By Martin Banks - 6th July 2009
Major gains in the fight against extreme poverty are likely to stall
Nicola Harrington
A new report concludes that progress has been "too slow" for most of the UN millennium development goals (MDGs) to be met by 2015.
The latest progress report by the United Nations says gains in eradicating hunger and poverty are being "endangered" by the current economic downturn.
The report also calls on the EU and member states to increase overseas development aid (ODA).
One of the main MDGs targets is to reduce world poverty by 50 per cent by 2015.
Launching the report on Monday, Nicola Harrington, director of the UNDP/UN office in Brussels, said that at present it appeared unlikely that the eight MDG goals would be met within the specified timeframe.
She said,"There is no doubt that the gains made over recent years in fields such as education, HIV/Aids and child mortality are jeopardised by the economic crisis.
"That is the key message of this report."
The report, which comes with five years to go the MDG target date, says that between 1990 and 2005, the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day decreased from 1.8 to 1.4 billion.
Although no specific data is available on the full impact of the downturn, she said, "Major gains in the fight against extreme poverty are likely to stall."
To illustrate this, the report says that this year, an estimated 55-90 million more people will be living in extreme poverty than anticipated before the crisis.
It also says that some 77 million more people will be engaged in "vulnerable" employment this year than would have been the case but for the fiscal crisis.
Harrington said, "The EU and member states seem to find the funds when it comes to their own economic recovery plans yet, by comparison, the increase in ODA is tiny.
"Last year's ODA figure was €85 billion but this has to be increased, including additional aid to Africa."
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