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South Asia getting poorer except Lanka |
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June 14, 2000
Dhaka (UNB)- The number of the poor is on the rise in the region, bar Sri Lanka, for a lack of good governance and misuse of some of the funds funneled into poverty programmers.
A UN agency report released here yesterday (Tuesday) made the disclosure based on a study on the poverty scenario in South Asia.
Proportion of the poor declined slowly, but their number has been on the rise in South Asia except Sri Lanka as poverty programmers have not been much successful in the region mainly because of faulty governance, says the UNDP report.
“Too often, such programmes have been poorly managed, with beneficiaries never receiving the funds intended for them or being allowed to participate fully,” it says quoting the 1999 South Asia Poverty Monitor carried out by Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
Quoting the Monitor, the UNDP report says a significant share of the funds channeled through poverty programmes has been squandered by governments or civil society organizations through corruption or directed to the non-poor.
The key to success for the South Asian poverty alleviation programme is the poor be organized to take more control of their lives, commented the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Poverty Report 2000, titled Overcoming Human Poverty.
The number of poor people in Bangladesh was 49 million in mid-‘80s, which rose to 54.1 million in mid-90s, marking a 0.8 per cent annual change.
India’s poor population rose from 277.4 million to 335.3 million, Pakistan’s 28.9 million to 31.8 million and Nepal’s 7 million to 9.8 million during the same period recording an annual growth of 1.9, 1.4 and 3.1 per cent respectively.
Only exception was Sri Lanka where the poverty index showed a downtrend with the poor population dropping to 4 million in the ‘90s from 4.5 million in the ‘80s, marking a 2.4 per cent annual decline.
The proportion of poor, however, has been declining over the past 15 years, but the pace is painfully slow and the trend erratic, with poverty increasing in some periods even when the economy is growing.
Releasing the report, UNDP resident representative Andre Klap called for a more integrated approach for poverty alleviation in Bangladesh, anchored with good governance, which he said is in progress now in the country.
Bangladesh need to ensure that poverty alleviation is an integral part of each and every policy at national level, he said.
Bangladesh already has got a well-articulated poverty programme, but “better can be done in integrating poverty alleviation in overall programmes in the next five-year plan.”
“Only a combination of policy instruments can accelerate the rate of poverty reduction,” UNDP resident coordinator and World Food Programme resident representative Werner Kiene told a questioner about the current pace of poverty reduction in Bangladesh.
Human poverty index shows 44 per cent of population was poor in Bangladesh in 1997, 36 per cent in India, 52 per cent in Nepal and 42 per cent in Pakistan.
South Asia has made very little progress in eliminating illiteracy, a major human poverty indicator.
Adult illiteracy rate still remained 61 per cent in Bangladesh, 59 per cent in Pakistan, 47 per cent in India and only 9 per cent in Sri Lanka.
Assessing poverty-reduction activities in 23 countries out of 140, the poverty report 2000 felt that poverty reduction should be linked with national policymaking such as economic growth and good governance and with international policies such as debt relief. It cautioned that debt relief should not be at the cost of lowered development aid.
Poverty reduction should be closely linked to good local governance and self-organization of the poor, the report argued.
UNDP resident representative cited Bangladesh’s experience of self-organization of the poor, incorporated in the poverty report.
It also suggested a new global strategy against poverty to be mounted with more resources, sharper focus and a stronger commitment.
However, Bangladesh was not among the 23 countries studied for making the report that assessed the commitments made by 140 countries at the 1995 World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen and reviewed global activities against poverty.
UNDP programme officer Shams Mustafa presented the salient features of the report while UNIC official Kazi Ali Reza was also present at the UNDP office at IDB Bhaban at Agargaon in the city.
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