[Combating poverty and inequality] Overview

Abstract

"The global economic and food crises have called into question the possibility of achieving the Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty and hunger by 2015. Before the crises, the number of poor people, defi ned in the MDGs as those living on less than $1.25 a day, had fallen: from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 20051 (see fi gure O.1). Progress across regions was, however, varied with East Asia experiencing the sharpest fall – thanks to China’s rapid growth – and sub-Saharan Africa the least. Even if globally the poverty rate is reduced by half by 2015, as the latest United Nations progress report on the MDGs suggests,2 about one billion people will still be mired in extreme poverty by 2015. Furthermore, according to estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the number of malnourished individuals rose above the one billion mark in 2009 for the fi rst time.3 Persistent poverty in some regions, and growing inequalities worldwide, are stark reminders that economic globalization and liberalization have not created an environment conducive to sustainable and equitable social development"(pg 1)