The Commission for Social Development will review the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty at its forty-fourth session, to be held at Headquarters in New York from 8 to 17 February.
In December 1995, the General Assembly proclaimed the First UN Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006), whose theme is “Eradicating poverty is an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of humankind.”
Poverty eradication is a cornerstone of the Organizations comprehensive development agenda that emerged from the major UN conferences and summits since the 1990s, Secretary-General Kofi Annan recalls in his December 2005 report to the Commission.
He notes that despite good progress in some regions that strongly suggests that the target of halving poverty will be achieved by 2015, progress is weak and falling short of what is needed, especially in the poorest countries.
Against that backdrop, the Commission will focus on key developments during the Decade, continuing obstacles and challenges, as well as consider recommendations for the way forward. During its eight-day session, which will include several panel discussions, it will also review relevant United Nations plans and programmes of action pertaining to the situation of social groups, particularly older and disabled persons.
On 8 February, the Commission will hear a keynote address by Clare Short, former Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom.
A new feature this year will be a presentation on a project undertaken by the United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development entitled “Tackling Poverty Together: The Role of Young People in Poverty Reduction”, the objective of which is to engage and support young people in efforts to eradicate poverty, with a regional focus on Africa.
Poverty
The report of the Secretary-General on the review of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006) (document E/CN.5/2006/3) focuses on key developments during the Decade, including
– the strengthened commitment to poverty eradication at the national and international levels,
– the evolution of strategies for poverty eradication,
– the enhanced coordination within the UN system to support the efforts of Member States and
– the obstacles and challenges that still face development partners in their fight against poverty around the world.
It concludes with a set of recommendations for consideration by the Commission.
During the Decade, there has been a progressive broadening of the definition and measurement of poverty, from using income as a yardstick, to a definition that encompasses other dimensions of poverty, such as access to health services and education.
More recently, that definition has been further expanded to embrace concerns about risk and vulnerability, social exclusion, powerlessness and lack of voice or representation. Another major development during the Decade has been the strenuous efforts to ensure better coordination of action at the intergovernmental level and within the UN system.
Progress in poverty eradication over the Decade has been mixed, states the report. At the global level, the proportion of poor people living on less than one dollar a day in developing countries declined from 27,9 to 21,3 per cent between 1990 and 2001, a transition of roughly 118 million persons out of extreme poverty.
If current trends are maintained, the goal is likely to be achieved at the global level in 2015, and the number of people living in extreme poverty would just fall below 735 million by 2015, from about 1,22 billion in 1990.
However, this global picture masks important disparities at the regional level, continues the report.
Global poverty reduction has been driven by the success of East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia, who are on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal target of halving extreme poverty at the national level by 2015.
China, in fact, has already achieved the poverty reduction target: the number of people living in extreme poverty there fell from 377 million to 212 million between 1990 and 2001, or from 33 per cent to 16,6 per cent of the population.
All other regions have experienced setbacks since 1990.
Some countries are at severe risk of falling short of the goal. Sub-Saharan Africa is the least likely to achieve the income poverty target, having made no progress in reducing the incidence of poverty in the 1990s. In sub-Saharan Africa, if current trends continue unchanged, only eight countries are projected to halve extreme poverty by 2015.
The incidence of poverty is much lower in Latin America and the Caribbean, but progress in further reducing poverty has been slow. In Europe and Central Asia, poverty rates rose in the 1990s.
The mixed results in achieving poverty reduction demonstrate the fact that many countries continue to face deep-rooted obstacles and challenges in that regard.
Sustained pro-poor economic growth is a necessary condition for accelerated poverty reduction and sustained human development, but the average per capita income growth in developing countries in the 1990s was 1.5 per cent per annum.
The rate of progress in poverty reduction depends also on the distribution of income and the share of the poor in economic growth at any level. The higher the level of income inequality, the less impact economic growth has in reducing poverty at any given rate of growth.
There is evidence there has been rising inequality within countries over the past two decades. This implies that the share of national income going to the poorest has fallen over the period.
Gender inequality is also a major barrier to reducing income poverty, according to the report.
Women have less access to paid employment than men in most of the developing world. Women in Southern Asia, Western Asia and Northern Africa still hold only about 20 per cent of paying jobs in sectors outside of agriculture.
There is still a deep division between rural and urban communities. Poverty rates are higher and there is less access to services in rural communities. Successful poverty reduction demands attention to promoting and supporting rural development.
HIV/AIDS, adds the report, is another major factor affecting poverty and has had a particularly devastating impact on sub-Saharan Africa, where average life expectancy declined from 50 years in 1990 to 46 years in 2002.
Also, armed conflicts tend to reinforce poverty and need to be addressed and resolved before there can be any hope of eradicating absolute poverty. Although recent years witnessed a marked reduction in the number of conflicts, from 51 in 1991 to 29 in 2003, the duration of current conflicts is longer, and the impact of these longer periods of conflict on human development is severe.
The Commission, recommends the report, may wish to urge all countries with extreme poverty to make every effort to adopt by 2006, and begin to implement, a national development strategy to halve extreme poverty by 2015, as well as ensure that policies and programmes designed to achieve poverty eradication include specific measures to foster social integration, including by providing marginalized socio-economic sectors and groups with equal access to opportunities.
It may also wish to urge countries to
– adopt full, productive and decent employment as a central objective of national and international macroeconomic policies;
– fully integrate this objective into poverty reduction strategies, including, where they exist, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers; and
– encourage countries to set time-bound goals and targets for expanding employment and reducing unemployment, including national action plans for youth employment.
Kilde: www.unric.org
