Global slowdown threatens poverty reduction target

Global slowdown threatens poverty reduction target

BANGKOK (AFP): The threat of a global slowdown could imperil the United Nations' ambitious goal of halving the ranks of Asia's poor by 2015, the regional chief of the UN Development Program (UNDP) said on Wednesday.

To meet the target set by world leaders at the UN's Millennium Summit last year, 25 to 30 million people must be lifted out of poverty annually in Asia over the next decade and a half.

"We believe it is an achievable target," said Haviz Pasha, the newly appointed director of the UNDP's Asia-Pacific operations. "But if regional growth falls to 2.5-3.0 percent instead of 5.0 percent, then the momentum of poverty reduction will be reversed ... Growth is a necessary, if not sufficient conditions for poverty reduction."

The former Pakistani finance minister said South Asia remained particularly vulnerable to external shocks, along with parts of Southeast Asia including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and possibly the Philippines and Thailand.

The Bangkok-based UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) said earlier this month that setbacks in the United States and Japan could wipe 2.0 percentage points off regional growth rates.

Forecasts prepared late last year pointing to an average 6.0 percent GDP expansion for Asia's developing nations this year were already outdated and "too rosy", it said.

Pasha said a number of factors would have to fall into place if significant inroads were to be made in reducing poverty -- the number one goal of the UN's largest agency.

Apart from a favorable global environment, country-level efforts would need to be supported by the international community in terms of access to markets, technology and foreign investment, he said.

Any back-tracking on agreements for foreign aid, or overseas development assistance (ODA), during tough economic times would be a major blow for the "poorest of the poor" who struggle to live on a dollar a day.

"ODA could begin to falter because of the recession, say in Japan. Japan is a major donor and already the internal political constituency there is beginning to move away from foreign aid," he said.

However, a major weapon in the UNDP's armory is the political endorsement handed down at last September's Millennium Summit. "It was a very very strong endorsement which gives us the legitimacy and the kind of support we need to be able to actually aggressively push this ahead," Pasha said. "Everything has to come together -- in that case then certainly we can do it."

The UNDP chief said that if the slowing global economy puts more pressure on poor countries, the agency may explore an "expanded debt relief program for the lower end of the spectrum of developed countries."

"What we are arguing for is not unconditional debt relief but debt relief which releases resources for social development and poverty reduction. There has to be a well-defined link," he said.

Other strategies already in place are land reform, micro- lending schemes and community empowerment projects which encourage people to have a say in the management of their slim resources.