POVERTY ERADICATION NOT ONLY POLITICAL PRIORITY, BUT "SACRED DUTY" SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MESSAGE ON INTERNATIONAL DAY

Press Release
SG/SM/7163
OBV/112

POVERTY ERADICATION NOT ONLY POLITICAL PRIORITY, BUT ‘SACRED DUTY’ SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MESSAGE ON INTERNATIONAL DAY

Following is the message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, to be observed on 17 October:

In the past century, there have been all too many opportunities to reflect on the problem of poverty and the profound inequities it represents, both nationally and internationally. How many times have we proclaimed our desire to put an end to poverty? How many times have we said that it was incompatible with human dignity?

But billions of people are still trying to survive on less than three dollars a day, with no drinking water, health care, or access to education, still denied the jobs that would help them escape their impoverished state, and thus, still deprived of some of their most basic rights.

All this does not mean that poverty eradication is an unattainable goal. Some progress has been made -- malnutrition has receded, as has the infant mortality rate, and the proportion of children in school has risen considerably. These indicators of social development mean that a real improvement has taken place in the daily lives of millions of impoverished people. Hunger, sickness and ignorance are not inevitable.

For the most part, we know how to combat them. We even know approximately how much in the way of additional resources it would take each year to meet the basic needs of all human beings: the same amount as Europeans spend each year on cigarettes.

We have taken a step forward by setting out a clear plan for the coming century. The great conferences of the 1990s gave us the guidelines we must follow to ensure sustainable development for all the world's peoples. Practically all governments have set targets and time limits. The United Nations recently launched a worldwide campaign to halve the number of people living in absolute poverty by 2015. The private sector is also becoming increasingly involved.

- 2 - Press Release SG/SM 7163 OBV/112 8 October 1999

But actions speak louder than words. We must see poverty eradication not only as a political priority, but as a sacred duty. What is at stake is the dignity of all human beings: those for whom poverty is their daily lot, but also, and especially, those who have the means to help them to escape it. Together we must prove, by our actions, that we intend to wage war on poverty without respite.

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