SECRETARY-GENERAL LAUNCHES INTERNATIONAL YEAR FOR POVERTY ERADICATION WITH CALL FOR STRATEGIES, TARGET DATES FOR ACHIEVING GOAL
Press Release
SOC/4388
SECRETARY-GENERAL LAUNCHES INTERNATIONAL YEAR FOR POVERTY ERADICATION WITH CALL FOR STRATEGIES, TARGET DATES FOR ACHIEVING GOAL
19951218 Assembly President Says International Community Must Understand Need and Possibility to Reduce Poverty, Eliminate Its MiserySecretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali this morning launched the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty (1996) with an appeal to governments to formulate strategies and announce target dates for the realization of the Year's goal.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the occasion, he said well-articulated national strategies and a better coordinated United Nations system support would help energize the formulation and implementation of anti-poverty programmes. However, more resources were needed for anti-poverty programmes to have a real impact.
Persistent poverty was not only incompatible with social harmony and a durable political order, it was morally wrong, he said. It was a major cause of violent crime, ethnic clashes and social disarray. Action to secure global peace, security and stability would be futile unless economic and social needs were addressed.
The President of the General Assembly, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, (Portugal) said that one of the most important objectives of the Year was to make the international community understand that it was necessary and possible to reduce poverty and eliminate its misery. The struggle against poverty should also be directed at those in economically affluent nations who were marginalized and excluded. There was a continuum between the reduction of poverty in the world's poor and rich regions.
The International Year for the Eradication of Poverty (1996) was proclaimed by the General Assembly in resolution 48/183 of 21 December 1993, by which it decided that major activities for the observance of the Year should be undertaken at the local, national and international levels. On 12 December, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved a draft
resolution by which the General Assembly would proclaim the period 1997-2006 as the first International Decade for the Eradication of Poverty.
The Assembly would also decide that the Year's activities should support a longer-term, sustained effort to implement fully and effectively the commitments and recommendations agreed upon at major United Nations development-related conferences.
A logo, designed by Jose Castineira of the United Nations Design Section and adopted for the Year, was presented to the Secretary-General by the Assistant Secretary-General for the Department of Public Information, Samir Sanbar. The logo suggests a linkage between ending poverty, empowering people and reinforcing peace in the world.
Statements
DIOGO FREITAS DO AMARAL (Portugal), President of the General Assembly, said the ceremony demonstrated the international community's determination to struggle against poverty by every means necessary. One of the most important objectives of the Year was to make the international community understand that it was necessary and possible to reduce poverty and eliminate its misery.
The struggle against poverty was a universal task, he continued. It should be directed first at those regions and nations where poverty was widespread, where it was the common condition. There, the provision of an economic base, the growth of production and the creation of infrastructure and institutions was imperative, requiring a very strong solidarity among all nations and a just international economic system. The struggle must also be directed at individuals and groups in economically affluent countries who found themselves marginalized, excluded and in increasing misery. There was a continuum between the reduction of poverty in the world's rich and poor regions. Compassion, justice and solidarity ought to be universal as should charity and generosity.
The struggle against poverty did not just involve governments and international organizations, but private institutions through which citizens expressed their commitment to the common good and their sense of responsibility, he said. Religious institutions had a critical role to play both in terms of the principles and values which shape individuals, including those in power, and in terms of practical action. The struggle should have a prominent place in the General Assembly's agenda, one of whose tasks, as stated in article 13 of the Charter, was to "initiate studies and make recommendations" for the purpose of "promoting international cooperation in the economic, social and cultural, educational and health fields". He was confident that in 1996, and in future, all United Nations organs and organizations would play their part in the eradication of poverty.
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Secretary-General BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI said more than 1.3 billion people were struggling to survive on less than a dollar a day, whereas five years ago the number was 300 million fewer. Persistent poverty was incompatible with social harmony and a durable political order and was morally wrong, he said. It was a major cause of violent crime, ethnic clashes and social disarray. Action to secure global peace, security and stability would be futile unless economic and social needs were addressed. Poverty denied the growth of democracy. An economy in which absolute poverty persisted was an inefficient one.
Specific policies were needed, he said, including increased access by the poor to productive resources and wider opportunities to use their skills. Policies should not underestimate the willingness, or the capacity, of the poor to work for their own advancement nor assume they had to be provided with pre-packaged schemes. Policies should encourage localized community-based initiatives; supplement income-generating measures and skill enhancement with action to reduce discrimination, exclusion and marginalization; and focus on the "feminization of poverty".
Contrary to popular perception, he said, 80 per cent of the United Nations budget was invested in activities related directly to long-term improvement in peoples' lives. The commitments of the Copenhagen World Summit on Social Development spoke of the "eradication" of poverty and required countries to indicate a target date. Conferences from the Children's Summit in 1990 to the Fourth World Conference on Women drew a link between their own central themes and the pervasive issue of poverty.
He said individual national strategies should reflect national conditions and priorities and the Year provided a useful opportunity for further advances. In 1996, every country should formulate a strategy for the eradication of absolute poverty as envisaged in the Copenhagen Declaration or announce a target date for their strategy's realization.
Well-articulated national strategies, and a better coordinated United Nations support for such strategies, would help energize anti-poverty programmes, he said. However, more national and international resources were needed. Governments would have to give priority to income- and employment- generation programmes targeted at the poor, and resources would have to be deployed from arms expenditures and subsidies which benefitted mainly the well-to-do. The case for increased international assistance would be strengthened if governments made real efforts to mobilize domestic resources. However, the prospect for more international assistance was bleak. The formulation of national anti-poverty strategies should be considered in aid coordination forums, including consultative groups and round tables. If the donor community responded generously in every specific case, the global
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campaign for poverty eradication could help to reverse the decline in concessional assistance.
The campaign for poverty eradication concerned all sectors of society, he said. Leaders of world commerce and industry, professional organizations and associations of labour, the media, the educational community, and men and women of goodwill, had their own responsibility to work in support of the common objective.
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