Despite the fact that most of the developing countries have recorded considerable improvements in poverty alleviation in recent years, poverty rates are still high for a sizeable number of countries. Poverty is also one of the essential concerns of quite a good number of the OIC member countries. 21 out of 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are members of the OIC. Furthermore, 21 percent of the total population of the OIC lives on less than 1,90 US Dollar per day.

Poverty alleviation is a permanent agenda item of the COMCEC. It was also defined as one of the cooperation areas of the COMCEC in the COMCEC Strategy. The strategic objective of the cooperation in poverty alleviation is defined as “Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger in the member countries”. Aid Effectiveness, Productive Capacity of the Poor, Effective Utilization of Financial Resources and Monitoring Poverty have been identified as the output areas in the poverty alleviation section of the Strategy.

Poverty Alleviation Working Group focuses in each meeting on a specific theme selected among the expected outcomes of the relevant section of the Strategy and through the questionnaires circulated to the Working Group members. The COMCEC Coordination Office (CCO) conducts an analytical study for each meeting, and shares it with the participants prior to each working group meeting. CCO also presents a sectorial outlook report on poverty to the relevant meeting in order to give the overall state of the sector in the world as well as in the OIC Member States. The experts attending the Working Group Meetings find the opportunity to share their country experiences, including the success stories and the major obstacles. After each meeting, the proceedings documents which provide summaries of the presentations made during the meeting and the policy debates are prepared by the CCO. Click for more information on the meetings of the COMCEC Poverty Alleviation Working Group.

Moreover, the ongoing cooperation efforts in the area of poverty alleviation have been carried out under the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD) , Special Program for Development of Africa (SPDA), the OIC Cotton Program and the Vocational Education and Training Program for the OIC Member Countries (OIC‐VET).