UN, ADB say crisis stalled Asia poverty reduction

(February 19, 2010) The global economic crisis has stalled Asia's progress in improving quality of life for the poor and could trap another 21 million of the region's people in extreme poverty, the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank, ADB, have said. A joint U.N.-ADB report released on Wednesday said the 2008 financial crisis has undermined gains toward achieving what are known as the “Millennium Development Goals” - including female participation in secondary education, universal access to primary school for children, and reducing by half the number of people living below the $1.25-a-day extreme poverty line. The development goals, which also include increased access to health care, clean water and sanitation, are supposed to be achieved by 2015. The report is an «urgent call to action» to leaders of countries in the region, saying there is still time to reach the targets if they put their acts together. Asia made more progress than Sub-Saharan Africa, but less than Latin America and the Caribbean, the report said. It said the region is home to the largest number, i.e. more than 50 percent of people who live on less that $1.25 per day. The region also ranks the worst for rural and urban people without basic sanitation, children under five years old who are underweight, people infected with tuberculosis and rural residents without access to clean water. Slower economic growth in the aftermath of the financial meltdown means that fewer people will escape from poverty, the report said.