News

Reducing poverty faces obstacles, banker says

By Jaime Guillory
News Reporter

John Page, the World Bankis director of poverty reduction, said Thursday at the C.T. Bauer College of Business that although progress is being made in eradicating poverty internationally, neither reducing child mortality nor promoting maternal health are among goals likely to be realized. 

Praveen Kumar, chairman of finance at the college of business, introduced Page, who has been a World Bank economist and manager since 1980. 

Kumar opened the lecture by saying, "In 1998, 1.2 billion people were living with less than a dollar a day, and 2.8 billion people were living with less than two dollars a day."

Pageis lecture, "False Consensus? Monterrey, Doha and the Worldis Poor," focused on goals to reduce poverty in countries with poor economies.

For the first time, progress is being made to reduce poverty, Page said. Drawing from meetings from fall 2001 to summer 2002 on financing development for the poorest countries in the world, he said there was a consensus to combat poverty in the developing countries.

In September 2000, 189 countries agreed to the Millennium Development Goals to lower poverty, achieve universal primary education and combat the spread of HIV, malaria and other diseases. 

"These goals can be measured, although it is a difficult task. The good news is that we are on track to eradicate poverty and reduce it by more than half by the year 2015," Page said.

Many countriesi policies and institutions are improving, helping the fight to lessen poverty, Page said. "Developing countries have become more macro-economically stable, particularly in the 1990s. The number of democratic regimes nearly doubled between 1974 and 1998. Particularly notable is the transition in Africa."

But much remains to be done, Page said. More efforts need to be made to achieve the goal and some countries are doing their part. "For the first time African nations have committed to exploring regional solutions to common problems," said Page.

Aid became more effective from 1990 to 1998. The impact of $10 billion dollars tripled to the reduction of poor people. But aid levels are still far short of those needed to reach the Millennium Development Goals. Page said at least $50 billion more in aid per year is needed. He presented a challenge to the United States to aid developing countries. The United States is the second smallest contributor.

Pageis lecture was sponsored by the World Affairs Council and the UH International MBA Society.
 

 Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu