Re: UN HDR out

[ALI KADRI <akadri_00@xxxxxxxxx>]

No Comment
--- Ian Murray <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> [contact info for challenging claims is at bottom of
> article]
>
> Third World boom raises hopes of end to poverty
>
> Anthony Browne, environment editor
> Sunday July 8, 2001
> The Observer
>
> They are usually seen as lands of poverty and
> repression where the
> drinking water is poisonous, stomachs are empty and
> most adults
> illiterate. But this week a United Nations report
> will claim that,
> while conditions in many places are still bad, the
> developing world
> has shown such progress in the last 30 years that it
> now officially
> classifies more of the world as developed than
> undeveloped.
>
> There have been vast improvements in life
> expectancy, nutrition, adult
> literacy, poverty and human rights. A child born
> today in the
> developing world can expect to live eight years
> longer than one born
> in 1970. Adult literacy has risen from 47 per cent
> to 73 per cent.
>
> The proportion of rural families with access to safe
> water has grown
> fivefold, so that eight in 10 now have clean water.
> Average incomes
> have nearly doubled, from $1,300 to $2,500 (£1,770).
>
> The 2001 Human Development Report, published by the
> UN Development
> Programme, will say that, far from being a cause for
> pessimism, the
> developing world is a source of optimism: 'Too few
> people recognise
> that the impressive gains in the developing world in
> the past 30 years
> demonstrate the possibility of eradicating poverty.'
>
> Kevin Watkins, head of policy at Oxfam, said: 'There
> has been
> unprecedented progress in a whole range of areas,
> but there is still
> plenty of doom and gloom out there. The gains have
> been very unevenly
> distributed.'
>
> Progress has been most rapid in East Asia, with
> countries such as
> Thailand and Malaysia closing the gap on
> industrialised nations, and
> there have been impressive advances in Latin America
> and the Middle
> East. However, progress has been slow in South Asia.
> In sub-Saharan
> Africa, with large parts ravaged by Aids,
> dictatorships and debt, the
> quality of life has often been falling.
>
> Across the world, life expectancy has risen from
> 59.9 years in 1970 to
> 66.4. It has risen far more rapidly in poor
> countries than in rich
> ones as medical advances and the principles of
> public hygiene have
> spread. Life expectancy has risen by 12 years in
> South Asia and by 14
> years in the Arab states. The only region where life
> expectancy has
> fallen is Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
> Union, suffering an
> economic collapse after the fall of communism.
>
> Improved nutrition, poverty reduction, maternal
> education and better
> medical services have combined to halve infant
> mortality. In Latin
> America, the Caribbean and East Asia, the number of
> babies dying
> before their first birthday has fallen by two-thirds
> to roughly the
> level it was in rich countries in 1970. Even in
> sub-Saharan Africa it
> has fallen by a third. Many of the health advances
> have been the
> result of extraordinary economic progress.
> Industrialisation has seen
> incomes in East Asia quadruple, with the Chinese
> economy growing four
> times as fast as Europe's. Even the Indian economy
> has outpaced that
> of rich nations.
>
> Although inequality has increased, the economic
> gains have not
> generally been by the rich at the expense of the
> poor. In the past 10
> years the proportion of people in developing
> countries living on less
> than $1 a day has fallen from 29 per cent to 24.
> However, in
> sub-Saharan Africa the figure is 46 per cent.
>
> Progress in education has been startling. Nearly all
> children now
> attend primary school, and the majority in
> developing countries go to
> secondary school. Girls are no longer routinely
> excluded. Thirty years
> ago they were half as likely as boys to get an
> education, now there
> are on average only 10 per cent fewer girls than
> boys in school.
>
> Development has changed the balance of the world.
> According to the
> report, the world in 1975 was mostly 'low and medium
> human
> development'. Now it is predominantly 'medium and
> high human
> development'.
>
> The report puts much of the progress down to the
> spread of democracy
> and human rights. 'The basic conditions for
> achieving human freedoms
> were transformed in the past 10 years as more than
> 100 developing and
> transition countries ended military or one-party
> rule. Formal
> commitment to international standards in human
> rights has spread
> dramatically since 1990,' it says.
>
> Kevin Watkins said: 'Democratisation has definitely
> pushed things in
> the right direction. The more accountable
> governments are, the more
> pressure there is to reduce poverty. Development aid
> plays an
> important part in some countries, particularly those
> in southern
> Africa. But ultimately it is down to national
> efforts, and governments
> being committed to reducing poverty.'
>
> anthony.browne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
>


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