Nutthawat WichieanbutA national agency dedicated to addressing poverty should be established, according to the Program Management Unit on Area-Based Development (PMUA) under the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry. Such an agency would make poverty alleviation efforts more effective because various government agencies, especially under the Interior Ministry, have their own projects and self-defined indicators, resulting in fragmented and uncoordinated efforts, said Kitti Satjawattana, director of PMUA. "The vital mechanism to address poverty is to increase collaboration with universities and local administrative organisations," he said. "PMUA believes this should be led by local administrative organisations, employing poverty mapping, while universities should work to analyse household situations. "This is necessary because poverty in Thailand takes various forms, such as 'absolutely poor', chronic poverty, debt-driven poverty and vulnerable poverty.
