Over 20 years have passed since the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) endorsed the 2001 Guidelines on Poverty Reduction. During this time, the world has demonstrated that poverty can decline rapidly when political commitment, effective policies and broad-based improvements in human and economic development come together. Global extreme poverty fell from close to 40% in 1990 to about 10% today, driven largely by progress in Asia. Yet progress has been uneven across and within countries, and the drivers that once powered it – such as fast economic growth, expanding basic services and relative global stability – are weakening, while pressures such as climate change, conflict, social fragmentation and backlash against human rights including gender equality are growing. As a result, poverty is becoming more intractable in places facing the greatest structural challenges and global goals to end poverty are drifting out of reach. Rising inequalities between and within countries – including widening income gaps, extreme wealth concentration, persistent gender disparities and entrenched marginalisation – further hinder progress. Avoiding further backsliding and securing future advances will require deliberate, context‑specific strategies to tackle the systemic inequalities that perpetuate poverty, strengthen people-centred and rights-based systems, and build resilience. This entails a shift towards more inclusive and sustainable forms of economic development, recognising that the growth models underpinning earlier gains are neither sufficient to end poverty nor ecologically viable.
Over the same period, the development co-operation landscape has also evolved significantly, with a changing focus on poverty and inequalities. While poverty reduction remains central to its mandate, attention to inequalities has grown, recognising that progress depends not only on overall gains, but also on how they are distributed. Established in 2021, the OECD DAC Community of Practice on Poverty and Inequalities reflects a continued commitment to these goals by providing a platform for exchange and learning on how development co-operation can best advance them. As rising geopolitical tensions, increasing needs and recent cuts to official development assistance (ODA) intensify pressure on development co-operation, sustained attention to poverty and inequalities is both more challenging and more necessary.
At its 2023 High Level Meeting, the DAC committed to issuing this Guidance. Its purpose is to support development partners – bilateral and multilateral providers – in strengthening the poverty and inequality focus and impact of their development co-operation. It builds on evidence, good practices and lessons from across the Community of Practice, offering timely guidance to help maintain focus on these goals amid turbulent times and to keep them central to the post-2030 agenda. This Guidance provides strategic and operational advice, illustrated by concrete examples, to help development partners translate their poverty and inequality reduction commitments into practice across the policy and programming cycle. It is structured around five chapters: Chapter 1 lays the conceptual understanding that underpins the guidance provided in the chapters that follow, Chapter 2 embeds poverty and inequality reduction goals into strategic planning and intervention design, Chapter 3 focuses on aligning resources to these objectives, Chapter 4 promotes equitable partnerships, and Chapter 5 outlines how data, monitoring and evaluation systems, and institutional capacity can be strengthened for more learning, impact and accountability on poverty and inequalities. Together, the Guidance aims to tighten focus, reinforce accountability and improve the effectiveness and impact of policies and programmes for those furthest behind, ultimately supporting pathways towards a future in which no country depends on aid.