ABSTRACT

Over the past three decades, sustained economic growth has contributed to a dramatic reduction in extreme monetary poverty across Asia and the Pacific. The share of the population living in extreme poverty has fallen from more than six in ten people in 1990 to an estimated one in thirty by 2025. This achievement represents one of the region’s most significant development successes.

Yet many of today’s development challenges cannot be understood through income measures
alone. Persistent inequalities, unequal access to opportunities and services, economic insecurity, and other forms of deprivation continue to shape individual well-being and life outcomes. Moreover, differences among individuals within the same household are often overlooked when poverty is measured at the household level.

This webinar will present key findings from the Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2026 report, which introduces a novel framework for measuring individual-level deprivation. By examining deprivation at the level of the individual rather than the household, the approach offers new insights into how deprivations are experienced and distributed within societies.

PRESENTERS

Joseph Albert Nino M. Bulan
Associate Statistics Officer, Data Division
Economic Research and Development
Impact Department
Asian Development Bank

Seph is one of the focal persons for poverty and inequality at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He plays a key role in the preparation of the Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific report, contributing to the compilation of critical socio-economic indicators across the region.

Before joining ADB, Seph worked as a Statistical Specialist at the Philippine Statistics Authority, where he was involved in the development and analysis of socio-economic statistics, including poverty metrics, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and small area estimation. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from the University of the Philippines Los Banos.

Christian Leny Hernandez
Consultant
Asian Development Bank

Leny is a development professional with over 15 years of experience spanning government, multilateral, and non-government institutions in the Philippines. She currently holds multiple roles at the Asian Development Bank (ADB): as an Economics and Statistics Specialist, a Development Impact Expert, and as a Data Management Consultant.

Her work sits at the intersection of monitoring and evaluation, data management, and poverty and social analysis, encompassing multidimensional poverty measurement methodology. She has extensive experience designing and applying M&E frameworks, including theory of change approaches and impact assessment, to promote evidence-based decision-making.

She holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands, and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Ecology from the University of the Philippines Los Banos. Leny is an Environmental Planner by profession.