SOME ENJOY UNIMAGINED WEALTH, OTHERS STILL ENDURE INTOLERABLE DEPRIVATION, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL, OBSERVING DAY FOR POVERTY ERADICATION
Press Release
SG/SM/6360
OBV/14
SOME ENJOY UNIMAGINED WEALTH, OTHERS STILL ENDURE INTOLERABLE DEPRIVATION, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL, OBSERVING DAY FOR POVERTY ERADICATION
19971015 Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's message on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, observed on 17 October 1997.Some individuals today are enjoying wealth on a scale previously unimagined. Yet, victims of poverty still endure intolerable forms of deprivation. They continue to be marginalized and excluded. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty reminds us of the road we have yet to travel and the battles we have yet to win.
Overall, the relative incidence of poverty has declined somewhat. Yet, the number of the world's poor has risen considerably. Almost one quarter of the world's population still lives in a state of poverty. The statistics are evidence of the magnitude of the task ahead:
-- The number of people with incomes of less than $1 a day increased by almost 100 million between 1987 and 1993;
-- About 1.3 billion people, a third of the developing world's population, live on less than $1 a day;
-- In industrial countries, many of which suffer high unemployment and eroding social protection, more than 100 million people live below the poverty line and 37 million are jobless;
-- Some 160 million children are moderately or severely malnourished and about 110 million do not attend school;
-- Pensions and social security now protect many people from poverty in their last years, but poverty in old age remains the most common experience around the world.
Poverty has always been a prime concern in the work of the United Nations. In recent years, the fight against poverty has been the subject of heightened attention. The eradication of poverty has also been the common thread of major United Nations conferences of the 1990s, especially the World Summit for Social Development.
- 2 - Press Release SG/SM/6360 OBV/14 15 October 1997
It is within this context that the General Assembly in 1995 proclaimed the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006), with the theme "Eradicating poverty is an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of humankind".
Eradication of poverty requires enhanced economic growth and employment opportunities. The causes of poverty should also be addressed in the context of sectoral strategies, such as the environment, food security, population, migration, health, shelter, human resources development, fresh water -- including clean water and sanitation -- and rural development.
There is no shortage of strategies and plans, analyses and statistics, approaches and measures. What we need is a renewed determination and willingness to bring all actors together in one unstinting effort.
On this day, dedicated to the eradication of poverty, I appeal to the haves of the world to recognize the needs of the have-nots. Let us continue to work together more closely and at all levels of the United Nations to spearhead the war against poverty.
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