Poverty Eradication excerpt
"Poverty eradication, unlike other areas of major concern at the United Nations, has not been the focus of a specific program of action or agenda set by the international community. Today, there is an urgent need felt worldwide to arrive at a comprehensive framework to fight poverty and its increasing threat to overall stability and humane living. To this end, the coordination segment of ECOSOC brought together the heads of concerned specialized agencies, organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system including multilateral financial and trade institutions whose inputs would doubtless contribute to the policy dialogue on the eradication of poverty. The Secretary-General's report on the topic states that poverty is not a new phenomenon, in contrast for example to the recent AIDS pandemic, but nevertheless, is becoming a growing international concern. Over 1.1 billion people today are estimated to live in poverty (having annual consumption levels below $370). Roughly 400 million of them, classified as extremely poor (having annual consumption levels below $275) live in Asia, where they are concentrated in rural areas with high population densities. In sub-Saharan Africa, 120 million people, also extremely poor live in areas where soils are poor and farming techniques underdeveloped. In Latin America, extreme poverty encompasses 50 million people and is concentrated in the Andean highlands and urban slums. Finally, in North Africa and the Near East, the extreme poor number approximately 40 million and are dispersed in rural and urban areas. As the report points out, an unfortunate development over the last 20 years has been the 50% increase in female-headed households living in poverty. These alarming statistics, giving rise at the United Nations to considerable re-evaluation of structural adjustment programs, sources of growth and long-term development models, have led to a shift towards a human-centered, participatory-style development with poverty eradication as a top priority. Since women constitute a disproportionately large part of the poor, improving their economic status and protecting vulnerable groups are a key element of this new style of development."
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