tool (MAT), ESCWA’s Policy Gap Analysis Tool (PGAT), and randomized control trials (RCT).