General Assembly
Official Records
Fifty-fourth Session
Supplement No. 1 (A/54/1)
Chapter IIEradication of poverty
142. Despite improvements over the past 50 years in nutrition, health, education and life expectancy and in reducing material poverty, we still have far to travel: over 1.5 billion people live on less than $1 a day; almost 1 billion adults -- a majority of them women -- are unable to read or write; 830 million people are malnourished; and 750 million people have no access to adequate shelter or health care. Gender inequalities continue to hamper economic growth and well-being.
143. Increased natural disasters, the hangover from the East Asian economic crisis, the continuing economic decline of the former Soviet Union, the growing toll of AIDS, especially in Africa, and new outbreaks of war have exacerbated poverty in many parts of the world in 1998.
144. The eradication of poverty is one of the central goals of the United Nations and its agencies, but its achievement remains elusive. While declining aid flows are part of the problem, increasing aid is not a panacea. In some cases, aid has made a real difference in reducing poverty; in others, it has made little or no impact. What makes the difference is how the aid is used. Where foreign assistance is misused, it is of little benefit to those in need.
145. The United Nations has long recognized that development policy is about more than economics narrowly defined. Development cannot occur in a vacuum. It requires that minimal levels of human security are met and that there is inclusive political participation and respect for human rights. As the only international organization with a mandate that embraces security, development and human rights, the United Nations is uniquely well placed to tackle the eradication of poverty in a holistic manner. This requires broad inter-agency cooperation, which is increasingly common practice in today's United Nations. For example, work carried out jointly by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNDP, the World Bank and IMF formed the basis for my report to the Economic and Social Council in July 1999 on the role of employment and work in poverty eradication: the empowerment and advancement of women.
146. Better poverty eradication policy requires improved risk assessment and early warning strategies -- as have been developed jointly by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, FAO and WFP. More generally over the past year, the United Nations has been working with its partners to produce more holistic development policies. The Administrative Committee on Coordination sent an action plan, entitled "Freedom from poverty", and based on its statement on poverty of March 1998, to all United Nations resident coordinators and country teams in October 1998. The plan forms the basis for a new initiative, led by the United Nations Development Group, to help programme countries to meet the goal of halving absolute poverty by 2015.
147. In December 1998, the United Nations Development Group developed an action plan for country-level responses to the challenges of globalization and the financial crisis in East Asia. Seventy-eight countries have either developed a separate strategy for poverty reduction (43 countries) or dedicated part of their overall development plan to poverty reduction (35 countries). United Nations country teams have established inter-agency thematic working groups on gender (in 58 countries), food security (in 48 countries) and a range of other issues related to poverty eradication. In 1998, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), drawing on studies carried out in 1996/97, began to develop poverty alleviation policies.
148. By the end of 1998, the Poverty Strategies Initiative of UNDP had provided support to over 100 countries in the area of poverty analysis, mapping and monitoring and developing national poverty reduction strategies. This initiative involved extensive collaboration at the country level with the World Bank, the regional commissions, ILO, UNICEF, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and UNFPA.
149. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and UNDP initiated a global knowledge network designed to help produce effective pro-poor budgets that were also sensitive to gender and environmental concerns. WFP assisted almost 75 million people, more than half of them women and children, helping to build sustainable food security assets for the poor and responding to their needs in emergency situations. A UNFPA study in South-East Asia on the effects of the financial crisis revealed increasing poverty in the region, and recommended specific policy responses.
150. In May 1999, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and the World Bank launched the Cities Alliance to coordinate their support for cities in the developing world. The Alliance focuses in particular on urban squatters, upgrading slums and improving urban governance and management systems. UNDP, with support from Habitat, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), launched the World Alliance of Cities against Poverty as follow-up to the Habitat II process.
151. The United Nations International Drug Control Programme has helped Governments in Latin America and Asia develop "business plans" to reduce incentives for the cultivation of illicit drugs and promote alternative development activities. Meanwhile, United Nations agencies have continued their collaboration with civil society organizations with a view to achieving one of the goals of the Microcredit Summit, namely, to provide 100 million of the poorest families with access to credit and other financial services.