Press release

11 Nov 2010

Beirut

UN Launches Report on Combating Poverty and Inequality

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Beirut, 11 November 2010 (UN Information Service) — ESCWA today launched at the UN House in Beirut a global report on “Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics,” by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). Presentations were delivered during the launch by UNRISD Executive Director Sarah Cook and Acting Director of ESCWA Economic Development and Globalization Division Tarek Alami. Cook said improving human wellbeing is a central objective of international development policy. “The MDGs seek to reduce global poverty by half by 2015. Even though this target may be attainable, about 1 billion people - mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – will still be trapped in poverty,” she added. Cook noted that the report is structured around three interconnected issues: economic (growth and structural change), social (universal social protection and social services), and political (civic rights, activism and political arrangements). “Combating poverty and inequality is not just about having the right economic policies; it is also about pursuing comprehensive social policies and types of politics that elevate the interests of the poor in public policy,” UNRISD chief concluded. For his part, Alami considered unemployment a major development challenge in most Arab countries, pointing out that unemployment rates in the 2000s are only marginally lower than in the 1990s. He clarified that Arab Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have witnessed a dramatic increase in unemployment rates, from around 14 percent to around 19 percent. The employment-to-population ratio in the Arab region is 54 percent, which is 8 percent below the average of other developing regions. Alami added that the number of poor, based on national lower poverty lines, has increased in the last 10 years in the Arab region from 34.9 million to 35.2 million. He sounded the alarm that LDCs have experienced an increase in the number of poor people based on national lower poverty lines from 7.7 million to 9.3 million. The ESCWA official enumerating some short-term macroeconomic policies that can help in achieving the goal of reducing poverty, such as a pro-poor fiscal policy, an improved tax system, limited tax evasion, progressive taxation, countercyclical fiscal policy and others. The report explores the causes, dynamics and persistence of poverty as well as what works and what does not in international policy thinking and practice. It reveals the multiple and complex processes involved in sustainable poverty reduction, and lays out a range of policies and institutional measures that countries can adopt to achieve it.
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