Latest findings by an Economist show serious disparities in the distribution of funds by the State to alleviate poverty in the country.

Dr. Wadan Narsey's book titled "The Quantitative Analysis of Poverty in Fiji" shows the breakdown in poverty levels in each province and Division and the assistance provided based on the 2002/2003 Household Income and Expenditure Survey and the 2004/2005 Employment and Unemployment Survey.

By provinces, Doctor Narsey's findings reveals that Bua is the poorest with 63% of the people living in poverty, 51 percent in Cakaudrove, 50 percent in Macuata and 56 percent of people on Rotuma are living under the poverty line.

However, when compared to the share of the poverty alleviation resources allocated back in 2002 to 2005, Bua which is the worst off, receives only 6 percent of the resources, Cakaudrove 9 percent, Macuata 14 percent while Rotuma received no assistance at all to alleviate poverty.

The book further shows that based on ethnicity, 34% of Indigenous Fijians live in poverty receiving around 49% of the resources while for Indo Fijians, 37% are in poverty receiving 47% of the alleviation resources.

Looking at the four divisions, the Northern Division is the worst off with 53% of the people living under the poverty line while they only receive 29% of the resources while the Eastern Division, with a poverty level of 35% receives a mere 4% of resources to deal with the problem.

Dr. Narsey also highlights that the data available shows that 37 percent of the Indo Fijian population live in poverty compared to 34 percent of indigenous Fijians. However, the poverty gap when compared shows that 49 percent of indigenous Fijians live in poverty compared to 47% of Indo-Fijians.

The in-depth analysis also shows that the poorest of the poor in Fiji are rural Indo Fijians as Dr. Wadan Narsey reveals the poorest ethnic sub-group were rural Indo-Fijians of whom 44 percent were below the Basic Needs Poverty Line.

The analysis has been carried out to better assist policy makers in Fiji to allocate adequate resources to assist these people based on their needs and not along ethnic lines.