OneWorld.net (U.S.)

The world, on less than $1 a day When it comes to poverty, a U.N. report says humans have a long way to go. By HOWIE RUMBERG. Nov 29, 2005 4:18:36 AM By HOWIE RUMBERG The U.N.'s 2005 Human Development Report highlights the growing gap between rich and poor in the world. Did you know that more than 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day? (AP Illustration/Shazna Nessa) The 1990s were one of the richest growth periods in history, yet 54 countries -- mostly the poorest in the world -- saw a decline in their per capita income. This disparity between rich and poor helped inspire the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals for greatly reducing world poverty by 2015.

The 2005 Human Development Report paints a bleak picture of the progress made toward those aims six years into the campaign. Among the highlights: The report says the goals for poverty, universal education and child mortality will all be missed in 10 years if current trends continue.

The statistics aren't pleasant: People living on pennies a day. Life expectancy falling in some countries. High death rates and scant education for children in others.

But while progress has been slow, Salil Shetty, director of the Millennuim Campaign, says there are some reasons for optimism.

For the first time in three years the amount of aid has gone up and by 2010 there should be significant increases in funding thanks a pledge by the European Union this year. Unlike in the past, when countries were often ill-equipped to handle aid for a variety of reasons, including lack of education, inadequate infrastructure and corruption, the influx of assistance couldn't have come at a better time.

"The big distinction from the previous period and this effort is, today the world has more than enough resources to tackle these problems," Shetty said. "One could argue that maybe 20, 30 years ago that we didn't have enough resources. But now we have so much wealth, not just financial wealth but technical wealth."

There are several big stumbling blocks to real gains, though. Trade is the biggest.

"The whole question of agriculture subsidies is really stifling the growth and even livelihood of poor farmers in developing countries across the world because rich countries are subsidizing their farmers and on top of that they're dumping these subsidized crops into the market of developing countries," Shetty said. "That's a big hindrance, and the European Union is the major culprit in some ways, although the Japanese and U.S. are not much better."

The United States is the biggest donor of development aid by far. But its contribution is just 0.16 percent of the gross domestic income, far short of the 0.7 percent established as the goal for countries by 2015.

Source:The Associated Pressmore