Fifty-Ninth General Assembly                               

Second Committee                                           

32^nd Meeting (PM)

second committee approves text calling for strong strategies to prevent

 

disasters, share resources to gain insight into their causes

Delegates Conclude Discussion of Permanent

Arab Sovereignty over Natural Resources in Occupied Territories

The General Assembly would call for strong national strategies for disaster prevention and management, as well as resource sharing to gain insight into the causes of such catastrophes worldwide, according to a draft resolution that the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved this afternoon.

By other terms of the draft on the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, approved without a vote, the Assembly would encourage the international community to fill the coffers of the Strategy’s Trust Fund and provide adequate financial, scientific, technical, human and other assistance to support the
Inter-Agency Task Force for Disaster Reduction and its secretariat.

Further by the text, the Assembly would stress the importance of identifying, assessing and managing the risk of disasters before they occurred, and strengthening national abilities to cope with them by sharing experiences and transferring technical knowledge, as well as through improved access to relevant data and information, and stronger institutional arrangements.  It would call on governments to set up national platforms for disaster reduction or strengthen already existing ones, and urge the United Nations to support those mechanisms.

Also today, the Committee began its consideration of its agenda item on the eradication of poverty and other development issues, including implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006), women in development and industrial development cooperation.

In that regard, Anwarul Chowdhury, High Representative of the
Secretary-General for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and SmallIslandDevelopingStates, underscored the importance of microcredit in poverty eradication and women’s empowerment, particularly in the least developed countries (LDCs), where it had boosted local communities’ productive capacities, fuelled local market growth and created jobs.  Last year, more than 67 million poor and low-income people had access to microfinance and up to 70 countries had active microcredit and microfinance programmes.  However, the scope of microcredit was limited by insufficient policy and regulatory environments, poor access to information and weak institutional and human resources.  The International Year of Microcredit (2005) created a unique opportunity to address those concerns by generating awareness and sharing knowledge of best practices in the field.

Turning to women in development, he said gender-based disparity was particularly pronounced in the LDCs, where the lack of access to land, credit, appropriate technology, knowledge-based production methods and fair prices for goods impeded the advancement of women, who needed better education, training and information to improve their economic well-being and that of their families.

The representative of the Netherlands, speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, noted that the Union had made gender equality a key focus of its development-cooperation policy alongside economic, social and human development; regional co-operation and integration; environmental sustainability; and institutional development.  Gender inequalities had left many girls and women in developing countries vulnerable to sexual abuse and HIV/AIDS.  The pandemic’s spread among Southern African women and girls aged 15 to 29 had reached alarming levels, doubling the rate of spread among men and boys in the same age group.  Innovative strategies and special prevention measures were needed to address the problem, he stressed.

Prior to the discussion, Gloria Kan, Chief of the Social Perspective on Development Branch in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, introduced the report on implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006) and on the International Year of Microcredit, 2005; Carolyn Hannan, Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, in the same Department presented the report on the World Survey on the Role of Women in Development; and Youssef Sabri of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) introduced that agency’s report on industrial development cooperation.

Earlier, the Committee concluded its consideration of the permanent sovereignty of Arab peoples in the occupied territories over their natural resources.  As several speakers expressed their condolences over the passing of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, Syria’s representative said that statistics had failed to show the dramatic situation in the occupied territories, marked by Israel’s indiscriminate terrorism, massacres of civilians, destruction of homes and razing of lands.  Israel continued to flout United Nations resolutions and international law, yet, its delegation at the United Nations talked impertinently and insolently of Israeli contributions to development.  Perhaps it had forgotten its uprooting of trees, destruction of water resources and conversion of the occupied territories into dry, unproductive land.

The Observer for the Organization of the Islamic Conference noted with concern that Israel now maintained some 40 settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan, housing 15,700 Israelis, and that the occupation had dismembered families.  Young Arab university graduates from the Golan had only limited access to job opportunities back home and if they wished to visit their families, Israel refused them re-entry.  Last year’s Islamic Summit Conference had strongly condemned Israel’s policy towards the occupied Syrian Golan, as well as its policy of land annexation, settlement building, land confiscation, diversion of water resources and imposition of Israeli nationality on Syrian citizens.

Indonesia’s representative, noting that Israel’s long-lasting occupation of Palestinian territory had pushed more than half of the Palestinian population below the poverty line, said Palestinians were being impoverished in every possible way, rather than being allowed to join the march towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.  That was contrary to the spirit of globalization and must not be tolerated.  Indonesia called for adherence to General Assembly resolutions that demanded respect for the sovereignty of States and the avoidance of extraterritorial coercive measures as instruments to attain national goals.

Other speakers today included representatives of Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and Qatar (on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China).

The Second Committee will meet again at 10 a.m., Tuesday
16 November, to continue its debate on the eradication of poverty and other development issues.

Background

The Second Committee met this afternoon to conclude its consideration of the permanent sovereignty of Arab peoples in the occupied Palestinian territory and the Syrian Golan over their natural resources.  (For background information, see Press Release GA/EF/3094 of 10 November.)  It was also expected to begin discussing the eradication of poverty and other development issues, and to take action on draft resolutions relating to sustainable development.

Before the Committee was a report of the Secretary-General on implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006) and preparations for the International Year of Microcredit, 2005 (document A/59/326), which focuses on the contribution of microcredit and microfinance to implementation of the Decade.  It examines the roles that microcredit and microfinance can play in overcoming poverty, challenges facing their future development, and the role of governments and the international community in providing poor people with greater access to financial services.

The report recommends that governments lay down policies to help microcredit and microfinance institutions expand to respond to the demand by the poor for financial services.  Mechanisms should be developed to promote sustainable access to financial services, remove institutional and regulatory obstacles, and provide incentives that meet established standards for delivering such financial services to microfinance institutions.  Governments should develop and promote regulatory guidance and standards to ensure good governance and accountability among microfinance institutions, considering such guidelines as the Guiding Principles on Regulation and Supervision of Microfinance, and promote a wider dissemination of databases on successful practices among microcredit and microfinance institutions.

Also before the Committee was a report of the Secretary-General on the World Survey on the Role of Women in Development (document A/59/287), which presents key issues on labour migration, family formation and reunification, the rights of migrant women, refugees and displaced persons, and trafficking of women and girls.  It suggests that the General Assembly recommend that governments ratify and actively monitor the implementation of all legal instruments promoting and protecting the rights of migrant women and girls; review national emigration and immigration laws and policies to identify provisions that undermine migrant women’s rights; and ensure national anti-trafficking policies focused on crime prevention and prosecution.

According to the report, governments should also adopt and implement policies recognizing gender-based persecution at the hands of non-State actors as grounds for granting refugee status under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.  In addition, they should allow women applying for asylum to be interviewed separately from their husbands, or other male family members, to determine their eligibility for refugee status.  The Assembly should also recommend that governments, international organizations, the private sector and other stakeholders develop policies enhancing migrant women’s employment opportunities, access to safe housing, education, language training, health care and other services in the host country.  Further, such bodies should develop educational and communications programmes to inform migrant women of their rights and responsibilities under international and national law; disseminate accurate, timely information about trafficking to would-be migrants; and research, collect and disseminate data on international migration, including female migration, and the positive contributions of migrants.

Also before the Committee was a note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report of the Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on industrial development cooperation (document A/59/138), which reviews that Agency’s activities over the past two years in the context of the Millennium Development Goals.

Statements

KHALIFA ALAUJAN (Bahrain) stressed that according to international law, occupying Powers possessed no sovereignty over occupied lands and were obligated to respect property and natural resources.  Israel, however, had exhibited a total lack of respect for United Nations resolutions and treaties in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, and had impeded internationally supported peace initiatives.  It had continued to expand settlements, exploit natural resources and confiscate land and water resources in occupied areas.  It had set up check points and barricades, which hindered transport and kept occupied peoples from exploiting their natural resources.

Complicating the situation in the occupied territories was the increasing number of displaced Palestinians, which had reached 16,000 in 2003, he said.  Palestinians living in refugee camps –- some 1.3 million -- lacked basic needs, including electricity and sewage.  Moreover, more than 10,000 Palestinians had lost their homes due to demolitions carried out by Israel.  The International Court of Justice had ruled that the separation wall that Israel was building to divide the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was against international law, but Israel had continued to build it.  The occupation had led to a significant increase in the rate of poverty and unemployment, as well as a decline in medical services and the suspension of educational programmes.

BASHEER ZOUBI (Jordan) expressed his condolences to Palestine and the United Arab Emirates for the recent passing of their respective Presidents.  He said the Secretary-General’s report revealed that during the review period the situation in the occupied territories had worsened in almost all topics and indicators, including deaths and injuries; arbitrary arrests and detentions; population displacement; property destruction and confiscation; mobility restrictions and closure policies; Israeli settlements; natural resources, water and the environment; public health; as well as education and access to humanitarian assistance, among others.  The economic deterioration in the territory under Israeli occupation had led the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to refer to Palestine as a “war-torn economy”, characterized by the same structural factors, external and fiscal constraints and private-sector performance as other war-ravaged countries.

Since the signing of the 1993 Oslo Agreement, he said, Jordan had maintained its support for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East with Israel and Palestine, as well as other neighbouring countries, as its partners in peace-making.  Israel’s continuing practices and policies could seriously impede peace and the vision of the two-State solution called for in the Quartet’s Road Map.  Israel’s continued defiance of United Nations resolutions on the question of Palestine further exacerbated the dangerous impact of its policies.  He expressed concern over the spillover effect of Israel’s occupation, noting that a youth and education report prepared by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) had revealed that at least 498 schools had closed during the 2002-2003 school year due to movement restrictions that confined children to their homes.  Israeli forces had destroyed or damaged at least 269 schools.

HUSSEIN SABBAGH (Syria) said that civilians had been killed, people displaced, homes destroyed, and assassinations committed during Israel’s illegal occupation of Arab territories.  For example, an American teacher had been struck down by a bulldozer while trying to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian house in Gaza.  Israel had continued to flout all relevant United Nations resolutions, as well as the principles of international law.  Yet, its delegation at the United Nations talked impertinently and insolently of the contributions Israel had made to development.  Perhaps Israel had forgotten to add that it had uprooted trees, destroyed water resources and converted the occupied territories into dry, arid land.  Those were also contributions that it had made.

Statistics had failed to show the dramatic situation in the occupied territories, where terrorism showed no discrimination between men, women and children, he said.  Israel had persisted in imposing its logic for war, despite the rights of the Arab population.  In addition to massacring countless individuals, Israel had prevented people in the occupied territories from building dams and digging wells.  It had also burned forests, deposited nuclear waste, and allowed colonizers to leave untreated waste in the occupied territories.  Its construction of the separation wall, which covered an immense area occupied in 1967, flouted the opinion of the International Court of Justice.

MAJDI RAMADAN (Lebanon) expressed his condolences over the recent passing of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.  He said the Secretary-General’s report on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and the occupied Syrian Golan was a clear indictment of Israelis gruesome operations in those territories.  The Committee’s work was important for the attainment of sustainable development, poverty eradication and the Millennium Development Goals, including the sovereign right of people over their natural resources.  In that context, Israel was fully responsible for the illegal exploitation of the occupied territory’s natural resources.  The Committee’s approval of a resolution on that item would be testament to its commitment to ensuring that the Palestinian and Syrian populations in the territories had that right.

Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories were illegal, he continued.  Israel’s settlement policy sought eventually to annex Palestinian lands.  Planned settlement zones covered 49 per cent of the West Bank and
45 per cent of Gaza, while settler roads cut through Palestinian territory.  In the occupied Syrian Golan, Israel used most areas for military purposes and settlement building.  The separation wall under construction was three times higher than and twice as long as the former Berlin Wall.  Upon its completion, Israel would have annexed most of the occupied Palestinian territory’s ground water, destroyed land and thus denied Palestinian farmers sustainable livelihoods.

PRAYONO ATIYANTO (Indonesia) said that Israel’s long-lasting occupation of the Palestinian territory, which went completely against the will of the Palestinian population, had caused serious economic and social damage.  Most social and economic data showed an ongoing deterioration of living conditions among the Palestinian people, with more than half of them now living below the poverty line.

The Palestinian people were being hindered and impoverished in every possible way, rather that being allowed to join the march towards the goals of the Millennium Declaration, he said.  The situation was contrary to the spirit of globalization prevailing in today’s world, and because it did no justice to the legitimate interests of the Palestinians, it must not be tolerated.  General Assembly resolutions demanding respect for the sovereignty of States and the avoidance of extraterritorial coercive measures as instruments to attain national goals must be adhered to.

MEHDI MIRAFZAL (Iran) expressed his condolences on the recent passing of President Yasser Arafat, noting that his tireless efforts in various international and regional organizations for Palestinian liberation would never be forgotten.  He said that war crimes committed by Israel included recent military operations against civilians in Gaza.  They included the brutal killing of a large number of Palestinian civilians, among them children and women in refugee camps.  Such crimes, as well as Israel’s dispossession and destruction of all kinds of private and public assets, had left Palestinians and their socio-economic situation hopeless.

Israel’s illegal acts of aggression and oppression against the Palestinian people were deliberate attempts to preclude and torpedo peace efforts in the region, he continued.  Israel’s disregard for the international community’s demands and its continued violence and terror against the Palestinian people had made a dire situation worse.  It had carried out its crimes with impunity, undoubtedly emboldening it to continue its targeting of civilians, collective punishments, house demolitions, land confiscations, destruction of agricultural assets, confiscation of land and water resources, erection of the West Bank barrier, indiscriminate extrajudicial killings and targeted assassinations of Palestinian resistance leaders.  It was high time the international community took effective measures to protect and enforce the Palestinian people’s most basic rights and help end the vicious cycle of violence caused by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.  Iran also called for the creation of a PalestinianState, with Al-Quds-al-Sharif as its capital, and for an end to Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan, as the only viable and sustainable solution.

SHAHID HUSAIN, Observer for the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said that the continued occupation of Palestinian territory had resulted in a colossal loss of investment.  At the beginning of 2003, foreign investment had fallen
90 per cent over the preceding three years, from $1.45 billion in 1999 to
$150 million in 2002.  That loss in foreign investment, combined with physical damage and infrastructure deterioration, had resulted in a $1 billion drop, or
19 per cent in real per capita terms, in productive capital stock at the beginning of 2003.

The occupation had also worsened conditions for women, as violence in the environment exacerbated abuse at home, he said.  Exposure to political violence was the strongest predictor of violence in the family, whether between spouses, against children or among siblings.

He noted with concern that Israel now maintained some 40 settlements on Syria’s Golan Heights, housing 15,700 Israelis, and that the occupation had dismembered families.  Young Arab graduates from the Golan and from Syrian universities had only limited access to job opportunities back home.  If they visited their families in the Syrian Golan once a year during their studies, Israel refused them re-entry.  Last year’s Islamic Summit Conference had strongly condemned Israel’s policy towards the occupied Syrian Golan, as well as its policy of land annexation, settlement building, land confiscation, diversion of water resources, and its imposition of Israeli nationality on Syrian citizens.

ABDULMALIK MOTAHAR ALSHABIBI (Yemen) said the Secretary-General’s report on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and the occupied Syrian Golan showed that the world was faced with a humanitarian catastrophe.  It was regrettable that in the twentieth century, the Palestinian people were suffering gravely and their socio-economic situation deteriorating while the world spoke of equality, freedom and civil rights.  The international community did not need more resolutions to become aware of their plight.  What was needed was a firm resolution to demand that Israel abide by international law and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

Agreeing with the view expressed in the Secretary-General’s report that the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the region was the best way to resolve the conflict,  he said Yemen fully supported the right to sovereignty of the Palestinian people and the creation of an independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital.  Yemen also stood in solidarity with the Syrian and Lebanese peoples over their struggle for sovereignty over lands occupied by Israel.

The Committee then took action on a resolution relating to disaster reduction.

Introduction of Draft Resolution

The representative of Switzerland, introducing the text on the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (document A/C.2/59/L.31), made several oral amendments.

The Committee then approved the draft, as orally amended, without a vote.

The Committee than took up its agenda item on the eradication of poverty and other development issues.

Introduction of Reports

GLORIA KAN, Chief, Social Perspective on Development Branch, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, introduced the report on Implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006) and on the International Year of Microcredit, 2005 (document A/59/326).

She said a growing body of studies had suggested that access to financial services, particularly microcredit, allowed poor people to increase their incomes, build assets and reduce their vulnerability to crises.  Studies had also shown that microfinance clients, especially women, were able to translate their increased incomes into investments in education, health, nutrition and better management of household emergencies.  One important challenge in the microcredit and microfinance field was how to reach the 400 to 500 million poor and low-income people worldwide who still lacked access to microfinance.  Further, the growing commercialization of microfinance to meet that demand raised concern over the need to balance social mission against the need for financial viability and profitability.

CAROLYN HANNAN, Director, Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, introduced the report of the Secretary-General on the World Survey on the Role of Women in Development (document A/59/287), noting that it would provide important input into the 10-year review of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome of the General Assembly’s special session on the 2005 meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women.  Gender perspectives must be explicitly outlined in development strategies in achieving the Millennium targets.

The work of the Second Committee provided an opportunity to strengthen gender perspectives as they related to economic growth, poverty eradication and sustainable development, she said.  That perspective could be strengthened in the draft resolution on the triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development, as well as the 2005 comprehensive review of the follow-up to the Millennium Declaration and the Second High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development.

YOUSSEF SABRI, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), introducing the report on industrial development cooperation (document A/59/138), said it focused on the vital role of productivity and industrial development in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  It also reflected changes in UNIDO’s work over the past two years that had resulted in better programme delivery and increased the efficiency of its activities.  The UNIDO’s technical cooperation activities had been readjusted to meet the evolving needs of developing and transition countries, resulting in the selection of eight service modules on industrial governance and statistics, investment and technology promotion, industrial competitiveness and trade, private-sector development, agro-industries, sustainable energy and climate change, and the Montreal Protocol.

To enhance the impact of operational activities at the country level, he said, UNIDO was seeking cooperation with other United Nations agencies.  It had recently signed a cooperation agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which established the basis for both agencies to develop joint technical cooperation programmes, particularly in support of private-sector development in developing countries.  At the same time, it had introduced a new model of field representation, with UNIDO desks established in UNDP offices.  The agreement, which could become a model for the entire United Nations system, would be implemented first within a pilot phase of two years, followed by a joint evaluation of its impact on enhancing and expanding technical cooperation services and providing a cost-effective modality for joint field representation.

Questions and Answers

Responding to a question about UNIDO’s role in facilitating technology transfer to boost developing countries’ production capacity and industrialization process, Mr. SABRI said the agency was guided by a corporate strategy and business plan that had eight service modules.  The UNIDO was trying to focus on priority activities for the industrial development of countries in great need, particularly African nations.  African Heads of State had recently adopted a UNIDO programme within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to enhance productivity and capacity.  The programme provided in-depth knowledge of the agency’s work in that regard.  The UNIDO was aware that technology was of paramount importance to developing countries and had a department specifically to facilitate technology transfer and development.

Concerning the creation of rules governing microcredit, Ms.KAN said the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) had released a report on how better to supervise and regulate microfinance.  Greater involvement by government and financial institutions was needed to integrate microcredit activities into the development system.  A number of financial institutions, including banks, were working with the coordinating committee on activities related to the International Year of Microcredit (2005).  The Committee was reaching out to such institutions to encourage their involvement, and it was hoped that more would join in those efforts in the future.

Statements

ANWARUL CHOWDHURY, High Representative of the Secretary-General for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, highlighted microcredit’s contribution to poverty eradication.  In 2003, more than 67 million poor and low-income people had access to microfinance and up to 70 countries had active microcredit and microfinance programmes.  The Experiences of least developed countries showed that microcredit and microfinance were effective women’s empowerment tools.  For example, in Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank, the world’s largest microcredit provider, had almost 1,300 branch offices in 46,000 villages, serving 3.8 million clients, 96 per cent of them women.  It had disbursed loans worth $4.5 billion.

Bangladesh had incorporated microcredit into its national development strategy and similar successes had occurred in Benin, Bolivia, Nepal, Samoa and Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said.  Microcredit was also instrumental in increasing a community’s productive capacities, fuelling local market growth and creating jobs.  However, insufficient policy and regulatory environments, poor access to information and weak institutional and human resources for microfinance thwarted such efforts.  In most of the least developed countries, penetration rates hardly exceeded 1 per cent.  The International Year of Microcredit created a unique opportunity to improve awareness and share knowledge of best practices.

Regarding the agenda item on women in development, he said gender-based disparity was most pronounced in least developed countries, where the great demand for women’s labour, particularly in rural areas, led to their further marginalization.  Lack of land, credit, appropriate technology, knowledge-based production methods and fair prices for goods impeded women’s empowerment.  Greater access to education and training, credit and information would improve economic conditions, facilitate women’s empowerment and contribute to family and household well-being.

SULTAN AL-MAHMOUD (Qatar), speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, said that microcredit and microfinance could play a crucial role in eradicating poverty, promoting gender equality, empowering vulnerable groups and developing rural communities.  Governments should facilitate the expansion of microcredit and microfinance institutions to service the large unmet demand for financial services among poor people.

He said advancement of women worldwide had been impeded by widening economic inequalities, unemployment and high levels of poverty, intensified by globalization and other global economic transformations.  Unlike men, women still had no access to financial resources, such as credit and loans.  In some countries, they lacked equal property rights and continued to earn lower wages and salaries than men.  Wages for women had changed little in any region since 1990 and were far below those of men in all regions except Latin America and the Caribbean, where 43 per cent of wage workers were now women, and Eastern Asia, where the proportion was 40 per cent.

As for industrial development cooperation, he said it was a vital source of new technologies and technological innovation.  It could also assist with new and important skills and could catalyze the in institutional change needed for modern methods of production, as well as generating entrepreneurship.  Successful industrialization could then play a major role in creating employment, as well as higher paid jobs to increase income.  In that regard, promoting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises through training, education and skill enhancement, with a special focus on agro-industry to provide livelihoods in rural communities, remained critical for many developing countries.

GERTON VAN DEN AKKER (Netherlands), speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, said poverty reduction was a core part of the Union’s development cooperation policy, which focused on economic development, social and human development and regional co-operation and integration.  Gender equality, environmental sustainability, institutional development, capacity-building and combating HIV/AIDS were also essential for success.  The European Union was the single biggest investor in developing countries and a top provider of development assistance.  Four EuropeanUnionMemberStates and Norway had already achieved the internationally agreed target of committing 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product for official development assistance (ODA).  The Union had committed to earmark collectively an average of 0.39 per cent and individually at least 0.33 per cent by 2006.

The European Union was strongly committed to the fight against HIV/AIDS, he said, adding that the pandemic’s spread among women and girls aged 15 to 29 in Southern Africa had reached alarming levels, double the rate of men and boys in the same age group.  Gender inequalities left many girls and women in developing countries vulnerable to abuse, often unable to negotiate safer sex or turn down unwanted sex.  That problem must be addressed through innovative strategies and special prevention measures.  The European Union also supported full implementation of the 1994 Cairo agenda on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

ZHANG YISHAN (China), noting that poverty was caused by a wide spectrum of economic, social and historical factors, said the inequitable international political and economic order, as well as unbalanced globalization, had exacerbated the problem.  The international community should strengthen cooperation to create a peaceful and stable political international environment, which would be fundamental in eradicating poverty and hunger.  It was also important to set up fair, equitable, open and transparent international structures and rules in world trade, investment and finance so that all countries could participate in globalization and enjoy its dividends.

Developed nations must help developing countries by fulfilling their pledges in financial aid, technology transfer, debt relief and trade, he said.  Developing countries, for their part, should include poverty eradication in their national programmes of economic and social development, draw up poverty reduction strategies, set realistic phase-by-phase poverty reduction goals and adopt effective measure to promote economic development.  In addition, the private sector, civil society, women and youth should be encouraged to make concerted efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger.  Global efforts should focus on realizing poverty eradication goals, diversifying cooperation and making full use of various means to add vitality to international cooperation for poverty eradication.

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