improvement in the capacity of developing countries to measure and monitor regularly the nutritional and physical well-being of the poorest 40 percent of the population of each of such countries is essential to the development of policies to reduce absolute poverty;

internationally accepted statistical indicators that measure reliably the extent of absolute poverty and identify the location and characteristics of the poor are being developed and refined to guide policy formulation and target assistance to the poor;

such guidance by indicators is, however, not able to be used in some developing countries, especially the poorest countries, due to the woeful unavailability of statistical data;

the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association have the technical and financial capability to assist borrowing country governments to develop such statistical measurement capabilities for social indicators necessary for the design and monitoring of poverty-reduction policies for such governments;

availability of social indicator data is also essential to the work of such institutions, particularly in monitoring the impact of structural adjustment lending on the poor; and

availability of such indicators will also facilitate the measurement of progress in the alleviation of poverty by other donor agencies, public and private.