UN development boss says poverty goals may not be possible

Geraldine Coutts

Last Updated: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:21:00 +1100

The head of the United Nations Development Program, Helen Clark says the millennium goal of halving world poverty by 2015, may not be achievable.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark issued the warning in Vanuatu on her first visit to the Pacific since taking over the leadership of the UN's biggest agency, the UNDP.

Regional leaders and non-government bodies are in Port Vila looking at the impact of the global economic crisis.

Ms Clark told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program, because of the recession there's been an increase in the number of people going hungry around the world.

"We had been making rather good progress on goals like cutting the numbers of extremely poor people by half, but the recession has cast a shadow over quite a lot of this," she said.

"For example, the number of chronically hungry people in the world is going up, not coming down - probably 150 million more this year."

She says there's no doubt the global economic crisis has led to higher levels of poverty in the Pacific.

"Many felt that perhaps that the least developed low income parts of our world would not be directly impacted...but that was quickly proved to be wrong because the crisis in the developed western economies had ripple effects right around the world," she said.

"[The crisis] had an effect on tourism for example...it had an impact on remittances, it had an impact on demand for commodities and other exports,"

"All these things came together in the Pacific and there will be no doubt that poverty levels have risen in the Pacific as a result."

She says unless governments put in place the right policies, the poor and vulnerable could suffer lasting disadvantages.

"For example, if a family's income deteriorates so much that they can't afford basic healthcare, that the government's income reduces so much that it can't afford to continue a basic healthcare system, or education system...all of these things can have lasting effects."

"If a family that's so short of money that it can't adequately feed its children, that could have long term effect on a child's development."

Ms Clark has urged Pacific governments to provide social safety programs, which would ensure poor and vulnerable families would receive enough income to live on.

"[Such] programs could involve cash for work, school feeding programs, they could involved knocking back the cost of education and healthcare at this time, none of this is cost free but it has to be prioritised."

"What the experience of supporting countries through previous crisis has shown is that the social protection systems put in place has long term beneficial impact in building social resilience."

Ms Clark says she hopes her role as the chair of the UNDP will give the Pacific a greater profile within the United Nations.

"To be seen as a Pacific person who's gone to New York and will make sure that a flag is flown for the visibility for the Pacific and the UN's development system so I intend to honour that commitment."

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