A/HRC/44/40/Add.3 • During the Eleventh Malaysia Plan, 2016-2020, the Government had allocated sum of estimated RM121.6 billion from annual budget expenditure for social assistances. • The Government’s effort have shown its efficiency through the decline numbers of poverty recorded in the eKasih as follows: Years 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Extreme Poor 79,607 75,480 59,924 44,666 43,055 Poor 142,958 142,135 140,842 142,099 135,172 Paragraph 7 It is particularly encouraging that leading politicians have now indicated their support for a poverty measure that better reflects reality. Although the Minister of Economic Affairs initially defended the poverty line, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his economic adviser have acknowledged that the poverty measure should be adjusted. In October, the Prime Minister said that the government is ready to review the poverty line “to provide a true picture of poverty in Malaysia.” And in December, the Ministry of Federal Territories announced it would formulate an Urban Poverty Eradication Master Plan for Kuala Lumpur, including a redefinition of urban poverty. In political terms it is never easy to acknowledge that poverty is greater than previously claimed, and assuming it does so, the Government deserves great credit. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • The Midterm Review of Eleventh Malaysia Plan, which was tabled in Parliament in October 2018, stated that the measurement of poverty to be revised in tandem of the cost of living. Therefore, the work on PLI revision has started during the Plan. The Special Rapporteur’s visit was in August 2019. During the bilateral meeting with the Special Rapporteur and Government agencies, this Special Rapporteur and his team had been informed that the need of revision of PLI was stated in the document and work on it is ongoing since March 2019. Further, the Prime Minister in the Parliament on October 2019 stated that Malaysia has been working to revise the new PLI and to implement Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as poverty measurement from multi dimensions. Therefore, formulating policies and strategies as well as initiatives had been in place before the visit of Special Rapporteur. While the visit of SR had sparked interests on poverty issues, however, the claim that the Government had only act on poverty reviews has been undertaken following the visit is incorrect. Paragraph 9 A better understanding of poverty in Malaysia reveals the inaccuracy of the mainstream narrative that poverty is largely confined to small numbers in rural areas and indigenous peoples. While those groups face dire and unique challenges, urban poverty is significant. For example, the official 2016 poverty rate for Kuala Lumpur was zero percent, yet 27 percent of households earned less than Bank Negara’s estimated living wage for the city in 2018. A 2018 survey of low-income apartments found 7 percent of people living below the national poverty line, 85 percent in relative poverty, and 99.7 percent of children in relative poverty. One soup kitchen director said she served up to 700 people a night, and that more than 40 soup kitchens operate in Kuala Lumpur. None of this points to a city that has eliminated poverty or hunger. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • To further increase the effectiveness of poverty eradication initiatives, the Government is reviewing its PLI methodology to better reflect the current cost of living. In addition, a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has been established to measure a wider 5