Thailand Social Monitor: Poverty and Public Policy

This is the sixth issue of the " Thailand Social Monitor. " It is written for Thai policymakers, to provide them with the best evidence currently available on poverty and public policy, and to strengthen the foundation for anti-poverty strategies in Thailand. This report approaches Poverty in Thailand from four perspectives:

1. The changing profile of the poor, who they are, where they live, their defining characteristics, so as to better understand the dimensions of the problem (Chapters 1 and 2);
2. The changing profile of income inequality in Thailand, to assess whether income distribution should be an issue for public policy (Chapters 3 and 4);
3. Some of the strategic, cross-sectoral issues that are at the center of public policy debates on poverty reduction in Thailand (Chapter 4); and
4. The performance of recent policies and programs to reduce poverty, so as to appreciate the strengths and limitations of public policy in this challenging domain (Chapters 5 and 6).

The coverage of this report is thus broad. However, while chapters 5 and 6 analyze targeted poverty interventions, they do not capture the full range of public efforts to reduce poverty, nor do they address the anti-poverty benefits of universal programs, such as education, health, transport, or agricultural services. Also, macroeconomic policies are not covered.