By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 5 2000 (IPS)

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) says the world’s poorer nations have hit numerous “roadblocks” in their ongoing battle against poverty.

The New York-based agency has complained that firm commitments made at the 1995 Social Summit in Copenhagen to eradicate extreme poverty have fallen short of expectations.

In a 139-page study titled “Overcoming Human Poverty” released Tuesday, UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown says the roadblocks hindering anti-poverty programmes include “financial crises, onerous debt burdens, protectionism, war and civil conflicts, and a string of natural disasters.” All of these obstacles, he argues, have slowed down the global anti-poverty campaign.

Malloch Brown also complains of an “apparent lack of political will” on the part of developing nations to make poverty reduction a policy priority.

“Progress has been stalled while donors continue to fall short in providing the support needed to re-activate advances,” he adds.

Malloch Brown also says that the global campaign against poverty “needs reinforcements and a more focused and effective strategy.”

The poorest of the world’s poor – about 1.3 billion people living on less than a dollar a day – is expected to keep growing.

By the next decade, the number of people living in extreme poverty may rise to 1.5 billion out of a global population of more than 6 billion people. And by 2015, the UN predicts, the number will rise even higher, to 1.9 billion – provided there are no concerted efforts to fight poverty globally.

“Despite countless programmes and campaigns over time and across regions,” admits UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, “poverty continues to be a major impediment to human development and economic progress.”

In a new report outlining a global vision for the 21st century, Annan warned Monday that “unless we redouble and concert our efforts, poverty and inequality may get worse still.”

The Secretary General called on the international community to adopt the target of halving, by 2015, the number of people living in extreme poverty. “I further urge that no effort be spared to reach this target by that date in every region, and in every country,” he said.

According to the UNDP report, more than three quarters of countries have poverty estimates, and more than two-thirds have plans for reducing poverty. But fewer than a third have set targets for eradicating extreme poverty or substantially reducing overall poverty. “This is a serious shortcoming,” the report said.

Moreover, the poverty targets set at the Social Summit are based on monetary measures, while most development practitioners now agree that poverty is not about income alone, but is multi- dimensional.

“Thus countries should begin incorporating explicit human poverty targets – such as reducing malnutrition, expanding literacy and increasing life expectancy – into poverty programmes,” the report said.

Another shortcoming, the report said, is that many anti-poverty plans are no more than vaguely formulated strategies. Only a minority of countries have “genuine action plans” – with explicit targets, adequate budgets and effective organisations.

“Many countries do not have explicit poverty plans but incorporate poverty into national planning. And many of these then appear to forget the topic,” the UNDP said.

The report stresses that “effective governance is the missing link” between national anti-poverty efforts and poverty reduction.

Holding governments accountable to people is a bottom-line requirement for good governance. And having regular elections – free and fair – contributes to accountability, especially if they are also held at the local level. “But such democratic forms are no vaccination against poverty.”

The report also said that accountability in the use of public funds is crucial to poverty reduction efforts. The poor pay a high price for corruption.

“If corruption were cleaned up at the same time that the poor organised themselves, many national poverty programmes would undoubtedly ratchet up their performance in directing resources to the people who need them,” UNDP said.

Many problems of targeting are fundamentally problems of unaccountable, unresponsive governance institutions, the report noted. “A new global strategy clearly needs to be mounted, with more resources, a sharper focus and a stronger commitment,” it added.

UNDP said it faces its own resource constraints. “It can no longer be all things to all people. It remains firmly committed to poverty eradication, but it has to marshal and concentrate its forces to supply the most strategically important means of support to programme countries,” the report added.

Excerpt: