| Human development to eradicate poverty The great success in reducing poverty in the 20th century shows that
eradicating severe poverty in the first decades of the 21st century is feasible. This may
seem an extraordinary ambition, but it is well within our grasp. Almost all countries
committed themselves to this goal at the World Summit for Social Development in 1995. And
many, including some of the largest, have embarked with all the seriousness necessary to
achieve it.
Although poverty has been dramatically reduced in many parts of the
world, a quarter of the world's people remain in severe poverty. In a global economy of
$25 trillion, this is a scandal - reflecting shameful inequalities and inexcusable
failures of national and international policy.
Human Development Report 1997 reviews the challenge to eradicate
poverty from a human development perspective. It focuses not just on poverty of income but
on poverty from a human development perspective - on poverty as a denial of choices and
opportunities for living a tolerable life.
The progress in reducing poverty over the 20th century is
remarkable and unprecedented . . .
Few people realize the great advances already made. In the past 50
years poverty has fallen more than in the previous 500. And it has been reduced in some
respects in almost all countries.
The key indicators of human development have advanced strongly in
the past few decades. Since 1960, in little more than a generation, child death rates in
developing countries have been more than halved. Malnutrition rates have declined by
almost a third. The proportion of children out of primary school has fallen from more than
half to less than a quarter. And the share of rural families without access to safe water
has fallen from nine-tenths to about a quarter.
These advances are found in all regions of the world. China, and
another 14 countries or states with populations that add up to more than 1.6 billion, have
halved the proportion of their people living below the national income poverty line in
less than 20 years. Ten more countries, with almost another billion people, have reduced
the proportion of their people in income poverty by a quarter or more. Beyond mere
advances in income, there has been great progress in all these countries in life
expectancy and access to basic social services.
The accelerated progress in reducing poverty in the 20th century
began in Europe and North America in the 19th century - in what can now be seen as the
first Great Ascent from poverty and human deprivation. The ascent started in the foothills
of the industrial revolution, with rising incomes, improvements in public health and
education and eventually programmes of social security. By the 1950s most of Europe and
North America enjoyed full employment and welfare states.
The second Great Ascent started in the 1950s in the developing
countries. The end of colonialism was followed by improvements in education and health and
accelerated economic development that led to dramatic declines in poverty. By the end of
the 20th century some 3-4 billion of the world's people will have experienced substantial
improvements in their standard of living, and about 4-5 billion will have access to basic
education and health care. It is precisely these gains that make eradicating poverty not
some distant ideal - but a true possibility.
. . . but the advances have been uneven and marred by setbacks -
and poverty remains pervasive.
Some stark figures summarize the balance sheet of poverty towards
the end of the 20th century:
 | More than a quarter of the developing world's people still live in
poverty as measured by the human poverty index introduced in this Report. About a third -
1.3 billion people - live on incomes of less than $1 a day. |
| South Asia has the most people affected by human poverty. And it has
the largest number of people in income poverty: 515 million. Together, South Asia, East
Asia and South-East Asia and the Pacific have more than 950 million of the 1.3 billion
people who are income-poor. |
| Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of people in - and the
fastest growth in - human poverty. Some 220 million people in the region are income-poor.
Indeed, the Sub-Saharan and other least developed countries are poverty stricken - and it
is estimated that by 2000 half the people in Sub-Saharan Africa will be in income poverty.
|
| In Latin America and the Caribbean income poverty is more pervasive
than human poverty - affecting 110 million people - and it continues to grow. |
| Eastern Europe and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) have seen the greatest deterioration in the past decade. Income poverty has
spread from a small part of their population to about a third - 120 million people below a
poverty line of $4 a day. |
| And in industrial countries more than 100 million people live below
the income poverty line, set at half the individual median income. Thirty-seven million
are jobless. |
Within these broad groups some people suffer more than others -
particularly children, women and the aged….
From a human development perspective, poverty means the denial of
choices and opportunities for a tolerable life.
It is in the deprivation of the lives people lead that poverty
manifests itself. Poverty can mean more than a lack of what is necessary for material
well-being. It can also mean the denial of opportunities and choices most basic to human
development - to lead a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent standard of
living, freedom, dignity, self-esteem and the respect of others.
For policy-makers, the poverty of choices and opportunities is often
more relevant than the poverty of income, for it focuses on the causes of poverty and
leads directly to strategies of empowerment and other actions to enhance opportunities for
everyone.
Poverty must be addressed in all its dimensions, not income
alone….
The human poverty index combines basic dimensions of poverty and
reveals interesting contrasts with income poverty. This Report introduces a human
poverty index (HPI). Rather than measure poverty by income, it uses indicators of the most
basic dimensions of deprivation: a short life, lack of basic education and lack of access
to public and private resources. Like all measures the HPI has weaknesses - in data and in
concept. Like all measures it cannot capture the totality of human poverty. But by
combining in a single poverty index the concerns that often get pushed aside when the
focus is on income alone, the HPI makes a useful addition to the measures of poverty.
Among 78 developing countries ranked by the HPI, Trinidad and Tobago
comes out on top, followed by Cuba, Chile, Singapore and Costa Rica. Human poverty has
been reduced in these countries and now affects less than 10% of their people….
The scale of poverty is daunting, but we should take heart from
what's already been achieved - and focus on six priorities for action to eradicate
poverty.
…The strategy for poverty reduction will naturally differ from
country to country, but there are six priorities for action.
1. Everywhere the starting point is to empower women and men -
and to ensure their participation in decisions that affect their lives and enable them to
build their strengths and assets…
2. Gender equality is essential for empowering women - and for
eradicating poverty….
3. Sustained poverty reduction requires pro-poor growth in all
countries - and faster growth in the 100 or so developing and transition countries where
growth has been failing….
4. Globalization offers great opportunities - but only if it is
managed more carefully and with more concern for global equity.
Proceeding at breakneck speed but without map or compass,
globalization has helped reduce poverty in some of the largest and strongest economies -
China, India and some of the Asian tigers. But it has also produced losers among and
within countries. As trade and foreign investment have expanded, the developing world has
seen a widening gap between winners and losers. Meanwhile, many industrial countries have
watched unemployment soar to levels not recorded since the 1930s, and income inequality
reach levels not recorded since the last century.
The greatest benefits of globalization have been garnered by a
fortunate few. A rising tide of wealth is supposed to lift all boats, but some are more
seaworthy than others. The yachts and ocean liners are rising in response to new
opportunities, but many rafts and rowboats are taking on water - and some are sinking.
The ratio of global trade to GDP has been rising over the past
decade, but it has been falling for 44 developing countries, with more than a billion
people. The least developed countries, with 10% of the world's people, have only 0.3% of
world trade - half their share of two decades ago….
5. In all these areas the state must provide an enabling
environment for broad-based political support and alliances for pro-poor policies and
markets….
6. Special international support is needed for special situations -
to reduce the poorest countries' debt faster, to increase their share of aid and to open
agricultural markets for their exports….
The least developed countries, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa,
face the biggest challenges in eradicating poverty in the next two or three decades. These
are the countries in greatest economic difficulty - and most often in conflict. And these
are the countries in which human poverty is growing fastest.
Yet Sub-Saharan Africa has many examples of success - and with
sustained support the progress could be accelerated….
Eradicating absolute poverty in the first decades of the 21st
century is feasible, affordable and a moral imperative.
Eradicating poverty everywhere is more than a moral imperative and a
commitment to human solidarity. It is a practical possibility. The time has come to
eradicate the worst aspects of human poverty within a decade or two - to create a world
that is more humane, more stable, more just.
At the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen,
governments committed themselves to eradicating poverty. As follow-up action, they agreed
to set national goals and prepare strategies geared to reducing overall poverty
substantially, reducing inequalities, and eradicating extreme poverty in the shortest time
possible - by target dates to be set by each country.
These commitments, and the success many countries have had in
reducing poverty rapidly, make inaction immoral. But accelerated action will be spurred
only if all countries develop a new vision of the possibility of poverty eradication and a
stronger sense of how they will gain from it - through greater security, greater stability
and greater prosperity.
The costs of eradicating poverty are less than people imagine -
about 1% of global income and no more than 2-3% of national income in all but the poorest
countries. Further cuts in military spending, with the savings channeled to poverty
reduction and pro-poor growth, would go far towards providing the resources required. The
challenge of mobilizing resources is thus mostly a challenge of restructuring priorities -
and of steadily mainstreaming these priorities into a new programme of pro-poor growth.
Combining growth with a small but steady redistribution towards poverty eradication could
ensure all the resources required within this generation.
To restate: The unprecedented progress in reducing poverty in the
20th century sets the stage for eradicating absolute poverty in the early 21st century - a
moral imperative, an attainable goal. No longer inevitable, poverty should be relegated to
history - along with slavery, colonialism and nuclear warfare.
The full Human Development Report 1997, including this
overview section, is available at UNDP’s website: www.undp.org/undp/hdro/97high.htm. |