Poverty’s tightening grip on Asia and the Pacific
Entitled, "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in an Era of Global Uncertainty: Asia-Pacific Regional Report 2009/10," the 128 page analysis offers a sobering look at the region’s current economic reality and warns of further fallout if immediate measures are not taken.
The report’s overall assessment: the Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals have taken a serious step back. Goal 1, the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, has suffered most dramatically. The report estimates that by the end of 2010, an additional 21 million people will be living on less than $1.25 a day. The region is already home to more people living in extreme poverty - over 50 % of its population or roughly 900 million people - than anywhere else in the world.
Co-authored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the report also suggests solutions to deal with the current reality. Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, noted that although the MDGs may be negatively impacted in the Asia-Pacific region, "we also have an opportunity [...] as this crisis has exposed many vulnerabilities in the region - we can now address them and direct this recovery towards a stronger sustainable development path for the Asia-Pacific region."
