August saw the first report on Malaysia from the UN’s Special Rapporteur on poverty, Philip Alston (also a professor of international law at NYU). Alston reported on poverty in the US and UK last year, causing quite a stir. This time it was Malaysia’s turn, where they claim they have eliminated poverty. Alston does not agree! You can read about what Alston found in his visit to Malaysia this month in the Washington Post last week: https://beta.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/un-envoy-challenges-malaysias-claim-to-have-low-poverty/2019/08/23/9ca17f9e-c55c-11e9-8bf7-cde2d9e09055_story.html

Alston is drawing on poverty research, including my own (see my blog post on Malaysia, on this site), which he refers to in his report (Alston’s end-of-mission-statement) and Press Conference (https://www.facebook.com/AlstonUNSR/videos/1089217308136518/).