Commentary: Poverty Eradication, Key for Sustainable Development

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 26, 2002

Commentary: Poverty Eradication, Key for Sustainable Development

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It is a key for sustainable development indeed that how to bring into concrete actions toward poverty eradication as the developing countries are looking to the2002 Earth Summit to make something happen.

As the follow-up of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in Johannesburg is designed to carry out the Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development which was adopted at the Rio conference.

To promote better standards of living in a better global environment, the Agenda 21 stressed the need for poverty eradication as the priority to address the problems hindering the world from sustainable development.

According to the United Nations, poverty means a condition characterized by absence or deprivation of essential needs at a basic level such as nutrition, housing, health services, safe drinking water and sanitation facilities, and education.

People in the developed countries have come to expect much better standards of living in the past 50 years. But the developing countries have to struggle against the scourge of poverty.

The latest UN report on global poverty shows us an appalling fact.

Of the 4.6 billion people in the developing countries, almost 800 million are not getting enough food, more than 850 million are illiterate people, while over 1 billion people lack access to clean water supplies.

Although Asian poverty rate has fallen from about 28 percent in1990 to 15 percent in 1998, the rate in sub-Saharan Africa has remained unchanged at about 48 percent with the number of people living in poverty increasing from 220 million to 300 million over the last decade.

Over the past few years, the human development index has declined in more than 30 African countries. The average African household consumes 20 percent less today than it did 25 years ago.

When people living in poverty are asked to identify their priorities, the care for environment or the need for sustainable development are rarely at the top of their lists. Housing, feeding and clothing the family, education for their children and care in their old age are significant concerns in their daily life.

Some 60 percent of the world's poor live in the fragile and highly vulnerable areas that also witness rapid environmental degradation caused by the complication involving natural and man-made factors.

It is evident that low-income countries with a high incidence of poverty cannot get adequate resources to address directly the environmental issues.

For example, Africa, as the poorest continent in the world, has to suffer from land degradation, drought, desertification, adverse climatic changes, pollution, wetland destruction, deforestation, loss of bio-diversity and species.

"The fundamental constraint to achieving sustainable development is social inequality and its associated evils: poverty and ignorance," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UN Environment Program.

The world leaders have set ambitious targets for poverty reduction through halving poverty and hunger by 2015. It is very vital for the international community to show political will, but no nation can achieve this without collective efforts in a global partnership.

Meanwhile, only integration of environmental improvement and poverty eradication can lead to the fulfillment of basic needs, improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems and a safer, more prosperous future.

The UN has called for a substantial flow of financial resources from the developed countries to the developing countries in order to cover the incremental costs for the actions they have to undertake to deal with global environmental problems and to accelerate sustainable development.

But unfortunately, most of rich countries failed to meet the target of providing 0.7 percent of their GDP for development assistance set by the UN. In fact, the world average is now close to 0.2 percent.

With less than 400 billionaires holding assets that equal the total worth of 45 percent of the world's population, the developing countries start to see a change in the flow of resources for poverty reduction.

As the new millennium opens up, the eradication of poverty and hunger, greater equity in income distribution and human resource development remain major challenges everywhere. The struggle against poverty is the shared responsibility of all countries and all individuals on the earth.

The world can be fed only by feeding all beings that make the world. But firstly, we should feed ourselves and leave nobody living in poverty eventually.

Source: Xinhua

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