UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL LAUDS EFFECTIVENESS OF MICROCREDIT AS SECOND COMMITTEE TAKES UP IMPLEMENTATION OF DECADE FOR ERADICATION OF POVERTY

Fifty-eighth General Assembly

Second Committee

6^th & 7^th Meetings (AM & PM)

UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL LAUDS EFFECTIVENESS OF MICROCREDIT AS SECOND COMMITTEE

TAKES UP IMPLEMENTATION OF DECADE FOR ERADICATION OF POVERTY

Millions, Particularly Women, Lifted out of Extreme Poverty, Delegates Told

Microcredit was proving an effective tool for lifting millions of the world’s poor, particularly women, out of extreme poverty, Anwarul Chowdhury, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this morning as it took up its agenda item on implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006).

Introducing the report on the draft programme of action for the International Year of Microcredit, 2005, he said the advent of savings and lending services to small and micro-businesses, the self-employed and women had enabled those previously underserved groups to take control of their lives and finances.  By 2001, 26.8 million people, including 21 million women, had become borrowers, more than triple the number in 1997, according to a recent report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 

Similarly, the representative of Bangladesh said that his country’s microcredit programmes attacked poverty at its source by increasing participants’ household consumption expenditures.  Through microcredit borrowing, 5 per cent of programme participants were breaking free of poverty’s shackles every year.  The 1997 Microcredit Summit in Washington, D.C., had brought lending services to low-income communities throughout the developing world.  As of December 2001, a total of 2,186 microcredit institutions had serviced 54.9 million clients, of whom 26.8 million were first-time borrowers.

Mali’s representative agreed that small-business lending was essential for socio-economic development.  The Malian Government’s strategies to reduce poverty from more than 60 per cent at present to 47.5 per cent in 2006, included the creation of a national solidarity fund and a national solidarity bank that offered soft loans to the poorest of the poor.

Brazil’s representative reported similar success in empowering the poor in her country.  The International Year of Microcredit would provide an opportunity for countries to raise awareness and share experiences in that regard, thus contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Switzerland’s representative, however, said large-scale and sustainable microfinance could be achieved only if financial services for the poor were integrated into the overall financial system.  An estimated 400 to 500 million low-income households lacked access to sustainable financial services.  Expanding the reach of microfinance was vital for social and economic development and would open up access and markets to poor and geographically remote clients.  Such clients should be serviced not only by non-governmental microfinance institutions, but also by savings and credit cooperatives, community finance institutions, commercial banks, insurance companies and others.

Other speakers stressed that global instability and economic recession had hindered poverty eradication and sustainable development in the developing world, as had limited market access, heavy external debt burdens, antiquated technologies and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  Further national efforts were needed to meet development goals, they emphasized, but strong and resolute international support was also vital.

Several delegates said that trade, the single most important external source of financing for development, could boost economic growth, create jobs and reduce poverty in developing nations.  Others pinpointed unemployment -- brought on by low economic growth, the productivity gap between developed and developing countries, commercial protectionism and decreased external financing -- as the main cause of poverty. 

Also during the meeting, a report was introduced on the establishment of the World Solidarity Fund.

The Committee earlier concluded its general debate.

Other speakers today were the representatives of Cameroon, Syria, Morocco (on behalf of the Group of 77 and China), Italy (on behalf of the European Union), Pakistan, China, Venezuela, Peru (on behalf of the Rio Group), Yemen, Kenya, Guyana, Tunisia, India, Libya, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Viet Nam, Lebanon, Congo, Malaysia, Israel and Ethiopia.

The representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia spoke in exercise of the right of reply.

Representatives of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) also made statements.

The Second Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. tomorrow, Friday 10 October, for a panel discussion on corporate responsibility.

Background

The Second Committee met this morning to conclude its general debate and to begin considering the implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty.

Before the Committee was a report of the Secretary-General on the Implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006) and draft programme of action for the International Year of Microcredit, 2005 (document A/58/179).

The report notes that extreme poverty declined globally during the 1990s, but results were mixed at regional and national levels.  While East Asia and the Pacific as well as South Asia have fared well, many countries in the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are unlikely to meet the development target of halving the number of people living on less than one dollar a day by 2015.

In reviewing progress on implementing the Millennium Development Goals, the report underscores the importance of women’s empowerment and gender equality, safe drinking water and preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS.  Gender disparity in the labour market failed to improve markedly over the past decade, with women accounting for 36 per cent of the non-agricultural work force in 2000.  One billion people have gained access to safe drinking water over the past decade, with the greatest gains in South-central Asia, although no progress has been seen in the least developed countries.  As for HIV/AIDS, efforts to stop the spread of the pandemic met with limited success by the end of 2002, with an estimated

42 million people still living with the virus.

The report highlights the importance of democratic governance in social and economic development, noting that a significant number of developing and transition economies have developed participatory decision-making processes as well as greater accountability and transparency in public administration.  The promotion, adoption and implementation of poverty-eradication strategies, particularly the creation of national Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), have progressed well on several fronts, and there was a modest rise in official development assistance (ODA), from $52.3 billion in 2001 to $57 billion in 2002.

Regarding the International Year of Microcredit, 2005, the report notes the role of microcredit in poverty eradication and development, and calls for the strengthening of microcredit and microfinance institutions to make credit and related services for self-employment and income-generation available to more people.  Major United Nations conferences and summits have emphasized the positive effect of microcredit on the poor, the report states, observing that it leads to increased household income, asset-building and safeguards against economic and other crises.

The report says that the number of poor people benefiting from microcredit programmes grew from 7.6 million in 1997 to 26.8 million by the end of

2001, helping to empower women and rural communities in particular, and leading to improvements in health, nutrition, education and school enrolment.  The International Year of Microcredit provides a significant opportunity to raise awareness of microcredit’s merits, share good practices and enhance pro-poor financial programmes worldwide.

Also before the Committee was a note by the Secretary-General on Establishment of the World Solidarity Fund (document A/58/72-E/2003/53) transmitting a report by the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on that subject.

The report explains that the Fund, created in February as a UNDP trust fund, will support funding requests from governments of developing countries for poverty-alleviation projects, including initiatives of community-based organizations and small private-sector entities.  It recommends that the Economic and Social Council encourage contributions from the private sector and citizens to pay for such projects.  A high-level committee of people with practical experience in business, development and government is expected to present recommendations for the Fund’s strategy by November.

Also before the Committee was a letter dated 14 July 2003 from the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General (document A/58/204).

As the Committee concluded its general debate, FELIX MBAYU (Cameroon) noted that many of the commitments made at the Millennium Summit, as well as at Monterrey and Johannesburg, had still not been met.  As such, the work of the Second Committee became particularly important in making the often-cited political will more meaningful.  The watchword must be making development happen by strengthening measures to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  The Doha development agenda must be transformed into reality by eliminating agricultural subsidies and other barriers to trade.  Also, the international community must work to make the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) happen and pursue other initiatives to meet the urgent needs of developing countries.

To meet such goals, he said, the Second Committee must also become more efficient and effective by streamlining its agenda, using biennial programming, and coordinating with other Committees dealing with similar items, including through the holding of joint meetings and panels.

HUSSEIN SABBAGH (Syria) said that global instability and economic recession, coupled with developing countries’ limited market access and heavy external debt burdens in the last few years, had made it difficult for the developing world to achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication as called for in the Millennium Development Goals.  Moreover, those countries often grappled with antiquated technologies, further impeding their ability to strengthen their economies and compete with the technologically advanced nations of the North.

Syria attached great importance to the 2005 high-level review on global development commitments and assessment of follow-up to Monterrey, Johannesburg and Doha, he said.  It also viewed the fight against desertification and environmental degradation as a priority, and supported the proposal to declare 2005 the International Year to Combat Desertification.

The Committee then took up its agenda item on implementation of the first Decade for the Eradication of Poverty.

Introduction of Reports

DONALD LEE, Division for Social Policy and Development, introduced the report on implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006) and draft programme of action for the International Year of Microcredit, 2005 (document A/58/179).  He said evidence strongly suggested that the goal of halving the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day was likely, but there was still uneven progress at the regional level.  The report highlighted the urgent need to mobilize domestic and external resources to help many developing countries to achieve poverty reduction goals, he added.

Turning to the Year of Microcredit, he said that for the Year to be successful, the collaboration of States, United Nations bodies, civil society and other actors was essential.  National initiatives, including multistakeholder national committees or similar mechanisms were particularly important.

He then introduced the Secretary-General’s note on establishment of the World Solidarity Fund, which discusses steps taken to operationalize the Fund.

ANWARUL CHOWDHURY, Under-Secretary General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, said microcredit programmes were important because they effectively provided savings and financial services for the poor, including small businesses and the self-employed, particularly women.

Recalling that the nine-year poverty-eradication campaign, with the aptly stated motto “Microcredit is foreign aid that works”, had been launched during the 1997 Microcredit Summit in Washington, D.C., he said it aimed to bring credit services to 100 million poor people by 2005.  Credit access had enabled them to control assets, make economic decisions and take control of their lives.

Such efforts were already bearing fruit, he said.  According to UNDP’s 2003 Human Development Report, 26.8 million people, including 21 million women, had access to microcredit in 2001, more than triple the number in 1997.  A good example of women’s empowerment through microcredit was the Grameen Bank programme in Bangladesh, which, through more than 1,000 rural branches, had brought credit services to women in more than half the country’s villages.  He urged donor nations to provide adequate funding to the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the World Solidarity Fund, both essential tools for poverty eradication and sustainable development in the least developed countries.

Statements

HASSAN ABOUTAHIR (Morocco), speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, noted that the number of people living in extreme poverty should decrease in all regions of the world except Africa, where an expected population increase would hinder efforts to control the spread of poverty and to attain sustainable development.  Moreover, HIV/AIDS continued to have a devastating effect on human development, economic growth and poverty-reduction efforts in many countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

He stressed that further efforts were needed at the national level if poverty was to be reduced and eradicated.  It was also true, however, that the efforts of developing countries could not achieve development goals and the eradication of poverty without strong and resolute international support.  Achieving sustainable development and eradicating hunger depended on several factors, including reinforcement of financing for development through debt relief, increased ODA, and greater market access for the exports of developing countries.

He said that the continuing debt and debt-servicing problems of heavily indebted poor developing countries and low-income developing countries remained an element that adversely affected their efforts to attain sustainable development and harmed their social programmes and national poverty-eradication strategies.

ANTONIO BERNARDINI (Italy), speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the international community must remember both the rural and urban poor.  At least  1 billion people in both rural and urban environments lacked access to clean water and adequate sanitation.  The European Union was keen on examining the relationship linking water, sanitation and human settlements during the upcoming twelfth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development.

The European Union was also strongly committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment, he continued, stressing that a gender perspective must be integrated into all national and international development strategies and policies, as well as all United Nations activities. 

Economic growth was not always synonymous with poverty reduction, he said.  Experience showed that poverty eradication required pro-poor policies, as well as good governance and conflict prevention.  National poverty-reduction strategies were imperative, as was international support to complement national efforts.  The European Union, a leading donor of development assistance and the largest investor in developing countries, played a major role in responding to those challenges.

MUHAMMAD HASSAN (Pakistan), calling for urgent action on several fronts to eradicate poverty and meet development goals, said that in a world where the North controlled more than 80 per cent of resources and 95 per cent of international liquidity and investment, developing countries alone could not break the shackles of poverty.  Only a comprehensive and integrated approach, based on shared responsibilities, could achieve that goal.  Developing countries should continue to improve their governance and policies, while development partners must act quickly in meeting their commitments to increase resources to developing countries through enhanced market access and increased ODA.

Debt relief was another means of promoting development, he continued.  The deadly combination of extreme poverty and indebtedness had plunged many low-income countries into a desperate downward spiral.  Governments had no chance of meeting the social needs of their people when they were forced to spend more than half their budgets on debt servicing.  Trade could also boost economic growth, generate employment and reduce poverty in developing countries.  It was also the single most important external source of financing for development.  Every extra dollar of exports from a developing country fed a poor family and built a better future for them, he added 

ZHANG YISHAN (China) urged the international community to take all necessary measures to create a favourable international economic environment for developing countries, so that they could eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development.  It should also expedite implementation of the outcomes of the International Conference on Financing for Development and make greater efforts to provide ODA, foreign direct investment (FDI), and debt relief to the developing world.

Donor countries and international aid agencies should grant recipient nations’ ownership of socio-economic development programmes, he said.  Developing nations must do their part by setting realistic goals for poverty alleviation and development.  For China, the world’s most populous nation, poverty eradication was a long-term arduous task.  While many Chinese were enjoying economic stability, rapid growth and markedly improved living standards, development across regions was uneven.  The Government was focusing on bringing much-needed food and clothing to rural populations that continued to go without such basic needs. 

       MARIA LUIZA RIBEIRO VIOTTI (Brazil) said the undeniable links between trade and development had been recognized at Doha, Monterrey and Johannesburg.  Greater trade opportunities for developing countries could be instrumental in generating income, employment and development.  Market access for the products of developing countries, the phasing out of agricultural subsidies and the elimination of other trade-distorting measures were vital to making trade a true engine for development and poverty eradication.  Despite the lack of concrete results at Cancún, Brazil remained fully committed to the strengthening of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and to a constructive engagement in the upcoming multilateral trade talks.

Noting that the General Assembly had proclaimed 2005 the International Year of Microcredit, she said that was a direct result of the role of microcredit in the eradication of poverty as well as its positive impact on people’s lives.  Microcredit had been an effective anti-poverty tool and had successfully contributed to lifting people out of poverty and empowering the poor in Brazil, as in other parts of the world.  The Year would provide an opportunity to raise awareness and share experiences in that area, thus contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

MILOS ALCALAY (Venezuela) said the international community must work harder to eliminate the current economic, trade and financial barriers imposed by international financial and commercial institutions to enable the economies of developing countries to grow.  Such structural reform would precede improvements in health, education, food and nutrition, employment, social security, water and sanitation services.  In that regard, Venezuela had hosted the Organization of American States High-level Meeting on Poverty, Equality and Social Inclusion on 8 October to hammer out more effective policies to reduce poverty and eliminate extreme poverty.

He said Venezuela had instituted a pilot programme for the development of rural and semi-urban communities, creating 111,611 homes and 453,398 jobs for the benefit of 652,507 people.  The programme also provided medical care access to 17.6 million people, literacy training to 1 million illiterate people and land titles to 2,490 homeowners.  All of those reforms would improve the quality of life for Venezuelans and in the long term make the country’s economy more dynamic, diverse and competitive.

JOSE ANTONIO DOIG (Peru), speaking on behalf of the Rio Group, said the number of Latin Americans who had been living in poverty last year had reached 220 million, of whom 95 million were indigenous people.  Of particular concern was the fact that the process of overcoming poverty in the region had stagnated over the past five years, with rates of poverty and indigence remaining the same since 1997.  More than 60 per cent of the Latin American and Caribbean population lived below the poverty line and agricultural and rural activities were still the main sources of employment for many people.  Support from the international community was vital in overcoming poverty in the region.

One of the greatest challenges facing the Rio Group was constant and increasing unemployment, he said.  It was the main cause of poverty and resulted from low or non-existent economic growth, the productivity gap between developed and developing countries, commercial protectionism and decreased external financing.  To distribute the benefits of globalization in an equitable manner, technical and financial assistance to developing countries must be improved.  Access to credit and savings mechanisms was also vital, but those alone could not ensure sustainable development for the poor, who also needed access to markets and technology, technical training and reasonable prices for their goods.

KHONDKER TALHA (Bangladesh) noted that more than halfway into the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, 1.2 billion people worldwide still languished in extreme poverty.  As the Secretary-General’s report pointed out, that number would for the most part be the same in 2015, at about 1 billion, if current ODA levels did not rise.  Welcoming the creation of the World Solidarity Fund, he warned that its resources should complement, not replace, others meant for pro-poor sustainable development.

Bangladesh attached great importance to microcredit as a tool for poverty eradication, particularly for women, improving health and sanitary conditions and education, he said.  The country’s microcredit programmes attacked poverty at its source by increasing participants’ household consumption expenditures.  Through microcredit borrowing, 5 per cent of programme participants could lift their families out of poverty every year.  Thanks to the 1997 Microcredit Summit in Washington, D.C., borrowing services had been brought to many more poor people throughout the developing world.  As of December 2001, a total of 2,186

microcredit institutions had serviced 54.9 million clients, of whom 26.8 million were first-time borrowers.

AHMED AL-HADDAD (Yemen) said little progress had been made in eradicating world poverty, despite efforts to implement various international commitments, including the Millennium Development Goals.  Low rates of development would prevent the poorest countries from attaining the goal of halving poverty by 2015.  In eradicating poverty, a holistic approach was needed that incorporated sustainable development.  Therefore, the international community must implement the plan of action of the Millennium Summit and prioritize such areas as education, healthcare, housing and rural development.

Stressing the real risk of seeing human society divided between rich and poor, he said it was increasingly necessary that the international community take agreed measures at all levels to help developing countries attain their goals in sustainable development and poverty eradication.  As one of the less developed countries, Yemen was working to provide all with a decent life free of want or need.  It had carried out statistical studies on household revenues throughout the country, and integrated a strategy for eradicating poverty into its five-year plan.

AMINA MOHAMED (Kenya), noting that progress in achieving the Millennium goals had not been uniform, said sub-Saharan Africa had lagged behind other regions.  By 2015, the number of sub-Saharan Africans living on less than a dollar a day would rise to more than 400 million.  At the national level, the task of fighting poverty was equally daunting.  Kenya’s poor comprised more than half the national population and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which had been declared a national disaster, had killed much of Kenya’s best human capital, negatively impacting the economy.

In June, she said, Kenyan officials had launched a five-year economic recovery strategy for wealth and job creation.  They had also created a cabinet committee to coordinate efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.  However, external assistance and international cooperation were still necessary for Kenya to conquer poverty’s ill-effects.  The country needed greater and more affordable access to antiretroviral drugs, she said, expressing the hope that the decision to implement paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and Public Health would enable developing nations to import generic drugs to fight HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases.

GEORGE TALBOT (Guyana) said his country’s poverty reduction strategy envisaged halving its current level of poverty by the year 2015, paying particular attention to senior citizens, women, children and the rural poor.  Although international assistance had been forthcoming, efforts to combat poverty had largely been constrained by the international economic environment.  As a heavily indebted country, Guyana had been able to secure some assistance towards reducing it debt-servicing burden, but resources were insufficient to meet needs in the social sector, particularly education, health and housing.

At a global level, he said, worsening terms of international trade, the failure of some countries to meet their ODA commitments, and the slow pace of implementing the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative had translated into insufficient and unstable financing for development.  Sustained support was also needed for national efforts to maximize the private sector’s contribution to development, job creation and poverty eradication.  Microcredit was an important instrument in fighting poverty, since it promoted production and self-employment and empowered people living in poverty, especially women.

JENO STAEHELIN (Switzerland) noted that the number of low-income households without access to sustainable financial services was estimated to range from 400 to 500 million.  Expanding the reach of microfinance and developing a sustainable basis of effective services was vital for social and economic development.  Much would depend on the provision of sustainable access to a variety of convenient financial services provided by different types of institutions.  Financial services providers should include not only non-governmental microfinance institutions, but also savings and credit cooperatives, community finance institutions, commercial banks, insurance companies and others.

Large-scale and sustainable microfinace could be achieved only if financial services for the poor were integrated into the overall financial system, he continued.  Microfinance, or financial services for the poor, would become the lower end of the entire financial sector, opening up access and markets to increasingly poor and geographically remote clients.  Demand-driven financial products, including microfinance, were the supporting pillars of a financial sector committed to winning the public’s confidence, improving the low level of savings mobilization and ensuring the widest possible access to financial services.

ISSOUF MAIGA (Mali) said his country was making a concerted effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals and that last year, the Government had adopted a strategic poverty-eradication framework for microeconomic and macroeconomic growth to raise living standards, create jobs and improve basic services in education, health, housing and vocational training.  The framework called for the creation of a modern, effective public administration, a strengthened legislative and institutional framework, democratic institutions and decentralized government.  Those steps aimed to cut the poverty rate from the present 63.8 per cent to 47.5 per cent, grow the economy 6.7 per cent annually, curb inflation to 3 per cent annually and reduce the balance of payments deficit to less than 9 per cent all by 2006.

He said Government officials had also launched several campaigns to improve the lives of ordinary citizens, including by naming decades to promote education, public health, development, justice, women’s empowerment, protection of children, environmental protection and youth employment.  Moreover, the Government had created a national solidarity fund and a national solidarity bank that offered soft loans to the poorest of the poor.

Rights of Reply

The representative of Azerbaijan then spoke in exercise of the right of reply in response to the statement by Armenia’s delegate during yesterday’s general debate.

She said her country had not erected an economic blockade against Armenia, which had borders not only with Azerbaijan, but with three other countries with which it was not in conflict.  As a result of Armenia’s aggression, an entire area of Azerbaijan had been cut off from the main part of the country.  If Armenia had cooperated during peace negotiations, peace could probably have been achieved by now.  However, it was in Armenia’s interest to stall and complain that it was under blockade.

The representative of Armenia said the long-lasting blockade of his country had been well-documented by international organizations and observers.  The so-called aggression that Azerbaijan had referred to was the self-defence of Armenians against the Azerbaijani army.  Armenia had expressed many times its willingness to open the borders of the Nakhichevan region, but Azerbaijan had always linked that with the question of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The representative of Azerbaijan responded by saying that during the general debate, which was intended to work out how to streamline the Committee’s programme of work, the Armenian delegation had failed to clarify the specific names of the two neighbouring landlocked countries on which it laid the blame for regional problems.

Armenia’s representative reiterated that the economic blockade imposed on his country was obvious.  Regarding the reference to aggression, he said it was not aggression but an act of self-defence to protect families against armed soldiers.  He suggested that better interaction among all countries in the region could reduce tensions and create a more favourable climate for regional cooperation.

MOHAMED FADHEL AYARI (Tunisia) said the wide social split between rich and poor countries had created huge inequalities.  There was an urgent need in developing countries for assistance in such areas as healthcare human resources, water systems in rural areas and food security.  Progress in implementing the International Decade for the Eradication of Poverty was lacking and external assistance was still needed to achieve developmental commitments.

Given the growing number of poor people, he continued, it was vital to translate international commitments made at conferences and summits into concrete action, especially with respect to ODA.  It was also urgent to increase FDI, find solutions to the problems of market access and agricultural subsidies, promote good governance at the international level and reform the international financial architecture.

ANA MARIA HERMOSO, speaking on behalf of the representative of the International Labour Organization (ILO) to the United Nations and Director of the ILO Office in New York, said that poverty reduction, social inclusion and social justice were central to the ILO’s mandate.  Its Decent Work Agenda comprised employment, respect for fundamental principles and rights at work, social protection to improve workplace safety and health, and social dialogue.

The ILO’s support for employment-intensive investment programmes was part of overall efforts to show employment’s merits in poverty reduction, she said.  Such programmes, which had had positive results in Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, Guinea, Mozambique, Madagascar and Nicaragua, focused on training and capacity-building to promote local private-sector development, transparent contracting and payment systems, creation of credit facilities for small- and medium-sized enterprises, microfinancing and capacity-building for the informal sector. Moreover, the ILO was working closely with the African Union and other development partners to make a success of the 2004 Extraordinary Summit on Employment and Poverty Alleviation, to be held in Burkina Faso.

A. GOPINATHAN (India) said the 2004 World Development Report indicated that poor people still lacked access to basic, quality services in health, education, water, sanitation and electricity, and that projected per capita gross domestic product (GDP) would enable only five of the world’s six developing regions to reduce poverty.  Africa would miss the target by more than 10 percentage points, and the number of Africans living on less than one dollar a day would rise, not fall.

Global poverty eradication was a formidable challenge and could not be achieved through national efforts alone, he stressed.  Recent World Bank studies revealed that an additional annual $50 billion in ODA was needed.  India was tackling domestic poverty-reduction challenges through job creation and development of basic services for the poorest of the poor.  Thanks to those efforts, the country’s poverty ratio had dropped from 38.9 per cent in 1987 to 26.2 per cent in 2000.  Officials aimed to slash poverty an additional 5 per cent by 2007 and 15 per cent by 2012.

JABER ALI RAMADAN (Libya) said that the desperate poverty in some countries could only be reversed by achieving sustainable socio-economic development.  The international community and donor States should support developing countries, especially in Africa, by increasing ODA and reducing the debt burden.  They should also fulfil obligations taken on at international conferences and summits and support the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).  For their part, developing countries should develop the necessary national policies, combat practices that negatively affected development and attract investment.

NINH THI BINH (Viet Nam) said poverty eradication was high on the development agenda and the international community had much to do in order to meet the millennium target of halving by 2015 the number of people surviving on less than one dollar a day.  All donor countries needed to earmark the prescribed

0.7 per cent of gross domestic product for ODA.  It was also important to mobilize greater resources for, and enhance developing nations’ ownership of, poverty eradication and socio-economic development programmes.

Viet Nam supported the creation of the World Solidarity Fund and urged Member States to contribute generously to it, she said.  The country also attached importance to the International Year of Microcredit, which would provide an opportunity for the promotion of public awareness of microcredit programmes and their merits, as well as encourage countries to create and expand borrowing services to lower-income communities.

MAJDI RAMADAN (Lebanon) noted that the United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty was intended to help achieve the millennium goal of halving the number of people living on less than a dollar a day and suffering from hunger, by 2015.  Regrettably, progress so far on meeting that goal was uneven at the regional and national levels, and the people of sub-Saharan Africa were unlikely to meet it.

Foremost among indicators of progress for the Decade was the empowerment of women, he said.  While women’s share of non-agricultural wage employment had risen globally over the past decade, it had declined in the Middle East.  Delivery of safe drinking water was lacking for 50 per cent of the population in developing countries, while the debt burden hampered their efforts to alleviate poverty. Nationally, living up to the millennium commitments required good governance, democratic decision-making, accountability and transparency.  Internationally, a fair trading system free of subsidies and barriers, combined with increased ODA levels, was needed.

Noting that Lebanon had emerged from a war and 22 years of Israeli occupation, which had damaged its human and material infrastructure, he said that the eradication of poverty and the attainment of developmental goals became even more daunting and overwhelming for nations in the Middle East that were under occupation.

JEAN MARIE BOSSINA (Congo) said that the strides made thus far still fell short of achieving the millennium targets of poverty reduction at the regional and national levels.  According to the Global Economic Prospects in Developing Countries, 2003, if current trends continued, the number of sub-Saharan Africans living in poverty would rise from 315 million in 1999 to 404 million by 2015. According to a recent report of the Economic Commission for Africa, economic growth in Africa had slowed from 4.3 per cent in 2001 to 3.2 per cent in 2002.  Out of 53 African countries, only five had reached the 7 per cent growth rate considered essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. 

More must be done to make NEPAD a reality, he stressed.  In that regard, the Congo was doing its part, rebuilding the nation’s schools, roads, bridges, churches, charities and homes, 90 per cent of which had been destroyed during the civil strife of the 1990s.  Since the cessation of armed conflict in 1997, the Congo had rebuilt its basic infrastructure, created a modern accounting system, instituted social programmes and committed to regional integration, putting the nation on the road to prosperity.

AHMAD ZAHID HAMIDI (Malaysia) was concerned that ODA levels were still well below their historical highs and considerably lower than the minimum levels needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  If that trend continued, it would be impossible to realize the common objective of eradicating poverty in developing countries.  Many of the poorer ones would be unable to achieve a significant rate of development or eradicate poverty without external assistance and international cooperation.  Developed countries should meet their ODA obligations, open up market access to developing-country goods, and tackle the issue of subsidies, especially those for farm produce.

He said poverty could be eradicated through the establishment of a stable social and political environment, steady economic growth, a strong focus on development strategies and programmes favouring the poor, as well as strong non-governmental organizations and private sector support.  While the primary responsibility for development rested with national governments, with each country drawing up and implementing its own policies and development agendas, there was also an urgent need for international assistance to aid the poorer developing countries.

MOSHE SERMONETA (Israel) said that while the Secretary-General’s report strongly emphasized the provision of financial services to the poor, it would also be useful to highlight the links between training and microcredit.  Strengthening the capabilities of the poor through skills-enhancement would increase individual empowerment and spur the creation of enterprises that could, in turn, make good use of financial services designed for the poor.  The report also highlighted the importance of women’s involvement in such initiatives to promote an increase of women in the labour force, an important factor in poverty reduction.  Israel noted with regret, however, that gender disparity had improved only marginally during the 1990s.

He said Israel was doing its part in linking training and microcredit.  The National Center for International Cooperation had designed training programmes for poverty eradication aimed particularly at building women’s networking capacities, strengthening their role in trade unions and in leadership positions in business and politics.  Moreover, to mark the International Year of Microcredit, the Center planned to strengthen socio-economic development programmes through greater emphasis on microcredit as an income-generating tool. 

AZENAW TADESSE ABREHA (Ethiopia) said that more than 350 million people in Africa, or over 50 per cent of the continent’s population, still lived below the poverty line.  African countries were still burdened by weak commodity prices, low ODA and foreign investment, lack of market access, HIV/AIDS and terrorism, constraining their efforts to attain the millennium goals.  An effective strategy to combat poverty required policy coherence and strong support from the international community.  Developed countries must honour their commitments on ODA, market access and the transfer of technology.

Noting that NEPAD had been launched by African leaders and supported by the international community, he stressed that the partnership would play a significant role in bringing economic transformation to the continent.  Ethiopia with 44 per cent of its population living below the poverty line, had designed a policy framework to combat poverty, which included strategies for sustainable development and poverty reduction.

AXUMITE GEBRE-EGZIABHER, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), said the migration of rural populations to cities was putting an increasing strain on the infrastructure of the world’s urban centres.  Today, for example, some 75 per cent of people in Latin America and 36 per cent of Asians lived in urban areas.  Africa was a bigger challenge in tackling increasing urbanization because it was the fastest-urbanizing continent.

As migration speeded up, city management systems were unable to cope with the rapid population influx, she said.  Currently, 50 per cent of humanity lived in urban areas, with some 40 per cent of the urban population in developing countries living in slums.  Development should no longer be cast in separate urban and rural contexts, since urban economies were an essential element of the quest for successful rural settlements, she noted. 

PHOMMA KHAMMANICHANH (Lao People’s Democratic Republic) called for further efforts to eradicate poverty at the regional level with support from the international community, saying that his country had made efforts to achieve poverty eradication and move away from the least developed category by 2020.  The Government had prepared a national poverty-eradication programme.  It was a comprehensive approach to development, concentrating on the poorest districts and aligned with achieving the millennium goals.  As a result, poverty had decreased substantially over the past decade.

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