This has reportedly led to instances where donor aid was redirected towards an increase in international reserves or not disbursed at all, despite the existence of domestic needs and the ability of the Government to absorb it.s This example illustrates incoherence between national development objectives and international policy agendas. Using the new international poverty line of $1.25 per person per day in 2005 purchasing power parities (PPPs), as defined by the World Bank, 1.4 billion people, representing about 26 per cent of the developing world’s population, lived in poverty in 2005 (see figure II.1, and box II.2 for a discussion of the thorny issue of defining poverty). There are, however, large regional variations in the poverty trends (see figures II.2 and II.3).