The number of FDPs is not small in terms of the absolute global poverty count. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, around 10 percent of the global population (780 million people) was estimated to be extremely poor, below 1.9 USD/day in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. Using a conservative estimate based on empirical studies of about 1 in 2 FDPs being extremely poor, this translates into 41.2 million poor or about 5 percent of the global poor. The UN population division uses UNHCR’s FDP estimates to adjust national population figures by adding FDPs to population statistics. However, when the national and global poverty figures are estimated, FDPs are often missing from the poverty count.

Low interest, lack of proper microdata on FDPs, measurement issues and political reasons are some of the obstacles that prevent a proper measurement of poverty among FDPs. Before the Syrian conflict, poverty measurement among FDPs was largely confined to occasional exercises – often focusing on vulnerability rather than poverty – carried out by local or international NGOs on behalf of humanitarian agencies such as the UNHCR and the World Food Programme (WFP). These exercises often lacked the data sophistication and academic rigor that characterizes poverty measurement for regular populations in high-, middle-, or low-income countries, typically undertaken by development agencies such as the World Bank, UNDP or regional development banks. The UNHCR, for example, did not collect survey data on income, monetary consumption, or expenditure for refugees systematically as the focus and mandate of the agency is on humanitarian protection rather than poverty alleviation. It only started to collect data on income more systematically when budget restrictions forced the agency to start targeting cash programs. WFP did collect data on consumption regularly, but this effort was largely focused on food consumption for food security and nutritional assessments rather than poverty measurement. With little data and visibility, the economics profession and poverty specialists across the social sciences have also largely neglected FDPs (Verme, 2016; Dionigi and Tabasso, 2020). It is only in the past decade that development agencies have taken an interest in FDPs and, together with humanitarian agencies, started to consider how to gather data and measure poverty among FDPs continuously and rigorously.

This has changed over the past decade. For example, the UNHCR has significantly invested in improving the measurement of income and employment using the ILO standard approach and has adopted the poverty - headcount to measure progress towards the Global Compact for Refugees (https://www.unhcr.org/global <u>compact-refugees-indicator-report/). This organization also works on embedding refugees and IDPs into</u> national statistics exercises via the International Expert Group on Refugee and IDP statistics (EGRIS) process and has established, together with the World Bank, a Joint Data Centre focused on improving the data infrastructure for refugees. The World Bank has also taken important steps towards FDPs with the adoption of a special window for IDA projects, joint data and research initiatives with the UNHCR, and the establishment of FD coordinators across its global practices.

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