Number of Asian Poor Decreasing toward UN 2015 Millenium Goal
The number of people in Asia living in extreme poverty in the Asia-Pacific region might be cut in half by 2015.
In 1990, the region, home to 60% of the world's population had over 1 billion people living on less than $1 a day.
Latest estimates put the figure at 641 million.
In 1990, one in three Chinese were living in poverty – today, it's one in 10.
Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are still lagging behind.
Another goal – universal education and gender parity in schools is on target.
The biggest failures -
1. reducing child mortality
2. improving nutrition
3. improving maternal health
4. providing safe drinking water
5. offering safe sanitation facilities
Nearly two out of every three underweight child is in Asia. There are 60 deaths per 1000 births – double that of Latin America.
It is the best of times…it is the worst of times.
It would seem to me that some billionaire with nothing better to spend his/her money on, could provide clean water for this region, no?
What do you think?
While Asia has made great strides over the last decade in raising macroeconomic growth, there are increasing concerns about its inclusiveness. There were several interesting articles in e-newsline (http://www.adbi.org/e-newsline/) about growing incoming disparity in countries such as India, China and Vietnam. I suppose the real question is how much of the wealth will trickle down to those in need through job creation and better social infrastructure.
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