GLOBAL: Economic slowdown to push 100m into poverty

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, along with heads of (from left to Right) WFP,FAO,UN,WB,IFAD,hold a press conference about the Food Security conference in the Iran Room at FAO headquarters in ROme Italy June 4th, 2008

Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, warns in a new report that the gains made in reducing extreme poverty are under threat from the rise in global food and fuel prices and global economic slowdown.

In the UN's Millennium Development Goals Report 2008, launched on 11 September, Ban writes: "The largely benign development environment that has prevailed since the early years of this decade, and that has contributed to the successes to date, is now threatened. The economic slowdown will diminish the incomes of the poor; the food crisis will raise the number of hungry people in the world and push millions more into poverty; climate change will have a disproportionate impact on the poor."

According to World Bank data, the number of extreme poor has fallen â€" from 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion â€" between 1990 and 2005, with the biggest gains made in eastern Asia, in particular, China. In sub-Saharan Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States, however, the number of poor has increased in the same period.

These figures confirm that the global poverty rate is likely to be halved by 2015 â€" achieving the first MDG.

However, the worldwide increases in food prices will push another 100 million people into absolute poverty, according to the UN report.

"Even though the proportion of people worldwide suffering from malnutrition and hunger has fallen since the early 1990s, the number of people lacking access to food has risen. With recent increases in food prices, it is estimated that one billion people will go hungry, while another two billion will be undernourished," the report states.

Sub-Saharan Africa's poverty rate is constant at 50 percent, while East Asia cut its rate over 25 years from almost 80 percent to less than 20 percent. Overall numbers are thus down from 52 percent in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005.

Slight improvements have been seen in primary school enrolment â€" up from 83 percent to 88 percent on average worldwide, although the rate for sub-Saharan Africa is only 71 percent, with 38 million children of primary school-going age not in school. In contrast, the enrolment ratio tops 90 percent in Southern Asia, although 18 million children do not attend school.

The fourth MDG, cutting child mortality, also saw improvements, with the number of deaths of under-fives falling below 10 million for the first time in 2006, to 9.7 million. The rate has declined from 93 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2006.

However, in 62 countries under-five mortality is not falling fast enough to meet the target of reducing the mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015.


Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, has warned that global economic problems will slow down poverty eradicationImproving maternal health, goal five, has seen the least progress â€" maternal mortality rates fell by less than 1 percent a year between 1990 and 2005, significantly below the 5.5 percent annual improvement needed to meet the target.

In sub-Saharan Africa, with the highest level of maternal mortality, progress was negligible. A woman's risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is about one in seven in Niger, against one in 17,400 in Sweden, according to the report.

Progress on universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS by 2010 and of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 has been limited. The majority of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, 60 percent of them are women; globally, the numbers have risen from around 30 million in 2001 to 33 million in 2007.

However, access to anti-retroviral treatment improved by 42 percent in 2007; by the end of that year, three million people were receiving treatment in development countries, out of an estimated 9.7 million in need.

On the second prong of goal six, combating malaria, about 250 million insecticide-treated bed nets are needed to reach 80 percent coverage in sub-Saharan Africa alone, states the report. Funding so far is sufficient for 100 million nets, and between 350 and 500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide.

Halfway to the target year, said Ban, "it is clear that we are not on track to meet the Goals, especially in Africa. And new global challenges â€" an economic slowdown, high food and fuel prices, and climate change â€" threaten to reverse the progress we have made."

A high-level meeting of premiers and private sector, NGO and civil society leaders on 25 September will seek to address these challenges.

ISRAEL-OPT: Thousands of East Jerusalem children not in school

Palestinian school children

Thousands of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem do not attend school as there is no room for them in the state school system, parents and rights groups said, adding that the drop-out rate remained the highest in the Israeli school system.

"It is a disgraceful situation," said Abed al-Karim Lafi, head of the Union of East Jerusalem Parents' Committees.

According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), there is a shortage of about 1,500 classrooms in East Jerusalem, which means only about half of all Palestinian children in the city attend state schools.

The rest - about 40,000 pupils â€" are in expensive private education or rely on various substandard forms of unofficial schooling.

To cope with the serious shortage of classrooms, the city came up with solutions such as "rented buildings, a double-shift system, mobile units and permission to operate unofficially recognised schools", according to a report by the Alternative Information Center, an Israeli-Palestinian NGO, in 2007.

These "solutions" mean students study at overcrowded private homes, sometimes without heating or in the open, and others have to wait until the second shift in the afternoon, leaving them on the streets in the morning. While the unofficial schools receive government funding they lack oversight, affecting the quality of education.

Some schools even lacked proper bathrooms, the AIC said.

Poverty and education

"There is a clear connection between the cost and the drop-out rate," Melanie Takefman of ACRI told IRIN, even though "education can help end the cycle of poverty".

In Jerusalem, about 67 percent of Palestinian families live below the poverty line compared with about 21 percent of Jews, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.

In all, about 9,000 Palestinian children simply do not attend school.

According to the municipality's own statistics, more than 50 percent of Palestinian boys who start school will never finish, though for Jews the rate is less than 8 percent.

The AIC said the fact that in East Jerusalem "only one-and-a-half truancy officer positions are manned" also contributed to the problem.

Filling the gap


Photo: ACRI Israeli Minister of Education Yuli Tamir cuts the ribbon to inaugurate a new school in Um Lison, in East Jerusalem, with Mayor of Jerusalem Uri Lupoliansky "In the past two years, we have built schools in East Jerusalem at an accelerated pace," Israel's Minister of Education Yuli Tamir told reporters on 10 September as she and Mayor Uri Lupolianksy inaugurated a new school in Um Lison, a village on the city outskirts.

Tamir admitted there was "a gap created by neglect for over 30 years" but said there were plans to rectify the situation.

"All we can do is keep building," Tamir said, adding that "we will build wherever there is land".

However, this too is a contentious point for the Palestinians, who said they had to give up their private land for schools as the state did not use its own land reserves.

"Why do they need our land when they can use [the Israel Land] Administration's land?" demanded one parent at the new school.

Shafik Rubaya, head of the Um Lison parents' committee, told IRIN his group had struggled for many years to get the new building.

"We had to fight for the last 12 years to get this new school," he said. "Before this new building, the children used to go to other villages, far away, to get to school. We hope this new school will make things better for us," said Rubaya, though the new school still lacked computers and science laboratories.

Tamir backed the line stressed by the rights groups. "As long as [the Palestinians] are here, as part of Israel, we need to give them the best quality of education," she said, noting that the new school, in her opinion, was not an attempt to strengthen Israel's grip over the city.

GMA to Cabinet: Ensure RP stability KEEP the house safe and secure.

Thus ordered President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to her Cabinet secretaries on the eve of her departure for the United States to address the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23, 10 p.m., Manila time.

The President is also slated to attend to several pressing concerns including consulting with the hierarchy of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the President issued the marching orders for the Cabinet to ensure that measures are undertaken to cope with the effects of the economic meltdown in the U.S.

Ermita said that the President’s guidance while she is away from the country is to ensure that national security situation remains stable.

The President is flying to the U.S. Sunday night (Sept. 21) with a lean 71-member delegation, according to Ermita.

It included five official delegates and eight government officials.

She is scheduled to fly home Saturday morning (Sept. 27) in time for the turn over and change of command of the Philippine National Police.

Ermita said that during the absence of the President, they were directed to conduct consultations among civil sectors and religious groups in connection with the peace talks.