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Monitoring The UN > The UN and Sustainable Development Poverty
In the half century since the end of the Second World War, living standards for many of the world's people have risen dramatically. Hundreds of millions of others, however, have not been so fortunate. For them, life continues to offer only deprivation and despair, with chronic unemployment or underemployment, illiteracy, disease, hunger and toxic social and natural environments robbing them of all hope for a productive and meaningful life. Most impoverished people live in the less developed countries of the South, where they make up one quarter of the population. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly disadvantaged, with high levels of childhood malnutrition, low levels of education and literacy, and short life expectancies. Globally, women, children, the aged, and the geographically and socially marginalized make up the poorest of the poor.1 Mass poverty is largely the result of structural inequities inherent in social and economic organization at the local, national and international level. It is also both cause and effect of the failure of development in many parts of the world. High levels of illiteracy and low standards of health, education and nutrition reduce productivity and preclude people from reaching their full human potential or participating in development processes.2 In fact, development is undermined where large numbers of people live in extreme poverty. In its efforts to embrace sustainable development, therefore, the international community has made poverty eradication a major priority.3 Poverty and the Environment The existence of mass poverty is a tragedy for the lost lives it represents. It also has significant implications for the global environment. Most poor people live in rural localities and must rely on natural resources for their livelihoods, energy sources, and for food. When land and resources decline in supply, particularly as populations grow and large tracts of productive land are taken over for commercial export crops, they are propelled into increasingly marginal and ecologically-fragile areas. Here they attempt to carry on subsistence farming, livestock production and the never-ending search for sources of fuel, mostly firewood, which quickly become denuded.4 The result too often is deforestation, soil erosion, the silting of streams and rivers, increased flooding in low-lying areas, and desertification. As Maurice Strong explained in a World Food Programme report just prior to the 1992 Rio (UNCED) Conference, " poverty compels people, in the interests of immediate survival, to destroy the resources on which their future depends. It is a vicious circle in which human need and environmental deterioration re-enforce each other."5 The poor themselves suffer most immediately from the environmental degradation that their own search for survival produces. Exhausted land, soil erosion, the silting and flooding of rivers, desertification and loss of biodiversity impact directly on their already precarious existence. Those who choose to flee the poverty of the countryside often find themselves joining the urban, slum-dwellers of expanding cities. There, they live in unhealthy, crowded conditions where public services are also inadequate or non-existent.6 Demographic factors contribute to poverty and environmental degradation. Poor families tend to maintain high fertility rates in order to secure sufficient labour power for economic survival and to provide for the care of aging parents.7 The pressure of increased numbers exacerbates land and fuel shortages and places increased demands on resources, both national and environmental. Mass poverty is most prevalent in the developing world, but it is not exclusive to those nations. The countries in transition, such as the former members of the Soviet bloc, are also experiencing difficulties in providing adequate livelihoods and living standards for their people as they cope with a difficult shift in economic and political orientation. In the industrialized countries of the North, the welfare state that grew up after the Second World War has been losing ground to fiscal policies of contracted public spending, resulting in increased poverty in the midst of plenty.8 Development that does not address wide disparities in wealth and opportunity and growth that does not bring universal benefits will not be durable. Even in the North, then, sustainable development will be endangered if human well-being is not made a priority, just as it must be in the South. For all nations, sustainable and environmentally benign economic growth demands that poverty alleviation be central to policy processes and that these processes be supported by adequate public spending. At the international level, compromises will have to be made so that the poorer states can find the freedom of movement necessary to place poverty alleviation at the centre of their development efforts. Many developing countries are presently straining under huge levels of foreign debt. This, along with the inequities of an international trading system dominated by the industrialized countries, severely constrains their ability to provide assistance to the poor. Without support in this area, they cannot be expected to make any significant progress in the area of sustainable development.9 What is the United Nations Doing to Meet the Challenge of Mass Poverty? Agenda 21 set out the objectives to be pursued by the international community in its efforts to combat poverty:
In keeping with this plan of action, Principle 5 of the Rio Declaration of 1992 (UNCED) and the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development of 1995, the United Nations makes the eradication of global poverty a priority of the highest order and an "overriding theme of sustainable development."11 The United Nations also treats poverty as a human rights issue. According to the 1998 Poverty Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): "A multidimensional concept of poverty basically mirrors an integrated understanding of human rights in which civil and political rights are indistinguishable from social, economic and cultural rights. Poverty and inequality are a threat to social stability and also a threat to civil and political rights. Correspondingly, ending all forms of discrimination and marginalization based on social status, gender, religion, race or ethnicity would go a long way to eliminating some of the main causes of poverty."12 As it works to foster international cooperation in integrating poverty alleviation into sustainable development strategies, the United Nations recognizes this "multidimensional concept of poverty" and adopts a comprehensive approach that addresses underlying causes and recognizes the multiplicity of forms that impoverishment can take. UNDP, the "principal antipoverty arm of the United Nations," makes an important distinction between "income poverty" (which is to fall below a recognized poverty line standard of $1/day in income), and "human poverty," which represents the absence of "essential human capabilities, such as being literate or adequately nourished." This distinction acknowledges that poverty is not simply a case of financial deprivation; it is actually the product of social and political "imbalances" and inequities of opportunity that can only be put right with the cooperation and participation of all members of society.13 Through its various bodies and associated organizations, including UNDP, IFAD, WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNIFEM, UNHCR, WFP, FAO, the United Nations promotes a "people-centred" approach to development that encourages "social mobilization" in the interest of building the capacity of people to escape their poverty and move away from the patterns and behaviours that are harming their environment. Assistance is provided in making available to the poor basic health care and education, adequate food supplies, safe drinking water, sanitation and other government services. The empowerment of women is actively promoted and expertise and technology are provided to encourage sustainable agricultural practices. At the same time, states are assisted in setting up political structures that are open, participatory, and based on the rule of law. Only with these many ingredients, it is believed, can development be equitable, sustainable and capable of eradicating the dire poverty that undermines present efforts and perpetuates environmental destruction.14 The United Nations has designated the years 1996 to 2006 as the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty. There has also been designated an annual International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17), when public activities will be encouraged to heighten public awareness of poverty and its consequences.15 see UNA-Canada's population issue piece: The issue of poverty and its relationship to population, development and the environment will appear in numerous areas on the United Nations web site. Begin at the United Nations Sustainable Development site (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/) and click on Poverty. This will provide documentation on the United Nations and poverty eradication, including reports of the Secretary General. It will also provide links to related sites. The United Nations site is fairly good in the sense of providing expressions of the organization's overall aims in this area, but an in-depth understanding is better acquired by reading published documents such as the annual Poverty Reports of UNDP or the Human Development Reports (UNDP). Information on poverty as a theme within the CSD can found on the Commission's site: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd.htm Archives: The UNDP Human Development Reports and Annual Poverty Reports are highly recommended. Also recommended is a reading of Chapter 3 of Agenda 21. 1 United Nations, UNDP
Poverty Report 1998 (New York: United Nations Development Programme,
1998)16, 33; UNDP, Human Development Report 1997 (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1997) 32, 35, 47; and Maurice Strong, "The Challenge of
Environment and Development," WFP and the Environment (Rome, Italy:
WFP, n.d.) 15.
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