Inflation thwarts UN efforts to alleviate poverty

New report warns a UN drive to drastically reduce global poverty by 2015 is foundering.

UNITED NATIONS // A UN drive to drastically reduce global poverty by 2015 is foundering, with high food and oil prices fuelling an economic downturn that could leave key targets unmet, a new report warns. In advance of this month's world leaders summit, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, called for an "aggressive push" to get the so-called Millennium Development Goals back on track. Sheikh Abdallah bin Zayed, the UAE's foreign minister, will join George W Bush and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, when nearly 100 heads of state and government converge on New York for the annual UN General Assembly.

Launching a midway report on MDG progress last week, Mr Ban asked world leaders to make firm pledges at the summit, which begins on Sept 25. "We must really galvanise political will and mobilise necessary resources, and I count on the leadership of developed countries," Mr Ban said. "I expect all participants to announce specific initiatives or commitments and lay out plans for them. "By the close of the meeting, we hope to be in a very different place from where we are today."

In Sept 2000, the UAE and 188 other countries endorsed the Millennium Declaration, aiming to halve the number of people living on less than Dh3.67a day, reverse the spread of HIV/Aids and deliver universal primary education among a set of eight goals. The upcoming meeting will be the first high-level summit on the goals since that declaration, and feature philanthropists, celebrities and businessmen, including Bill Gates, Bono and Ratan Naval Tata, the chairman of India's Tata Group.

A 52-page document made public on Thursday, the Millennium Development Goals Report 2008 said the number of people living in extreme poverty fell to 1.4 billion from 1.8 billion between 1990 and 2005, and that the global poverty rate of 1990 is likely to be halved by 2015. Most of the decline, however, has taken place in China and other parts of eastern Asia, while the number of poor in sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet Union increased between 1990 and 2005.

The prevailing high food prices are likely to reverse some of the gains that have already been made, pushing many across south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa into poverty, researchers said. Featuring new data from the World Bank, the report also warns that progress across the Arabian peninsula, the Levant and Egypt has been slow. The proportion of people living below the revised poverty line of $1.25 a day in this region increased during the 1990s and then only marginally decreased between 1999 and 2005.

Although the region has benefited from improved access to clean water and lower infant mortality rates, 28 per cent of school-age children remain deprived of primary education. The situation for women remains poor, the report adds. Expectant mothers receive poor hospital care during childbirth and "remain trapped in insecure, low-paid positions, with only 20 per cent of wage employees outside agriculture being women".

The UN has already warned that traditional donors, including the United States, Japan and some European Union members, have reneged on aid pledges, creating a funding gap of more than $30bn. Mr Ban urged rich countries to deliver on promises and donate the target figure of 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income, even while they combat myriad financial woes, including oil and food price hikes. "I appreciate and understand the economic difficulties in many developed countries, let alone many poor countries, so there may be some political resistance in locating 0.7 per cent of GNI by 2015. But this requires some political leadership and some political prioritising," Mr Ban said.