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UN:
PARTS OF ASIA-PACIFIC REGION LAG BEHIND AFRICA IN REACHING ANTIPOVERTY
GOALS, UN: 09/10/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 09 October 2007 -
A new United Nations report assessing
progress in the Asia-Pacific region on reaching the antipoverty Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) paints a mixed picture of progress in some parts of the
region even as others lag behind Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
Released
yesterday in Bangkok and Manila, the report states
that the region is well on track and ahead of its peers in Latin America and
Sub-Saharan Africa to reduce extreme poverty by half, attain universal
education, and achieve gender parity in education by the target year 2015.
But Asia
and the Pacific accounts for about two thirds of the world's underweight
children. More than one in four children under the age of five are underweight.
The rates in many Asian countries exceed those of Sub-Saharan Africa, according
to the report.
The
region is also moving too slowly in reducing child mortality – every year six
out of every 100 children do not live to see their fifth birthday, a rate almost
double that of Latin American and the Caribbean. The most serious problems are
in South Asia where most countries are off track on reducing child mortality.
Maternal
deaths in Asia and the Pacific account for almost half of the global total,
according to the report, The Millennium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and
the Pacific 2007. The region's overall maternal mortality ratio, at over 300 per
100,000 live births, is more than 30 percent higher than in Latin America and
the Caribbean.
The
region's greatest challenges lie in addressing the issues of child mortality,
malnutrition, improving maternal health and providing safe drinking water and
sanitation facilities, said the report – a joint publication by the UN
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
“The
2007 MDG progress report gives us an indication of what the region stands to
gain if we intensify our efforts to meet the MDGs. We need to focus on those
countries that are moving slowly or not making progress, and within those areas
concentrate on improving the lives of the most vulnerable,” said Haishan Fu,
Chief, Statistics Development Section, UNESCAP.
The
report points out if the countries in the region that are off track were able to
speed up and meet the MDG targets by 2015, then about 196 million more people
would be lifted out of extreme poverty, 23 million more children would no longer
suffer from hunger and nearly 1 million more children would survive beyond their
fifth birthday.
The
other key areas where Asia-Pacific region is making slow progress are provision
of access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation facilities. Across the
region, over 560 million people in rural areas lack access to improved water
sources; over 1.5 billion are living without basic sanitation facilities, nearly
three-quarters of the global total.
The
report also warns that environmental pressures – arising from land
degradation, poor water management, rising pollution in urban areas, CO2
emission contributing to climate change and other factors – could push more
people into poverty.
The
eight MDGs range from halving extreme poverty to reducing child mortality,
halting spread of HIV and AIDS, providing universal primary education and
providing access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities – all by
the target year of 2015.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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