Pathways Out of Poverty: Regional Forum on Economic Inclusion
5 October 2026 (Monday)
By Invitation
Overview
Economic inclusion and graduation programs are increasingly being implemented across Asia and the Pacific to address a range of development challenges and support diverse population groups to address multiple interrelated constraints and promote economic opportunities.
ADB currently supports 11 such programs across seven countries, collectively reaching more than 200,000 individuals from poor and vulnerable groups. As this portfolio grows and more countries explore adopting these approaches, it is an opportune time to take stock of lessons learned, implementation challenges, and the conditions needed to move from pilots to sustained, government-led programs and systems.
The Regional Forum on Economic Inclusion will draw on experiences from across the region to examine lessons learned, emerging challenges, and the practicalities of adopting, adapting, scaling, and sustaining economic inclusion efforts.
Objectives
- Take stock of the current evidence base and identify critical knowledge gaps to inform the broader adoption and scale-up of economic inclusion approaches.
- Examine the key factors that enable successful adaptation, implementation, and scale-up of economic inclusion programs across different contexts.
- Explore opportunities, challenges, and enabling conditions for government adoption and institutionalization of economic inclusion approaches across different settings and sectors.
- Strengthen knowledge exchange, peer learning, and collaboration among policymakers, practitioners, development partners, and technical experts across the region.
Target Group
- Government representatives engaged in economic inclusion and graduation programs
- Development partners
- ADB staff