by Piyaporn Hawiset
21 September 2000
Major reductions in poverty are possible, but would require a more comprehensive approach that directly addresses the needs of poor people in three important areas - opportunity, empowerment, and security, according to the World Bank. The bank's World Development Report 2000/2001 on attacking poverty says that at a time of unprecedented wealth for many countries, 2.8 billion people - almost half the world's population - live on less than US$2 a day. Of these, 1.2 billion people live on the very margins of life, on less than $1 a day.
The report said that in the poorest countries, the death rate for children up to five years of age is five times higher than in high-income countries, where the ratio is less than one child in 100. Less than 5 percent of children under five in well-off countries is malnourished, while in poorer countries as many as 50 percent of children suffer from malnutrition. The distribution of these gains is extraordinarily unequal. The average income in the richest 20 countries is 37 times the average in the poorest 20, a gap that has doubled in the past 40 years, according to the report.
The report recommends all levels of government in developing countries, donor countries, international agencies, non-government organisations (NGOs), civil society, and local communities, mobilise in three priority areas. First, they should expand opportunities for poor people by stimulating economic growth, making markets work better and working for their inclusion, especially building up assets such as land and education. Next is strengthening the ability for them to shape decisions that affect their lives and removing discrimination. The last is reducing their vulnerability to sickness, economic shock, crop failure, unemployment, natural disasters and violence.
The World Development Report 2000/2001 draws on a large volume of research, including a background study Voice of the Poor, which systematically sought the personal accounts of more than 60,000 men and women living in poverty in 60 countries. It also identified corruption and greed as being the major factor sin creating the appalling poverty around the world.