52/193 First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty

Date: 18 December 1997	Meeting: 77
Adopted without a vote	Report: A/52/628/Add.6

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 48/183 of 21 December 1993, 49/110 of 19 December 1994, 50/107 of 20 December 1995 and 51/178 of 16 December 1996, related to the observance of the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty (1996), and to the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006), and all its other relevant resolutions relating to international cooperation for the eradication of poverty in developing countries,

Recalling also all declarations and programmes of action of the United Nations major conferences and summits organized since 1990 and the reports and publications on the outcomes of those conferences and summits as they relate to poverty eradication,

Taking note of the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21, adopted by the General Assembly at its nineteenth special session for the purpose of an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21, ⁽⁷³⁾ the Report on the World Social Situation, 1997, ⁽⁷⁴⁾ the Human Development Report, 1997 ⁽⁷⁵⁾ and the Trade and Development Report, 1997, ⁽⁷⁶⁾

Expressing its concern that, as underlined in the reports mentioned above, the number of people living in absolute poverty is still increasing, especially in developing countries, and that a majority of them are women,

Noting decisions, measures and activities undertaken to eradicate poverty by countries and by organizations, agencies, funds, programmes and bodies of the United Nations system, including the World Bank, as well as by non-governmental organizations and the entire civil society within the framework of the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty and the first year of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty,

1. Reiterates that the main objective of the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty is to achieve the goal of eradicating absolute poverty and reducing overall poverty substantially in the world through decisive national actions and international cooperation in implementing fully and effectively the relevant resolutions and decisions of the United Nations and all agreements and commitments agreed upon at the United Nations major conferences and summits organized since 1990 as they relate to poverty eradication;

2. Reaffirms that, within the context of overall action for the eradication of poverty, special attention should be given to the multidimensional nature of poverty, to the national and international framework conditions and policies that are conducive to its eradication, which should aim at the social and economic integration of people living in poverty, and to the promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, including the right to development;

3. Reaffirms also that the causes of poverty should be addressed in the context of sectoral strategies, such as those on environment, food security, population, migration, health, shelter, human resources development, including education, fresh water, including clean water and sanitation, rural development and productive employment, and of the specific needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, in such a way as to increase opportunities and choices of people living in poverty and enable them to build their strengths and assets so as to reach social and economic integration;

4. Reaffirms further that all Governments and the United Nations system, in particular the relevant funds, programmes and agencies, should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective and use gender analysis as a tool for the integration of a gender dimension into the planning and implementation of policies, strategies and programmes on poverty eradication;

5. Emphasizes that, in developing countries, rural development remains central to poverty eradication efforts, and this often includes agrarian reform, investment in infrastructure, extension of rural financial intermediation ensuring food security, better education and greater utilization of appropriate technology, ensuring fair prices to provide incentives for agricultural investment, and increasing productivity, including productivity in the informal sector;

6. Emphasizes also that in all countries, urban poverty should be addressed, inter alia, by promoting sustainable livelihoods for people living in urban poverty through the provision or expansion of access to training, education and other employment assistance services, in particular for women, youth, the unemployed and the underemployed;

7. Decides that every year the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October) should be marked by concentrating on the themes that the General Assembly chooses for that year;

8. Renews its recommendation that all Governments formulate or strengthen integrated poverty eradication strategies and policies and implement national poverty eradication plans or programmes in a participatory manner, to address the structural causes of poverty, encompassing action at local, national, subregional, regional and international levels, and stresses that those plans or programmes should establish, within each national context, strategies and affordable time-bound goals and targets for the substantial reduction of overall poverty and the eradication of absolute poverty;

9. Calls upon developed countries to reaffirm the commitments undertaken to fulfil, as soon as possible, the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product for overall development assistance and, where agreed, within that target, to earmark 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of the gross national product for the least developed countries;

10. Invites the international community, including multilateral financial institutions, to implement fully and effectively all initiatives taken regarding debt relief for developing countries, including Naples terms and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries' Debt Initiative, and to continue their efforts in this field with a view to contributing to a durable solution to the debt problems of developing countries, and encourages donors to ensure adequate financing of these mechanisms and/or initiatives, particularly in African countries and the least developed countries, and thus support their efforts to eradicate poverty;

11. Takes note of the various international microfinance initiatives launched in recent years, such as the Microcredit Summit, held in Washington, D.C., in February 1997, ⁽⁷⁷⁾ and the Consultative Group of Assistance to the Poorest, and invites all Governments, the United Nations system, including the Bretton Woods institutions, the relevant non-governmental organizations, the private sector and other actors of civil society to focus on the importance of increasing access to microcredit and related financial services for self-employment and income-generating activities for people living in poverty, in particular women in developing countries, particularly in Africa and the least developed countries, and to support the corresponding programmes and actions;

12. Invites the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme/United Nations Population Fund to consider extending projects under the rubric "Poverty Strategies Initiative" to all developing countries in order to make the initiative closely geared to the poverty eradication goals of the commitments adopted at the World Summit for Social Development ⁽⁷⁸⁾ and to strengthen assistance in the elaboration of national plans, programmes and strategies to eradicate poverty, particularly in African countries and the least developed countries, and calls upon all countries to contribute to the Initiative;

13. Calls upon all donors to give high priority to the eradication of poverty in their assistance budgets and programmes, on both bilateral and multilateral bases, and also invites the relevant funds, programmes and agencies of the United Nations system to support developing countries, particularly African countries and the least developed countries, in their efforts to achieve the overall goal of eradicating poverty and ensuring basic social services, by supporting national efforts to formulate, coordinate, implement, monitor and assess integrated poverty strategies, including capacity-building, and by supporting efforts to empower people living in poverty;

14. Reaffirms the importance of agreeing on a mutual commitment between interested developed and developing country partners to allocate, on average, 20 per cent of official development assistance and 20 per cent of the national budget, respectively, to basic social programmes, and recalls the outcome of the Oslo meeting which reaffirmed that promoting access for all basic social services was essential for sustainable development and should be an integral part of any strategy to overcome poverty;

15. Requests the Secretary-General to report to it at its fifty-third session on progress made in the implementation of measures, themes, recommendations and activities related to the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, including recommendations for possible actions and initiatives for the rest of the Decade, as well as proposals for a better coordination of actions taken by the United Nations system;

16. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-third session an item entitled "Implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006)".