UN urges nations to work together to eradicate poverty

18 October, 2012

The 2012 commemoration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP) was held on 17 October at United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York, focusing on the theme 'Working together out of poverty'.

THE DAY is being observed every year since 1993, when the General Assembly, by resolution 47/196, designated this day to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries, particularly in developing countries - a need that has become a development priority.

According to the United Nations, people living in poverty face increasingly difficult challenges as climate change, environmental degradation and rising food prices that threaten their livelihoods and survival.

World Bank (WB) defines extreme poverty as living on less than $1.25 a day. According to WB, over 1.3 billion people in developing countries fall under this definition of poverty and it is inextricably linked to malnutrition, hunger, illiteracy, disease, gender inequality and nearly every other development issue.

The WB maintains that a meaningful path out of poverty requires a strong economy that produces jobs and good wages; a government that can provide schools, hospitals, roads, and energy; and healthy, well-nourished children who are the future human capital that will fuel economic growth.

Moreover, at the Millennium Summit, world leaders committed themselves to cutting by half by the year 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty - people whose income is less than one dollar a day.

Jaipur-based NGO called CUTS holds that it is the youth who will eventually take up the fight against hunger and poverty, and this could be achieved only if they are sensitised and gradually mobilised to take up this combat.