The first meeting of the SAARC Inter-Governmental Expert Group (IGEG) on Poverty Alleviation convened in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from February 18-19, 2025. 

During this regional gathering, Maldives delivered a comprehensive presentation highlighting the nation's perspective and initiatives on poverty alleviation and provided comments to the draft background study report on Contextualization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in SAARC and revisiting the Plan of Action on Poverty Alleviation (PAPA) in the light of the 2030 Development Agenda.