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POVERTY IS A WORLDWIDE SCOURGE. It continues to affect individuals and communities in every part of the globe. It degrades the dignity of the human being. Fortunately, the world seems at last to have decided to attack and eradicate this disease using all the resources available at its disposal.

At the world summit of Heads of State and Government held in New York in 2000 the issue of poverty was placed as the first priority on the agenda of the UN Major Development Goals (MDGs). Accordingly, governments pledged to reduce extreme poverty rate by half by the year 2015.

Poverty is generally defined as living on less than $1 a day. Ten years after the adoption of the MDGs and five years before the target date, the international community seems to be concerned about the real achievements in the fight against poverty.

True, some countries like China, Brazil and others have made significant progress in reducing poverty. Others, mostly in Africa, remain behind. The current economic and financial crisis and continuing conflicts in several areas of the world partly account for this lack of decisive progress in the fight against poverty and hunger.

“Economic uncertainty cannot be an excuse to slow down our development efforts”, said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on June 22. “It is a reason to speed them up. By investing in the MDGs, we invest in economic growth. By focusing on the needs of the most vulnerable, we lay the foundation for a more sustainable and prosperous tomorrow,” he added.

But while progress against poverty continues, hunger and malnutrition are on the rise in some regions such as West Africa and South Asia. The gap persists between the rich and the poor, and between the urban and the rural communities.

Some countries have been experiencing a worsening situation. Niger, for example, is currently hit by drought and poor harvests. Child nutrition in this country has reached an emergency level. Malnutrition rate is 17% for children under the age of five.

Two million people in Chad, hundreds of thousands more in Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and the northern part of Nigeria are now experiencing an acute shortage of food and suffering from malnutrition.

International agencies like the World Food Program and UNICEF are responding to this dramatic situation, both in Niger as well as in the neighboring countries. On July 8, ten leading agencies called for a “surge” in the humanitarian effort to help 10 million people exposed to acute malnutrition in the Sahel of West and Central Africa.

Despite numerous warnings of the impending catastrophe, the funding for the crisis has been slow to materialize. Some countries have increased their contribution; others have shown less generosity. The aid agencies have called on the rich countries to contribute generously and urgently to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe

Kirsty Hughes, of Oxfam warned: “In parts of the Sahel, people are scavenging for wild leaves and seeds, and drinking dirty water. Whole villages are starving and desperate for food, with children, nursing mothers and the elderly particularly at risk. In aid ministries around the world, they know this is happening…. The question is: Why don’t you act?”

At the recent summit of the Group of 20 in Toronto, which included advanced industrial nations and key emerging countries, discussions centered on rising budget deficits and fiscal problems. Addressing the gathering, Ban Ki-moon called on the assembled leaders to take urgent steps to help the poor and vulnerable through investment policies. “Under any circumstances”, he declared, “we must not balance budgets on the backs of the world’s poorest people.”

Pope John Paul II approached the issue of poverty from a moral stand. In his message on the World Day of Peace in 2001, he tried to appeal to our heart and our conscience. “The promotion of justice is at the heart of a true culture of peace”, he said. “It is not just a question of giving one’s surplus to those in need, but of helping peoples presently excluded or marginalized to enter into the sphere of economic and human development.”

Abdelkader Abbadi , Ph.D. is a former United Nations official and a Hillsdale homeowner. He is currently a correspondent at the UN.