ECONOMIC SLUMP RAISES POVERTY THREAT IN ASIA-PACIFIC, UN SAYS
Paul Tighe
Bloomberg, February 18, 2010
The world economic crisis has pushed about 21 million people in Asia-Pacific countries into extreme poverty since the beginning of 2009, aided by a lack of social welfare programs such as unemployment benefits, the United Nations said.
The global slump stalled progress to reach the region’s anti-poverty targets for 2015 outlined under the Millennium Development Goals agreed in 2000 by the Group of Seven industrialized nations, the UN said in a report.
“Asia has much weaker social protection compared to other regions such as Latin America and Eastern Europe,” said Ajay Chhibber, the regional director for Asia and the Pacific for the UN Development Program and a UN assistant secretary-general. “Without better protection, people fall back into poverty with economic crises, health pandemics and natural disasters and cannot recover easily.”
More than 50 percent of people in urban and rural areas in the Asia-Pacific region live without basic sanitation and 50 percent of people in rural areas have no access to clean water, according to the UN. The financial crisis brought 17 million people into extreme poverty in 2009 and an estimated 4 million so far this year, it said.
Before the downturn, the region was on schedule to meet development targets for halving the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day and rural people without access to clean water, as well as ensuring universal access of children to primary school and gender parity in secondary education, according to the report by the UN and the Asia Development Bank.
Paul Tighe
Bloomberg, February 18, 2010
The world economic crisis has pushed about 21 million people in Asia-Pacific countries into extreme poverty since the beginning of 2009, aided by a lack of social welfare programs such as unemployment benefits, the United Nations said.
The global slump stalled progress to reach the region’s anti-poverty targets for 2015 outlined under the Millennium Development Goals agreed in 2000 by the Group of Seven industrialized nations, the UN said in a report.
“Asia has much weaker social protection compared to other regions such as Latin America and Eastern Europe,” said Ajay Chhibber, the regional director for Asia and the Pacific for the UN Development Program and a UN assistant secretary-general. “Without better protection, people fall back into poverty with economic crises, health pandemics and natural disasters and cannot recover easily.”
More than 50 percent of people in urban and rural areas in the Asia-Pacific region live without basic sanitation and 50 percent of people in rural areas have no access to clean water, according to the UN. The financial crisis brought 17 million people into extreme poverty in 2009 and an estimated 4 million so far this year, it said.
Before the downturn, the region was on schedule to meet development targets for halving the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day and rural people without access to clean water, as well as ensuring universal access of children to primary school and gender parity in secondary education, according to the report by the UN and the Asia Development Bank.
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