Human Development Report 2005 by UNDP, Washington Post, BBC News 10:18am 8th Sep, 2005   7 September 2005    "UN report warns of failure to meet MDGs, calls for swift change in aid, trade". (UN News)    A week before meeting at United Nations Headquarters in the largest-ever summit of heads of State and government, world leaders today received a stark warning of the human costs of missing agreed global targets for lifting people out of extreme poverty, and an urgent plea for swift and dramatic changes in global aid, trade and security policies.    The 2005 Human Development Report, compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), cites a lack of funds and political will and shows that that while there has been substantial overall progress globally, many individual countries are actually falling further behind.    “I urge member states to heed this timely message, and to use next week’s Summit to launch us on a global effort to make this vision a reality,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan said of the study, which shows that 18 countries, with a total of 460 million people, have moved backwards on the Human Development Index (HDI), a compendium of key indicators such as income, life expectancy and education, since 1990.    The Report, delivered to world leaders today through the missions of the UN’s 191 member states in preparation for the 2005 World Summit, warns that there will be no chance under current trends of fulfilling the promises made at the UN summit five years ago with the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).    “The world has the knowledge, resources and technology to end extreme poverty, but time is running out,” UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis said of the MDGs, which include pledges to halve extreme poverty, reduce child deaths by two thirds and achieve universal primary education by 2015. Next week’s Summit will be assessing progress and recommending further action toward achieving the MDGs.    “The Millennium Declaration was a solemn pledge to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty,” the Report’s lead author and Director of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office Kevin Watkins said.    “The MDGs are a promissory note, written by 189 governments to the world’s poor people. That note falls due in less than 10 years time, and without the required investment and political will, it will come back stamped ‘insufficient funds.”    The stark figures cited include:    * Fifty countries with a combined population of almost 900 million are falling backwards on at least one of the Goals. Twenty-four of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.    * Another 65 countries with a combined population of 1.2 billion risk failing to meet at least one MDG until after 2040. In other words, they may miss the target by an entire generation.    * In 2015, on current trends, there would be 827 million people living in extreme poverty, 380 million more than if the internationally agreed target were reached. Another 1.7 billion people would be living on $2 a day.    * On current trends, the goal to reduce the deaths of children under five years of age would be met in 2045, not 2015 – 30 years late. Over the next decade, the cumulative human cost of missing the target would translate into 41 million more child deaths.    * In 2015, 47 million children would still be out of school, 19 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa.    * Instead of halving the ranks of the 1 billion people who lack access to fresh drinking water, on current trends the world in 2015 would still be 210 million people short of this goal. More than 2 billion would still lack proper sanitation in 2015, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.    The Report argues that extreme inequality is a brake on progress towards the MDGs and wider human development goals, spotlighting the scale of the international wealth divide. The poorest 40 per cent of the world’s population, 2.5 billion people, live on less than $2 a day, accounting for just five per cent of all global income.    It decries what it calls "perverse taxation," under which the world’s poorest countries face the highest tariffs in rich countries, and examines the impact on the poor of agricultural subsidies and protectionism in wealthy industrialized nations. Donor countries, it shows, spend $1 billion a year aiding agriculture in developing countries and $1 billion a day on domestic subsidies that undermine the world’s poorest farmers.    “This Human Development Report presents us with a clear warning. We know that the MDGs are attainable, but if we continue with business as usual, the promise of the Millennium Declaration will be broken,” Mr. Dervis said. “That would be a tragedy above all for the world’s poor, but rich countries would not be immune to the consequences of failure. In an interdependent world our shared prosperity and collective security depend critically on success in the war against poverty.”    7 September 2005    Life 'worse for world's poorest'. (BBC News)    Swift action is needed to end extreme poverty, the UN report says. Many of the world's poorest countries are doing worse in 2005 than they were 15 years ago, a major UN report says.    Drastic action is needed by the world's leaders if they are to keep their promises to end extreme poverty, the 2005 UN Human Development Report warns.    Its 177-nation ranking puts drought-hit Niger last for living standards, with 12 African nations among the bottom 18.    The report, a week before a major UN summit, calls for changes in aid, trade and security policy to halt the slide.    While some nations are making progress towards the Millennium Goals set five years ago, many of the poorest nations are falling further behind, it says.    The goals include pledges to halve extreme poverty, reduce child deaths by two-thirds and achieve universal primary education by 2015.    Time 'running out'    Kemal Dervis, a UN Development Programme (UNDP) administrator, warned that the world's governments had to act quickly if they wanted to meet those targets. "The world has the knowledge, resources and technology to end extreme poverty, but time is running out," he said.    UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the UNDP report was a "timely message" before the body's 191 members came together in New York.    Overall, the report shows that living standards are improving, with Vietnam's reduction of child deaths and Bangladesh's gains in education and life expectancy among the success stories. But unless the international community steps in, the poorest nations will continue on a downhill trend even as others progress, the UNDP warns.    The BBC's David Loyn says some progress has been made following new commitments by the G8 group of the world's richest countries.    However, this year is the last chance to put progress back on track if poverty is to be halved by 2015, our correspondent says.    More child deaths    The UNDP points out that the gap between the world's rich and poor is widening - and inequalities are increasing even within those poorer countries making progress. For example, the gap between child mortality rates for rich and poor in Ghana, Zambia and Uganda is growing, while in India, 50% more girls under five die than boys.    Failure to cut infant mortality by two-thirds could mean 41 million more child deaths by 2045, the date the target will be met on current trends, the report says.    The UNDP's analysis of key indicators such as life expectancy and income has found that 18 of the world's poorest countries - with a population of 460 million - are doing worse in most areas than they were in 1990.    Drought-stricken Niger comes bottom of the Human Development Index (HDI) table, a list topped by Norway.    The fact 12 of the 18 nations which have slid back are in sub-Saharan Africa is closely linked to the effects of HIV/Aids and conflict, the report says.    Life expectancy in Botswana has fallen 20 years since the 1970s to just 36, while South Africa has dropped 35 places in the HDI since 1990. Both declines are largely down to Aids.    'Disturbing trends'    The other six to have fallen back are former Soviet states in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, with Ukraine and Tajikistan among them. The main factors are falling life expectancy resulting from economic disruption.    Kevin Watkins, the report's chief author, said: "The index shows in clear, cold numbers that many countries are not only failing to progress, but are actually slipping backwards, and they will continue on that downhill path unless the international community steps in to help with more resources and new policies.    "The world leaders who are gathering here at the UN next week should take this data to heart, because they have the power to reverse these deeply disturbing trends."    Evidence that the risk of conflict can be linked to a country's low HDI ranking points to the urgent need for changes in global security policies, the UNDP says. "Violent conflict is one of the surest and fastest routes to the bottom of the HDI table, and a strong indicator for a protracted stay there," the report says.    Of the 32 countries at the bottom of the list, 22 have experienced conflict at some point since 1990 and five have gone down in the HDI ranking.    The report also highlights what it says is the need for rich countries to increase aid as a proportion of national income and deliver promised resources more quickly and efficiently.    Since 1990, income per capita in rich countries has increased by $6,070 in constant prices, while aid spending fell by $1 per capita, the report points out.    September 7, 2005    "Leaders have last chance to save poor-U.N. report", by Jeremy Lovell. (Washington Post)    World leaders have a last chance to fulfil promises to reduce poverty and boost health by 2015 or risk being damned by history for condemning millions of children to death, a U.N. report said on Wednesday.    The warning was issued a week before heads of state and government from 175 countries gather in New York to gauge progress on meeting the Millennium Development Goals in the face of attempts by the United States to declare them null and void.    "If this summit fails, there really is no way back," said Kevin Watkins, lead author of the U.N.'s Human Development Report.    World leaders agreed in 2000 on a series of goals to be reached by 2015, including halving the number of people living in extreme poverty, cutting deaths of children under five by two-thirds and achieving universal primary education.    "If this summit doesn't produce a strong commitment to strengthen cooperation around the Millennium Development Goals...then we may as well forget the project," Watkins said. "If that happens that would be an absolutely shocking indictment of the international community, and in particular of the key governments that failed to cooperate to deliver on the promises," he told a news conference to publish the 2005 report.    The annual report painted a dismal picture. Watkins said one child died from poverty every three seconds, 1.2 billion people were living on less than $1 a day and, at current rates of progress, 47 million children would not be in school by 2015.    The cumulative effect of failing to reach the target for cutting child deaths would mean 41 million extra and avoidable deaths over the next decade, the report said.    MOVING BACKWARDS    The U.N. report said 50 countries, with a combined population of 900 million, were actually moving backwards on at least one of the development goals.    "The U.N. summit provides a critical opportunity to adopt the bold action plans needed not just to get back on track for 2015 but to overcome the deep inequalities that divide humanity," the report said.    It said failure would not just result in condemnation of the world's leaders but also threatened world safety because poverty and inequality were the fuel of conflict.    Watkins said the leaders had to build on a pledge by the Group of Eight rich nations in July to boost aid and cut debts crushing the poorest countries, reform world trade that still shackled developing countries and prevent wars.    No single one or even combination of two of these pillars of world prosperity and security was adequate. All three had to be tackled in concert, Watkins said. "This really is a crossroads," he said.    The annual report, first published in 1990, ranked Norway as the country with the highest Human Development Index - unchanged from last year - and Niger in West Africa with the lowest. The United States was down two in 10th place.    The index, which rates countries according to a combination of wealth, health and education criteria, showed much of sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet Union spiralling downwards.    7 September 2005    Inequality 'key to poverty fight' (BBC News)    When rich country leaders talk of fighting poverty, the emphasis is often on improving economic growth in their poorer neighbours.    But according to a new report from the United Nations, that alone will fail to produce meaningful poverty reduction. Instead, it says, countries need to focus on reducing inequality - between rich and poor, between men and women and between regions. Rich states also need to give more aid and improve its quality, the UN says.    Going backwards    Each year, the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) releases its huge Human Development Report, designed around a list which rates countries not by economic power but by a series of indicators reflecting quality of life.    Since 2000, it has also covered progress towards the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include halving poverty, cutting child mortality and providing clean water and sanitation.    This year's report shows that for 450m people, conditions have deteriorated over the past fifteen years. Of the 18 countries in that category, 12 are in sub-Saharan Africa, their plight the result partly of the HIV/Aids pandemic.    Unequal development    Inequality is a key factor in whether the MDGs are being achieved, the report says.    On one level, international inequalities play a part, with the poorest 40% of the world's population sharing only 5% of global income.    But the report's author, Kevin Watkins, says that inequalities within countries are just as big a problem. "Anybody questioning whether income distribution matters might reflect on the fact that the poorest 10% of Brazilians are poorer than their counterparts in Vietnam, a country with a far lower average income," he says. Brazil is ranked 63 on the Human Development Index, while Vietnam is number 103.    The report also points to success in Bangladesh at reducing infant mortality - well ahead of similar efforts in high-growth countries such as China and India.    And females are often getting a worse deal than males, it says, limiting the positive effects of economic development. In India, for example, half again as many girls die between the ages of one and five as do boys.    Responsiblities for the rich    Elsewhere, the report says that poorer countries need to work harder on issues such as corruption - and richer countries have to strengthen their commitment to keep their end of the development bargain. Aid needs to be better targeted, more predictable, with fewer strings and better co-ordination between donors.    And trade and security are also key issues, with the current trade round needing to live up to its development rhetoric - instead of, as at present, seeing agricultural subsidies actually increase.    Peace-making and peace-building efforts also need to be a higher priority, the UNDP says, noting that poorer countries are much more likely to descend into civil war than richer ones. "What is clear is that poverty is part of the cycle that creates and perpetuates violent conflict - and that violent conflict feeds back to reinforce poverty," the report says.    There is a direct incentive for rich countries to help break the cycle: the risk of creating safe havens for terrorist and criminal groups. To do so, the UNDP argues, rich countries need to cut back on flows of small arms and give more aid to conflict-prone countries - countering a tendency to concentrate aid on "success stories".    Resource wars    But they also need to get tough on natural resource mismanagement, the UNDP argues. The call follows a string of UN reports into the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a desire to capture mineral and other resources among neighbouring countries and their client militias has perpetuated civil strife which has killed more than 3 million people.    Transnational companies based in rich countries need to be more transparent in their dealings, the UNDP says. "The international legal framework proposed by the British government-sponsored Commission on Africa to ensure that corrupt pracitices by transnational companies overseas are prosecuted at home - as already practised under US law - should be developed as a priority," it says. Visit the related web page
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