[APWW-Meet] Economic slowdown to push 100m into poverty =20

[Roberto Savio <soros@other-net.info>]

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Economic slowdown to push 100m into poverty  =20
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IRIN - humanitarian news and analysis

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NAIROBI, 12 September 2008 (IRIN) - Ban Ki-moon, the UN
Secretary-General, warns in a new report that the gains made in reducing
extreme poverty are under threat from the rise in global food and fuel
prices and global economic slowdown.=20

In the UN's Millennium Development Goals Report 2008, launched on 11
September, Ban writes: "The largely benign development environment that
has prevailed since the early years of this decade, and that has
contributed to the successes to date, is now threatened. The economic
slowdown will diminish the incomes of the poor; the food crisis will
raise the number of hungry people in the world and push millions more
into poverty; climate change will have a disproportionate impact on the
poor."=20

According to World Bank data, the number of extreme poor has fallen -
from 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion - between 1990 and 2005, with the
biggest gains made in eastern Asia, in particular, China. In sub-Saharan
Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States, however, the number
of poor has increased in the same period.=20

These figures confirm that the global poverty rate is likely to be
halved by 2015 - achieving the first MDG.=20

However, the worldwide increases in food prices will push another 100
million people into absolute poverty, according to the UN report.=20

"Even though the proportion of people worldwide suffering from
malnutrition and hunger has fallen since the early 1990s, the number of
people lacking access to food has risen. With recent increases in food
prices, it is estimated that one billion people will go hungry, while
another two billion will be undernourished," the report states.=20

Sub-Saharan Africa's poverty rate is constant at 50 percent, while East
Asia cut its rate over 25 years from almost 80 percent to less than 20
percent. Overall numbers are thus down from 52 percent in 1981 to 26
percent in 2005.=20

Slight improvements have been seen in primary school enrolment - up from
83 percent to 88 percent on average worldwide, although the rate for
sub-Saharan Africa is only 71 percent, with 38 million children of
primary school-going age not in school. In contrast, the enrolment ratio
tops 90 percent in Southern Asia, although 18 million children do not
attend school.=20

The fourth MDG, cutting child mortality, also saw improvements, with the
number of deaths of under-fives falling below 10 million for the first
time in 2006, to 9.7 million. The rate has declined from 93 to 72 deaths
per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2006.=20

However, in 62 countries under-five mortality is not falling fast enough
to meet the target of reducing the mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015.


Improving maternal health, goal five, has seen the least progress -
maternal mortality rates fell by less than 1 percent a year between 1990
and 2005, significantly below the 5.5 percent annual improvement needed
to meet the target.=20

In sub-Saharan Africa, with the highest level of maternal mortality,
progress was negligible. A woman's risk of dying from pregnancy-related
causes is about one in seven in Niger, against one in 17,400 in Sweden,
according to the report.=20

Progress on universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS by 2010 and of
halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 has been limited.
The majority of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, 60
percent of them are women; globally, the numbers have risen from around
30 million in 2001 to 33 million in 2007.=20

However, access to anti-retroviral treatment improved by 42 percent in
2007; by the end of that year, three million people were receiving
treatment in development countries, out of an estimated 9.7 million in
need.=20

On the second prong of goal six, combating malaria, about 250 million
insecticide-treated bed nets are needed to reach 80 percent coverage in
sub-Saharan Africa alone, states the report. Funding so far is
sufficient for 100 million nets, and between 350 and 500 million cases
of malaria occur worldwide.=20

Halfway to the target year, said Ban, "it is clear that we are not on
track to meet the Goals, especially in Africa. And new global challenges
- an economic slowdown, high food and fuel prices, and climate change -
threaten to reverse the progress we have made."=20

A high-level meeting of premiers and private sector, NGO and civil
society leaders on 25 September will seek to address these challenges.
mw/bp(ENDS)

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