WP: Global Poverty Persists Despite Global Effort

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Agencies Say Poverty Persists Despite Global Efforts

By Paul Blustein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 23, 2004; Page A24


Major success at reducing poverty in China and India is offset by so much bad news in other countries that an international effort to improve the lot of the world's poor is seriously off track in many respects, according to a report released yesterday by leading aid agencies.

The report said that the poverty declines fueled by rapid economic growth in China and India, the world's two most populous nations, make the achievement of a key United Nations goal very likely: cutting in half the percentage of people living on less than $1 a day between 1990 and 2015. East Asia has already met the goal, according to the report, which predicted that most regions -- sub-Saharan Africa being a major exception -- will "achieve or come close to" it.

But based on current trends, the report said, most developing countries will not meet the "Millennium Development Goals" established in a 2000 U.N. declaration. Those cover aspects of living standards such as education, health and access to clean water. The first goal, to eliminate "preferably by 2005" the disparity between boys' and girls' education at the primary and secondary levels, is unlikely to be achieved by one-third of developing countries even by 2015, the report said....

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The report, which will be presented Sunday to the World Bank's policy-setting development committee in Washington, offers fresh evidence of the need for a drastic increase in aid from rich countries, according to Wolfensohn, who has often made such pleas. He particularly lamented the bank's problems in mobilizing funding for its "Education for All" initiative, aimed at ensuring that all children in poor countries receive a primary education by 2015....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34979-2004Apr22.html