BACKGROUNDER 2 - SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

No single reason exists to explain why poverty is so persistent in Asia and the Pacific. In some subregions, such as South Asia, the slow pace of economic growth and the consistently high pressures of population conspire to lower living standards. In other areas, the spread of AIDS; the lack of education; the obstacles in the way of securing land, credit or economic support; the frequency of natural calamities; the degradation of the environment and the discrimination against women and disadvantaged groups are other reasons why the poor persist.

Poverty, however, does not afflict all equally. Most of the poor live in the country-side. In Bangladesh in 1989, rural poor numbered about 43 million - more than seven times the number of poor in the cities. But as people flee the farms, the number of poor in urban areas is growing. In about 12 years, one out of two people living in absolute poverty will be found in urban areas.

Women also tend to be burdened by poverty more often than men. Female-headed households are more likely to be poor. Women also face greater hardship than men in lifting themselves and their children out of the poverty trap. The many biases in society - including unequal opportunities in education, employment and asset ownership - place major burdens on poor women and limit their opportunities. In Pakistan as in some other economies, the gender gap in education is substantial, women have fewer employment opportunities than men in rural areas, and they lack access to land.

Geographically, South Asia remains the epicentre of poverty. In 1993, 43.1 per cent of the population in the subcontinent was living below the poverty line. They number more than half a billion people. Though there have been modest successes -- in India, the states of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala and Punjab have managed to reduce income poverty by more than 50 per cent -- social indicators for the subregion are among the weakest in the world, with high infant mortality and low school enrolment rates.

The situation in East and South-East Asia appears better, with 26 per cent of the population below the poverty line in 1993, down from 28.2 per cent in 1987. But in numerical terms, the poor still number about 446 million. High and sustained economic growth is the main reason for the sharp drop in the incidence of poverty and the decline in the number of poor people. Today, most of the poor in this subregion are located in hinterland provinces and remote areas.

Data for Pacific island economies are incomplete, but anecdotal evidence suggests that significant percentages of their populations are poor. In the 1990s, these economies have grown at a slower pace than they did in the 1980s. The pace of population growth in many of them has far exceeded the rate of economic growth, resulting in a general decline in living standards. Meanwhile, the economies of Central-Asia, which are undergoing economic transformation, saw their poor increase almost sixfold from 6.5 million in 1987/88 to 24.5 million in 1993/94. But the intensity of poverty in these economies seems to be modest with many households concentrated around the poverty line and moving frequently into or out of poverty.

High population growth continues to frustrate efforts in some economies to alleviate poverty. The average rate of population growth in the region has declined to 1.3 per cent per annum, but in some countries and areas with a high incidence of poverty, such as Bhutan, Laos and Nepal, it continues to be above 2.5 per cent per annum.

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