(Press Conference: September 12, 2000)

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POVERTY: World Bank report highlights plight of millions
At a time of unprecedented wealth for many countries, 2.8 billion people -
almost half of the world's population - live on less than US $2 a day,
according to a new report by the World Bank.
The World Development Report 2000/2001 - the World Bank's most
detailed-ever assessment of global poverty - said that 1.2 billion people
live on the margins of society, subsisting on less than $1 a day. In
high-income countries, fewer than one child in 100 dies before reaching
the age of five, while in the poorest countries, that number is five times
higher. In well-off countries, fewer than five per cent of children under
five are malnourished, while in poorer countries as many as half of all
children suffer from lack of food.
"This destitution persists even though human conditions have improved more
in the past century than in the rest of history," the report noted. The
distribution of wealth is "extraordinarily unequal" with the average
income in the richest 20 countries 37 times higher than the average in the
poorest 20 - a gap that has doubled in the past 40 years.
The report calls for international action to improve the prospects for
poor countries and their people. Initiatives such as debt relief,
expanding developing countries' access to markets and closing the digital
and knowledge divides are recommended. [For full report access:
http://www.worldbank.org/html/extpb/wdr2000_2001.htm]


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At the start of a new century, poverty remains a global problem of huge
proportions. Of the world's 6 billion
people, 2.8 billion live on less than $2 a day and 1.2 billion on less than
$1 a day. Eight out of every 100 infants
do not live to see their fifth birthday. Nine of every 100 boys and 14 of
every 100 girls who reach school age do
not attend school. Poverty is also evident in poor people's lack of
political power and voice and in their extreme
vulnerability to ill health, economic dislocation, personal violence and
natural disasters. And the scourge of
HIV/AIDS, the frequency and brutality of civil conflicts, and rising
disparities between rich countries and the
developing world have increased the sense of deprivation and injustice for
many.

World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty (which follows two
other World Development
Reports on poverty, in 1980 and 1990) argues nevertheless that major
reductions in all these dimensions of
poverty are indeed possible - that the interaction of markets, state
institutions, and civil societies can harness
the forces of economic integration and technological change to serve the
interests of poor people and increase
their share of society's prosperity.

Actions are needed in three complementary areas: promoting economic
opportunities for poor people through
equitable growth, better access to markets, and expanded assets;
facilitating empowerment by making state
institutions more responsive to poor people and removing social barriers
that exclude women, ethnic and racial
groups, and the socially disadvantaged; and enhancing security by
preventing and managing economy-wide
shocks and providing mechanisms to reduce the sources of vulnerability that
poor people face. But actions by
countries and communities will not be enough. Global actions need to
complement national and local initiatives to
achieve maximum benefit for poor people throughout the world.

Read the full text of the Report online in PDF!

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