Ending poverty is achievable and can be fast-tracked by addressing the deep-rooted inequalities that allow it to persist. Poverty and inequalities affect multiple and intersecting dimensions of peoples’ rights, resources, opportunities and resilience. Both issues are intricately connected and addressing them jointly can accelerate progress towards collective well-being and equity.
Development co-operation helps bridge gaps between countries by channelling financial resources and knowledge from high-income countries (HICs) to low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs) and creating space for mutual learning. It also supports L&MICs in tackling deprivation and disparities within countries, by supporting policies, investments and partnerships that address both the immediate and the structural causes of exclusion. While overcoming poverty and inequalities is core to development co-operation’s mission, this focus risks being sidelined amid competing priorities and shrinking budgets. In this context, keeping these issues at the heart of development co-operation is not only a matter of global solidarity, but also smart economics; and it is indispensable for a more peaceful, prosperous and resilient world. Timely action – especially in least developed countries and contexts facing high fragility, where extreme poverty and inequalities are increasingly becoming concentrated – is critical to achieve progress before these challenges become more difficult and costly to address.
Based on an extensive review of good practices and lessons learned, including through the OECD DAC’s Community of Practice on Poverty and Inequalities, this Guidance presents members of the DAC and other development partners with four pillars of actions to consider for a sharper focus and impact of their development co-operation on tackling poverty and inequalities.
Embed poverty and inequality reduction as core priorities in strategic planning and intervention design
Anchor poverty and inequality reduction as overarching goals, making synergies and trade-offs with other development objectives explicit. Elevate these priorities through international policy dialogue and efforts to advance policy coherence across providers’ domestic and international policies.
Translate these goals into institutional strategies and guidance, grounded in a human-rights based approach and through a combination of targeting and mainstreaming. Shape these strategies through inclusive engagement with partners.
Calibrate strategic design choices – time horizons, sequencing, direct or indirect action and targeted or universal approaches for poverty and inequality reduction – to address immediate needs while supporting pathways to sustained, transformational change.
Ground the design of interventions in robust context analysis informed by political economy perspectives, and use tools – such as the poverty and inequality responsiveness continuum, policy markers and ex-ante gender equality, disability and social inclusion analysis and distributional assessments – to inform ambition and expected impact.
Target and mobilise resources for sustained poverty and inequality reduction
Direct the most concessional resources to where the need to tackle poverty and inequalities are greatest, using less concessional instruments strategically to complement these efforts. Foster accountability by assessing and tracking the extent to which allocations are directed towards these goals, including through independent oversight.
Advance equitable domestic resource mobilisation, by supporting partner countries in building progressive and inclusive fiscal systems that raise revenues fairly and allocate them in ways that reduce poverty and inequalities.
Mobilise and steer private finance strategically, incentivising investments that create good-quality jobs, deliver quality and accessible infrastructure and services, and support more equitable economic development.
Enable partner countries to access a broader range of financing sources relevant for poverty and inequality reduction, through debt restructuring and debt-for-development swaps, Special Drawing Rights, solidarity levies, diaspora finance and philanthropic capital.
Foster more equitable development co-operation partnerships
Advance equity in outcomes for people facing P&I, and equity in process by sharing power, resources and decision making among development actors through a people-centred, whole-of-society approach.
Support government-led strategies, systems, policies and accountability mechanisms for P&I reduction, prioritising co-operation modalities that reinforce country ownership. Where governments show limited commitment or restrict rights, adapt engagement by combining calibrated diplomacy, support to reformers and partnerships beyond central government.
Partner with civil society as agents of change by supporting their roles in advancing inclusive services and livelihoods, advocacy and accountability, while fostering locally led and equitable partnerships, addressing power imbalances and protecting civic space.
Meaningfully engage with people experiencing poverty and inequalities as rights-holders at all stages of development co-operation, going beyond tokenistic participation by addressing structural barriers to participation in public life and empowering people to engage in policymaking processes that are accountable to them.
Strengthen data, monitoring, evaluation and institutional capacity to drive learning, accountability and impact on poverty and inequalities
Support global and local efforts to improve the availability, quality and use of data and evidence on poverty and inequalities, enabling targeted and evidence-based decision making. Invest in locally led, policy-relevant research on poverty and inequalities in L&MICs.
Apply results framework with indicators linked to poverty and inequality reduction objectives, balancing alignment with local systems, data availability and appropriate disaggregation. Monitor implementation through participatory and adaptive approaches that make the realities of the most marginalised visible and feed evidence into continuous learning.
Embed poverty and inequality considerations throughout evaluations, from the intervention to the strategy level, to strengthen accountability, institutionalise learning and build a broader evidence base for what works for those furthest behind and why.
Enable an institutional structure and culture that delivers on poverty and inequality reduction, embedding these priorities in staff performance and skills development, and exploring flexible resourcing models where budgets are under pressure.