Struggling to reduce poverty

Although the world has fulfilled its poverty reduction goal, the first of the eight Millennium Development Goals approved by the UN General Assembly in 2000, 5 years ahead of schedule, the global economic crisis has exposed new challenges threatening the poverty reduction achievements of many countries and has made the struggle for further poverty reduction more difficult.

Poverty reduction is a struggle the international community has waged for many centuries. But the global economic crisis which began in the US in 2008 has negatively affected poverty reduction achievements worldwide.

The world has 1.3 billion extremely poor people, 900 million malnourished people, and 1 billion people suffering from vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

According to the International Labor Organization, the global economic crisis has made 30 million more people unemployed since 2008, bringing the total number of unemployed to 220 million. Young people account for one third of this figure. Unemployment is expected to increase when the austerity measures proposed in many countries take full effect.

What the world has achieved in poverty reduction is being threatened by price instability. The world population is exploding while food production remains the same, which is triggering uncontrolled inflation. Natural disasters, inefficiency in agriculture and political instability and disputes in many regions are factors reducing food productivity.

The Food and Agriculture Organization says the world’s food demands have exceeded supply while food reserves have plunged to the lowest point since 1974. World food reserves have dwindled from 107 days of consumption to just 74 days.

Meanwhile, the world is facing some a series of difficult fuel issues. Oil, gas, and coal reserves are being exhausted. Human activities are pushing the world to the edge of a new global energy crisis.

The US and western countries’ efforts to force Iran to abandon its nuclear program have indirectly re-structured the global oil market, disturbing the balance of supply and demand.

The world needs to act. In this year’s message for poverty reduction, the UN is calling on countries to work out a new roadmap to ensure social equality and economic growth. Governments need to reach a consensus in an action framework to solve food and fuel shortages in the short term.

The UN defines five areas that need to be improved globally: more rapid progress toward MDGs on poverty reduction, increased aid for countries most in need, a waiver of loan conditions, greater responsibility and transparency, and renewed commitments to sustainable development.

Given recent developments in the world, the UN targets seem hard to achieve. It’s estimated that the world will need to spend US$75 billion on poverty reduction, with developed industrial countries and developing countries contributing equally. The global economic crisis has forced many countries to struggle with budget deficits, national debts, and lowered responsibility. 

To observe International Day for Poverty Eradication, France has called for an urgent meeting of the Rapid Response Forum (RRF), a group of agricultural policymakers established by the G20, to discuss ways to avoid a food crisis in the next four years. Yet the forum didn’t take place because the US, the RRF president, refused, calling unnecessary.

The world’s population is expected to increase from 7 billion to 9 billion by 2040. By 2030, the world’s food supply will need to increase by at least 50 percent and its fuel supply by 45 percent or 3 billion people will suffer from poverty.