Much efforts needed to reduce poverty: WB

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Apr. 20:Despite progress in recent years, both poor and rich countries need to do much more if the international community is to meet its commitment of halving global poverty in all the world’s regions by 2015, says a new World Bank report, World Development indicators 2002, according to a press release issued by the Washington based World Bank.

At the United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, world leaders confirmed their support for the goals of the UN Millennium Declaration, which call for reducing world poverty in all its forms.

Current estimates say that brisk economic growth in China and India will enable the world to reach the overall goal of halving global poverty by 2015. But the data in the new study-which covers all eight of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) –say progress is uneven and that too many regions and countries are falling far short of the goals, the press release says.

Still, more advances are possible if poor countries improve policies and governance and rich countries expand trade access and increase foreign aid. Policies in developing countries have been improving during the last 15 or 20 years.

Rich countries have eased barriers to poor country exports during the last decade, but obstacles remain high, particularly in agriculture and textiles.

And in the run up to Monterrey, the United States and European Union pledged to increase development assistance significantly during the next few years, it is stated.

"The past decade has been a good one for opening up markets to goods from poor countries and a bad one for increasing foreign aid flows," said Nicholas Stern, the World Bank’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President for Development Economics. ‘Monterrey showed that we have began to turn to corner one aid. But in the decade ahead, we must push vigorously on trade. We know development can work, yet 1.2 billion people still live on less than one US dollar a day. The challenge of meeting the Millennium Development Goals reminds us all that we can and must do better."

The MDGs aim to reduce income poverty by 2015 and spur significant improvements in education, gender equality, health care, and in overcoming hunger and environmental degradation. The new study shows that for the poorest countries, many of the goals are far out of reach while even in better- off countries, there may be regions or other sub-groups that lag far behind, the press release says.

The most-quoted goal calls for reducing the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day to half the 1990 level by 2015, from one in every third person in the developing world to one in every six. The new Bank report shows that reaching that goal is possible in most developing regions if growth in per capita income accelerates to an average of 3.6 per cent per year.

That growth would be nearly twice the rate achieved over the last decade, but the experience of some countries shows that it is possible. China averaged almost 9 per cent annual growth in GDP per capita in the 1980s and 1990s. Vietnam saw growth of almost 6 per cent in the 9990s, which reduced poverty by more than a third between 1993 and 1998. And in India, faster growth in the last decade helped to reduce substantially the proportion of people living in poverty, the press release states.

"This study is not a final verdict on how countries will perform but it is a warming that many are not on track to reach many of the goals." said Shanta Devarajan, Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Human Development Network. " Just because a country is doing well economically does not means it is a in reach of the Millennium Development Goals. Countries need to work to ensure that poor people are included in the benefits of development. Poor people in developing countries urgently need access to quality health care services and education to enable them to fulfill their potential. Now is the time to take action to speed up progress not 5 to 10 years from now."

This year’s World Development Indicators marks the 25th edition. The Reports are based on information from national statistics agencies. Shaida Badiec, Director of the Banks’s Development Data Group, called on nations to improve their data reporting so they and the international community are well informed of the challenges and success of development and can respond.

South Asia has experienced rapid growth, averaging 5.9 per cent a year since 1990, which has helped to reduce poverty substantially. Strong growth in India helped to raise the regional average growth rate in the 1990s; Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also experienced good growth. The ability of the region, especially India, to sustain average growth of 5-6 per cent a year will be critical to achieving the poverty reduction targets for 2015.

The region has made gains in reducing mortality in children under five since 1990, especially in Bangladesh. At the same time, little progress has been made in reducing malnutrition; today, nearly half of all children under the age of five are malnourished. The resurgence of tuberculosis and the threat of HIV/AIDS are also a cause for concern.