| United Nations | E/CN.17/1995/14 |
Economic and Social Council
Distr. GENERAL
20 March 1995
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Third session
11-28 April 1995
Poverty eradication and sustainable development
Report of the Secretary-General
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
INTRODUCTION ............................................... 1 - 3 3
I. DIMENSIONS OF THE PROBLEM: A CAPSULE OVERVIEW ........ 4 - 11 3
A. Definition and extent of poverty .................. 4 - 7 3
B. The poor and environmental stress ................. 8 - 9 4
C. Environmental degradation and the health of the
poor .............................................. 10 - 11 5
II. IMPACT OF PAST POLICY ON POVERTY ...................... 12 - 17 5
A. Impact of economic policy ......................... 12 - 13 5
B. Impact of policy in the social sectors ............ 14 - 17 6
III. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF STRATEGIES TO COMBAT POVERTY ...... 18 - 55 7
A. Reorientation of economic policy: stabilization
and structural adjustment ......................... 19 - 20 7
B. Need for discretionary measures to eradicate
poverty ........................................... 21 - 23 7
C. Measures for combating poverty .................... 24 - 47 9
D. Socio-political empowerment of the poor ........... 48 - 55 16
IV. SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY ERADICATION. 56 - 61 18
A. Sustainable development of high-potential land .... 56 - 57 18
B. Sustainable development of low-potential land ..... 58 - 59 19
C. Rehabilitation of degraded land ................... 60 19
D. Reforestation and afforestation ................... 61 20
V. RESOURCE MOBILIZATION FOR POVERTY ERADICATION:
NATIONAL EFFORTS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION........ 62 - 70 20
A. National efforts .................................. 62 - 65 20
B. International cooperation ......................... 66 - 70 21
VI. REVIEW OF PROGRESS ACHIEVED: MAIN POLICY THRUSTS AND
EXPERIENCES........................................... 71 - 101 22
A. Country experiences in combating poverty .......... 71 - 82 22
B. Recent developments and experiences in
international cooperation ......................... 83 - 95 26
C. Organizations outside the United Nations system ... 96 - 101 30
VII. CONCLUSIONS........................................... 102 31
INTRODUCTION
1. This document reports on progress in the implementation of the
provisions of chapter 3 of Agenda 21 1/ and contains proposals for future
action for poverty eradication. The report was prepared by the United Nations
Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development as task manager
for chapter 3 of Agenda 21, in accordance with arrangements agreed to by the
Inter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Development at its fourth session. It
is the result of consultations and information exchanges between designated
focal points in a large number of United Nations agencies, governmental
officials and a number of other institutions and individuals.
2. The report emphasizes the need for an enabling strategy to eradicate
poverty with the Government and people living in poverty sharing
responsibilities in an efficient manner. Consistent with the broad guidelines
of chapter 3 of Agenda 21, it explores short-to-medium-term and long-term
measures to eradicate poverty and maintain environmental integrity, with the
underlying premise that the persistence of mass poverty is a reflection of
political and socio-economic structures. The short-to-medium-term strategy is
based on the need quickly to raise the incomes of the poor. To that end it
proposes the creation of productive employment for the poor through the
effective provision of productive assets, complemented by direct anti-poverty
governmental measures. The long-term strategy stresses capacity-building,
including the development of human resources, institutions and
infrastructures; slowing down of population growth; and a re-orientation of
development strategies to include poverty eradication as a central objective
of development. The issue is addressed from the economic point of view,
emphasizing efficiency and economy-wide growth; from the social point of view,
stressing equity considerations; and from the political point of view,
stressing empowerment of the poor to participate effectively in political and
economic decision-making. The basic principle underlying the proposals is
that in order to eradicate poverty, economic efficiency, equitable
redistribution from growth and provision of social services; and political
justice and equality must go hand in hand.
3. To the extent permitted by the availability of information, the report
reviews the experiences of a number of countries and non-governmental
organizations in combating poverty and the action they propose to take in the
future. It also provides an overview of the consensus on poverty eradication
reached by a number of major intergovernmental conferences of the United
Nations and the strategies put forward by a number of organizations of the
United Nations system.
I. DIMENSIONS OF THE PROBLEM: A CAPSULE OVERVIEW
A. Definition and extent of poverty
4. Poverty can be measured in both relative and absolute terms. Absolute
poverty is generally taken to mean a condition characterized by severe
deprivation of essential needs at a basic level such as nutrition, housing,
health services, safe drinking water and sanitation facilities and education.
Thus defined, the severity and magnitude of absolute poverty is country-
specific and needs to be assessed at the country level for operational
purposes.
5. The major common economic characteristic of the poor is that they lack
productive assets, either in terms of physical or human capital. In the rural
areas, where they are predominantly located in most of the developing regions
except Latin America, they are the landless or near-landless illiterate
agricultural workers, nomads, fishermen, pastoralists and forest dwellers who
eke out a subsistence income from seasonal agricultural employment or from
marginal lands and forests or from low-income non-farm work. In the urban
areas, they are the unskilled and unschooled people lacking physical capital
who depend for subsistence on the low-wage informal sector and the bottom
layer of the services sector, without the support of the Government, or who
scavenge materials from dumps and the streets. The incidence of poverty is
often particularly high among the socially repressed, such as ethnic
minorities, including indigenous peoples.
6. Whether in rural or urban areas, people living in poverty suffer from
undernutrition, even after spending the bulk of their income on food. Their
children are generally below average weight for age and suffer from impaired
mental and physical development which jeopardizes their ability to be
gainfully employed as adults. Ill-health among the poor is widespread and
saps their productive energy, reduces family incomes and prevents children
from taking full advantage of education wherever it is available. Average
death rates among the poor are higher, as are infant and child mortality
rates.
7. Defined by the World Bank as those with incomes below minimal levels
permitting a nutritionally adequate diet and access to essential non-food
needs, people in absolute poverty in the developing countries numbered
1.1 billion in 1990. This estimate represented an increase of some
100 million over the 1985 level. There is no presumption that these
quantifications constitute accurate measures of the extent of poverty. They
are meant simply to provide orders of magnitude which are useful from a
practical point of view. What is of greater cause for concern is that, on the
basis of present policies, medium-term prospects for reducing the number in
absolute poverty remain dim. In 1992, World Development Report revised a more
optimistic assessment made only two years earlier and assessed the medium-term
prospects as follows: "Even under fairly hopeful assumptions about economic
recovery in the rest of the decade, the absolute number of the poor in the
world at the turn of the century will be higher than in 1985." 2/
B. The poor and environmental stress
8. Over time, the majority of the rural poor have increasingly become
clustered on low-potential land. Some 60 per cent of the world's poor live in
fragile and highly vulnerable areas - arid and semi-arid lands, steep slopes
and forests. 3/ This has been the result of a combination of factors, with
some playing a more important role in some countries than in others, such as
expropriation, demographic pressures and intergenerational land fragmentation,
privatization of common lands, and consolidation and expansion of commercial
agriculture with reduced labour inputs. Of these factors, demographic
pressures continue to play an inexorable underlying role in the geographical
and economic and social marginalization of the poor in most countries with
high incidence of poverty.
9. Either pushed out or squeezed out of high-potential land, the rural poor
have no choice but to over-exploit the marginal resources available to them
through low-input, low-productivity agricultural practices - overgrazing,
soil-mining and deforestation, with consequent land degradation. Land
degradation has certainly not been caused mainly by the poor. Most
deforestation has been caused by logging interests and/or rich farmers with
considerable concessions. Soil erosion, waterlogging and salinization, which
have resulted in desertification in many parts of the world, have been caused
by rich farmers with considerable financial support.
C. Environmental degradation and the health of the poor
10. The rural poor suffer from ill-health mainly on account of
undernutrition and/or malnutrition. Their health is further undermined by
various forms of pollution and agricultural hazards - most importantly, by
water pollution, since they depend for drinking water on heavily polluted
water bodies; lack of sanitation facilities; indoor air pollution from the use
of biomass fuel for cooking and heating; and inadequate shelter.
11. The urban poor are victims of all forms of environmental degradation.
Over 130 million of the developing world's poor live in the worst parts of
urban areas. 4/ Whether due to absolute shortage of land or high rents on
serviced urban lands, these people cluster in slums and squatter settlements
in the urban periphery in areas prone to hazardous natural and man-made
environmental conditions such as flood plains, slopes or on land adjacent to
dangerous industries and dump sites. They have to contend with bad
sanitation, contaminated water, floods and landslides and chemical pollution.
According to WHO, an estimated 600 million urban dwellers in the developing
world live in what might be termed life- and health-threatening circumstances.
The most vulnerable are those in absolute poverty. 5/
II. IMPACT OF PAST POLICY ON POVERTY
A. Impact of economic policy
12. In the decades preceding the 1980s, interest rate, exchange rate and
trade policies meant to promote industrialization through import substitution
are known to have induced capital intensity in industry. Until recently the
phenomenon was widespread throughout the developing world. Thus the
expectation that economic diversification from agriculture into industry would
help absorb the rural labour force into higher productivity employment failed
to materialize fully in most developing countries. Two other major factors
contributed to this outcome: one was widespread governmental controls on
industrial activity, which stalled industrial expansion in the first place;
the other was high rates of population growth which swelled the labour force.
Investment rates varied among countries but generally fell short of the
requirements for creating adequate employment.
13. Public-sector investments in agricultural infrastructure have been
substantial in developing countries. Whether adequate or not from the point
of view of raising agricultural productivity and expanding agricultural
production, they have had a tendency to be biased towards areas owned by large
landowners to the neglect of the peasant sector. In many countries,
agricultural marketing boards, established originally to stabilize the prices
of farm products, ended up squeezing the profits of farmers through low
prices, either to provide cheap food to urban dwellers or to generate revenue
for the Government. This practice discouraged investments in agriculture and
resulted in sub-optimal agricultural expansion. In some countries, changes in
pricing policies, while succeeding in increasing agricultural production, have
aggravated poverty, especially in urban areas, by raising the food bill.
Subsidized mechanization and modern inputs, while contributing to agricultural
yield, reduced the demand for agricultural labour. Subsidized credit has
tended to benefit mainly large and medium-sized farmers.
B. Impact of policy in the social sectors
14. Social spending has varied from country to country. Significant,
although uneven, progress has been achieved, which is reflected in the
improvement of a variety of social indicators. By and large, however, social
spending has been insufficiently directed to the poor and to the very poor in
particular. For instance, in many countries there has been an overemphasis on
expensive curative health care, limited mainly to the cities, to the neglect
of the cheaper preventive care that could be extended to rural areas without
too much strain on the government budget.
15. Education, like health, tends to be concentrated in the urban areas.
Many countries spend major portions of their education budget to provide free
university education which is enjoyed overwhelmingly by the children of the
middle and upper classes who could afford to pay for it in whole or in part
while they neglect primary education, especially in areas where most of the
poor reside. An even more serious problem is the quality of education, which
varies widely not only from country to country but also within countries
between urban and rural areas. For various reasons the quality of education
is much worse in the rural areas and in urban shanty-towns, which puts
children from those areas at a disadvantage, especially in the industrial job
market.
16. The problem with housing is similar. In many countries, the bulk of
public housing is meant for the urban working class and civil servants while
the poor are for the most part ignored. Even sites-and-services schemes
usually end up benefiting the non-poor. In some cases, they are actually
harmed -
for example, by shanty-town clearance without provision for relocation.
17. Much the same is true for subsidized distribution of food to the poor.
Its effectiveness depends on targeting. Many countries allocate considerable
proportions of public expenditures for food subsidies, but the bulk of those
allocations go to civil servants, the police, families of the armed forces,
and factory employees - in sum, largely to urban areas where they benefit
middle- income groups, while the rural and urban poor benefit only marginally.
In the 1980s food subsidies were often actually phased out as part of
stabilization measures.
III. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF STRATEGIES TO COMBAT POVERTY
18. In this section an attempt is made to adhere to the indicative guideline
provided in paragraph 3.2 of Agenda 21 - namely, that "an effective strategy
for tackling the problems of poverty, development and environment
simultaneously should begin by focusing on resources, production and people
and should cover demographic issues, enhanced health care and education, the
rights of women, the role of youth, and of indigenous people and local
communities and a democratic participation process in association with
improved governance". 1/
A. Reorientation of economic policy: stabilization and
structural adjustment
19. Since the early 1980s, stabilization and structural adjustment measures
have been implemented in most developing countries, to varying degrees, in
order to correct past policy mistakes. The framework of policy reform is
comprehensive, encompassing macroeconomic, sectoral and even micro-economic
policies. The broad goals are to rationalize demand management in order to
eliminate excessively high public-sector deficits which fuel inflation and are
translated into external imbalances; remove price distortions (wage rates,
interest rates, exchange rates and commodity prices) and improve allocative
efficiency; reduce the presence of the public sector in directly productive
activities so as to eliminate the losses of State-owned enterprises which
often operate inefficiently and constitute a drain on the government budget;
remove unnecessary controls and regulations on private-sector industry;
liberalize trade policy in order to promote exports and increase competition;
restructure government spending in the direction of priority sectors, such as
economic and social infrastructure; and enhance the efficiency of public
sector enterprises.
20. Policy reform is necessary for long-term sustained growth and needs to
be implemented in a sustained manner. Implementation of reform measures
without the provision of safety nets, however, has exacerbated the poverty
situation, at least in the short run. It is realized now, at both the
national and international levels, that stabilization and structural
adjustment programmes should include safety nets as an integral element so as
to protect vulnerable groups effectively during the transition to sustained
growth.
B. Need for discretionary measures to eradicate poverty
21. Since poverty is a social phenomenon associated with a high degree of
inequity in the distribution of political and economic power, its eradication
calls for shifts of major significance in the structure of political and
economic systems. The foremost requirement for the elimination of poverty is
a strong political commitment to that end. Given the political commitment and
a policy framework conducive to economy-wide efficiency and growth, the most
effective approach would be a set of enabling measures that would empower the
poor economically to lift themselves out of poverty. The concept of an
enabling strategy does not imply any diminution of government responsibility.
What it does imply is that the Government and the poor should share
responsibilities in the most efficient way possible.
22. It is evident that low-income countries with a high incidence of poverty
cannot generate adequate resources to provide directly for the poor. They
cannot afford adequate resources even to cover all the poor by their
conventional poverty mitigation schemes, even if the schemes were to operate
optimally. Economic growth is important for poverty reduction but past
experience indicates that the "trickle down" process is too slow in reducing
poverty and particularly so in the context of high population growth and land
scarcity. In this regard the experience of the second half of the 1980s, for
instance, is worthy of note. In its 1992 World Development Report, the World
Bank states that there was "a negligible reduction in the incidence of poverty
in developing countries during the second half of the 1980s". 6/ With very
strong economic growth in South Asia, where over 50 per cent of the absolute
poor of the developing world are located, the percentage of population in
absolute poverty declined by some 2.8 per cent but the number of people in
absolute poverty rose by 30 million. At this rate it would take South Asia
almost a century to eradicate absolute poverty. Since the rate of growth
achieved in the second half of the 1980s cannot be expected to be sustained
over that long a period of time and since population is not likely to
stabilize for at least another half century, poverty eradication through
current patterns of growth would seem to be an illusive goal in South Asia.
More importantly, in China, which also experienced strong economic growth, the
poverty situation actually worsened in the second half of the 1980s as a
result of the evolution of a more uneven distribution of income. Only in
South-East Asia did poverty decline both as a percentage of population and in
numbers. In all the other developing regions, as a result of weaker economic
growth and/or rapid population growth, the incidence of poverty increased both
in numbers and as a percentage of population. It must be fully recognized
that factors that make for maximum economic efficiency are not necessarily
conducive to equity. Hence, the urgency of governmental intervention - not to
provide directly for the poor but to enable the poor to provide for themselves
through poverty-reducing growth strategies.
23. While the general thrust of chapter 3 of Agenda 21 on "combating poverty"
is long term, calling for a specific long-term integrated strategy for poverty
eradication and sustainable management of the environment, chapter 3 also
emphasizes the need for measures to combat poverty in the short term.
Objective number one of the chapter is to provide all persons with the
opportunity to earn a sustainable livelihood through special policies and
programmes that contain immediate measures enabling local community groups to
alleviate poverty and develop sustainability.
C. Measures for combating poverty
1. Short- and medium-term employment and income-
raising measures
(a) Rural measures
24. Since poverty is a multidimensional problem, no single measure to combat
it will suffice, in the short term, medium term or long term. A package of
complementary measures is needed, of which the most important is the provision
of adequate productive resources that will enable the poor to raise their own
incomes through productive activities.
25. For the rural poor who constitute the bulk of the poor in developing
countries and who are unskilled and illiterate, the most effective approach to
providing them with productive assets is agrarian reform - redistribution of
land and reform of tenancy laws. This basic measure can be complemented by
others, notably:
(a) Promotion of agro-industries;
(b) Expansion of animal husbandry - poultry farming, fish farming where
feasible, silviculture, etc.;
(c) Provision of training facilities in simple artisan and craftsmanship
skills which can be acquired quickly even by illiterate people;
(d) Government work programmes for the construction of social and
economic infrastructure;
(e) Food subsidies for those whose incomes cannot be raised by the above
activities.
26. Land redistribution in economically viable units, security of tenure and
fair land rents for tenants and sharecroppers can lead to increased growth of
agricultural production. Together with price reform, fair agricultural
taxation policies, marketing facilities and access of small farmers to water,
credit, extension services and appropriate technology, land redistribution can
raise the incomes of the poor, reduce substantially the high initial
inequality in the rural distribution of income and reduce pressure on marginal
lands. Such reforms, by raising the incomes of the poor, will also reduce the
need for large-scale poverty mitigation government schemes - food subsidies,
food for work programmes, child nutrition and so on. In this regard the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has observed "that
poverty should be confronted directly at its roots by overcoming the
constraints that give rise to it rather than merely treating the symptoms of
poverty through welfare transfers". 7/
27. What is needed and what may be feasible is not an egalitarian
redistribution of land but rather access of the poor to land in minimally
viable units that are adequate for them to make a decent livelihood without
drastically affecting the holdings of large land-owners. The feasibility of
implementing land reform programmes varies from country to country. It would
be relatively more feasible politically in countries where arable land to
rural population ratios are still high, such as those in Africa and Latin
America. Land can be redistributed in these regions in economically viable
units without reducing the holdings of large land holders significantly.
Where necessary, such as in Africa, redistribution needs also to be
accompanied by the institution of ownership rights, individual or cooperative,
so as to encourage small-holders to invest in their lands and cultivate them
sustainably. Even in countries where the ratio of arable land to rural
population is relatively low, if the distribution of land ownership is highly
skewed, it would be possible to redistribute land to the landless poor without
drastically affecting the holdings of big land owners. Land taxation based on
potential production can facilitate voluntary redistribution of land, while
stimulating its productive use and augmenting fiscal revenues. In some
countries, where land fragmentation has reduced small-holdings to unviable
sizes, it may be necessary to consolidate land, for example, in the form of
cooperatives, to ensure more productive farming.
28. In all developing countries there is considerable scope for labour
absorption in the rural areas through the promotion of agro-industries, both
in agricultural raw materials and food commodities. Agro-industries are
desirable not only for employment creation for the poor but also for general
economic growth. Expansion of animal husbandry - fish farming, poultry
farming, silviculture, etc. - either for domestic consumption or exports can
also provide additional high income employment to the poor. The main
obstacles to exports of processed agricultural products, at the present time,
are tariff barriers in the industrial countries escalating with the degree of
processing. Greater market access to processed agricultural commodities would
be of immense benefit in terms of poverty alleviation, even in the medium
term.
29. Much can be done in a relatively short time-frame for considerable
numbers in the vast pool of unschooled and unskilled young people past the
school age through the provision of facilities for the development of artisan
and craftsmanship skills. Such skills are at present limited in diversity in
the rural areas and are acquired through long years of exploitative
apprenticeship which serves as a disincentive to most poor young people. A
wide range of non-farm labour-intensive activities are possible in rural
areas, given the requisite skills, with very little capital and using simple
hand-powered machines without the whole complex of industrial infrastructure.
Some necessary requirements in addition to training facilities are
institutional facilities, particularly for credit and marketing. The
development of such skills can be based on potential demand for products,
utilizing them either in the domestic or the international economy.
30. Past experience has shown that governmental programmes cannot serve as
an effective basic strategy for combating poverty because, although they
benefit some poor people, they are generally inadequate and often
unsustainable on account of budgetary constraints. Directed towards the
construction of necessary social and economic infrastructure, they can none
the less serve as a useful complement to more effective employment- and
income-creating measures. Such work programmes need to emphasize productive
employment such as reclaiming land for agriculture, afforestation and
reforestation; building rural roads, health centres, school buildings and
drainage canals; infrastructure for sanitation, safe drinking water supply,
irrigation and waste collection and disposal; all of which are badly needed.
(b) Urban measures
31. An urban strategy for the short and medium term should aim at reducing
the large numbers of underemployed currently engaged in the so-called informal
sector and low-wage services sector by increasing labour absorption in modern
formal industry. Even more important, meaningful support needs to be given to
small-scale enterprises including microenterprises and cooperative ventures in
order to raise the productivity of the poor and maximize productive
employment. Such a strategy would include liberalization of industrial
regulations, provision of credit and marketing facilities and facilities for
training in simple skills. Depending on the extent of urban poverty, the
short-to-medium- term enabling solution will have to be supplemented by
anti-poverty schemes to provide productive employment to the urban poor of the
type mentioned above, complemented by targeted food subsidies.
2. Long-term employment and income-raising measures
(a) Rural measures
32. Land reform, where feasible, will have an immediate impact on poverty
and, if effectively implemented, is likely to keep the beneficiaries above the
poverty line for quite some time - about a generation - but by itself it will
not be adequate as a long-term solution for poverty eradication. This is
because, in the long term, possibly in a generation, the redistributed land
will again undergo fragmentation under population pressure and become
economically unviable. It will, however, allow time for the implementation of
longer-term measures that will be needed to strengthen the ability to combat
poverty or to prevent a resurgence of mass poverty. A longer-term solution
for poverty eradication would include four broad measures in the framework of
macroeconomic and trade policies conducive to economy-wide growth:
(a) Encouragement and creation of non-farm rural industries;
(b) Expansion of agro-industries and animal farming;
(c) Investment in human resources development;
(d) Control of population growth.
These are long-term solutions, because non-farm rural industries can reach a
significant scale only gradually due to the long gestation periods of
complementary investment involved in physical infrastructure, human resources
and institutional capacity; also population growth can be slowed down only
gradually.
33. It is generally recognized that the capacity of agriculture to absorb
the growing labour force on a long-term basis is limited in most of the
developing countries with a high incidence of rural poverty by the sheer
unavailability of additional arable land. More importantly, the labour force
in agriculture is more likely to shrink than to expand with growing
modernization and mechanization which is necessary for raising agricultural
productivity and efficiency. This trend should be welcomed since it will also
permit the release of land from agriculture for reforestation which will be
necessary not only to prevent land degradation but also to rehabilitate
watersheds and meet the need for industrial wood and fuelwood.
34. The solution to the growing net rural labour force cannot be found
mainly in migration from rural areas to the existing large urban
agglomerations either, since increasingly large numbers of people born in the
urban areas themselves are becoming marginalized. The most effective solution
lies in the creation of non-farm rural industries and services based on
small-scale and microenterprises in small towns and villages. This would
constitute the basic element of the long-term poverty eradication strategy. A
crucial requirement to success will be the creation of industrial
infrastructure in suitably located small towns and villages, accompanied by
credit and marketing facilities. The spread of small- scale and
microenterprises in rural areas will help contain rural-to-urban migration,
which will reduce competition for jobs among the urban poor and the cost to
Government for providing social services. It will also create additional
employment in existing urban areas through increased demand for simple tools,
intermediate inputs and transportation facilities.
35. In the longer term, the development of agro-industries and animal
husbandry is likely to play a significant role in the absorption of rural
labour in more productive employment. One reason is the gradual
liberalization of agricultural trade which is likely to reduce barriers to
processed agricultural commodities from developing countries. Another is the
dramatic growth of urbanization in developing countries. Demographers expect
that by the year 2025, some 47 per cent of the population in the developing
countries will live in urban agglomerations, as compared to 29 per cent at the
present time. Concentration of people in urban areas in such proportions will
require large inventories of foodstuffs in urban areas, much of which will be
economically feasible only in processed form.
(b) Urban measures
36. A long-run solution to the eradication of urban poverty should include
substantial deregulation in the formal urban industrial sector and adequate
macroeconomic policies. Such policies would aim at low rates of inflation,
price flexibility and largely market-determined interest rates and exchange
rates. This would encourage entrepreneurs to choose labour/capital ratios
that reflect true scarcities. Trade policy and tax regimes should be designed
so as not to serve as disincentives to exports. Such policies would encourage
faster industrial expansion and increased employment. The pace of their
implementation is often hampered by various considerations - notably, the fear
of political and social consequences of short-term adverse effects which could
be averted through the integration of appropriate safety nets in policy
reforms.
37. Labour-absorption by the industrial sector also depends to a great
extent on the availability of a skilled labour force. Human resources
development is, accordingly, a necessary condition for the success of a
strategy aiming at greater labour absorption in modern industry. However,
even with optimal policies, the modern sector alone cannot usually provide
adequate employment opportunities for the bulk of the rapidly growing urban
labour force. Thus, in addition to the provision of appropriate training for
all levels of industry, enabling measures, such as special credit facilities,
are needed for smaller enterprises, including microenterprises.
(c) The services sector
38. In most developing countries, the service sector already accounts for
high proportions of gross domestic product but the bulk of the service sector,
both in rural and urban areas, offers only low-wage, low-income employment in
which large numbers of the poor are engaged. The expansion of urban industry
and non-farm rural industries would create higher productivity employment in
the service sector, such as repair and maintenance of plant and equipment,
transportation, telecommunications and home appliances, which would require
greater investment in education, particularly in the training of the poor in
appropriate skills. Another area that will offer considerable scope for
remunerative employment and that needs greater attention in the future in the
developing world is tourism. It is estimated that in 1995 gross travel and
tourism output will amount to $3.4 trillion and account for 10.9 per cent of
world gross domestic product, of which the share of OECD countries will be
78 per cent. By 2005, gross travel and tourism output is projected to more
than double in size, to $7.2 trillion. 8/
3. Human resources development
(a) Education
39. Measures to increase employment and incomes, such as those discussed
above, depend critically on the building of human capacity for their success.
Thus basic education, which provides a foundation for acquiring specialized
skills, should be extended to all, including girl children, an agreed
objective of the Jomtien Declaration. 9/ A major reform measure needed is to
introduce facilities for training in skills as a complement to general
education, particularly at the post-primary level. Efforts should be made to
put in place a full programme of general secondary education for all, as soon
as possible, in order to build a solid foundation for the acquisition of
skills. These measures are needed to achieve the diversified and increasingly
sophisticated skill structure required for the growth of both urban and
non-farm rural industries.
(b) Health, sanitation and safe drinking water
40. It is generally recognized that the earnings approach to combating
poverty is not adequate, because some things may simply not be available for
the poor to buy. This applies most generally to services that are often or
mainly public monopolies or are publicly controlled and which call for
considerable investments in the related infrastructure, which are not likely
to be undertaken by the private sector because of the low effective demand of
the poor. Health care, sewerage and safe drinking water are typical examples.
With rising incomes the poor should be able to afford rudimentary but
satisfactory sanitation facilities with some technical advice on sewage
disposal facilities from the Government, but it will remain the responsibility
of the Government to provide basic health care and safe drinking water
facilities to the poor wherever they are located. In the area of health care,
coverage can be considerably increased through a shift of emphasis from
curative to preventive health care. Access to safe drinking water can be
greatly expanded by charging user fees. User fees should be imposed or raised
to realistic levels on those who have the ability to pay. The extreme poor
should be exempted from such charges. Community participation through "sweat
equity" in the building of small-scale water-supply facilities and health
centres from which the participants derive direct and exclusive benefits can
also help lighten the governmental budgetary burden.
41. Urbanization in developing countries has been accompanied by
considerable stress on the natural environment and the health of the urban
poor. The urban poor are the primary victims of municipal sewage discharged
into water bodies and the improper disposal of solid waste and toxic
chemicals. The urban poor need to be protected from the immediate threats to
life posed by unhealthy sanitation facilities, contaminated water supplies and
indoor air pollution. Regarding sanitation facilities, a wide range of
effective technologies that are much cheaper than the conventional
capital-intensive technologies and which use locally manufactured hardware -
plumbing, concrete caps, etc. - are available.
42. As far as safe drinking water supply is concerned, cities can encourage
water conservation in water-intensive industries as well as in the services
and residential sectors and increase the resources available for expanding
infrastructure, by ensuring that non-poor water consumers pay realistic prices
for water and by better maintenance of existing distribution systems to
prevent leakage. The amount of leakage is so large that better maintenance of
the existing distribution systems alone may suffice to provide safe drinking
water to most of the still unserved urban poor in many countries. Where
necessary, these measures need to be supplemented by the development of
additional supplies to meet the minimum needs of the poor, at least through
public stand pipes. Such measures would enable Governments to meet the basic
health needs of the poor, such as those identified at the 1978 International
Conference on Primary Health Care. 10/
(c) Food subsidies
43. Food subsidies targeted to the absolute poor can play an important
complementary role as a safety net, even in the medium term and the long term,
until the income-raising measures cover nearly all the poor. To eliminate
hunger and malnutrition, increased efforts are needed to implement the
outcomes of the 1992 International Conference on Nutrition. 11/
(d) Adequate housing
44. Good health requires not only adequate nutrition, health care and safe
drinking water but also adequate shelter, which at a minimum is sufficiently
roomy, free of dirt, well ventilated, well lit by sunshine and capable of
withstanding the inclemencies of weather. At present, the shelters of the
poor, whether in rural or urban areas, do not meet any of these basic
requirements since insufficient progress has been made in implementing the
recommendation of the Global Strategy for Shelter for All by the Year
2000. 12/
45. In rural areas, efforts need to emphasize enabling the poor to build
their own houses, using local materials with appropriate technical advice from
the Government, access to materials and where necessary access to building
sites, particularly to the landless. Meeting the adequate housing needs of
the urban poor will pose a special challenge. Building land and materials are
more expensive than in rural areas and well beyond the reach of the absolute
poor, even for very modest but adequate housing. Given the low effective
demand of the poor, provision of housing to them by the market is not viable
either. The available options would be to subsidize the rents of the poor to
induce the market to produce housing for them; to provide the poor with
technical advice and subsidies for materials and building sites to enable them
to build their own housing; and to make available public housing to the poor
at affordable rents. All three options will involve heavy public outlays, but
one or some combination of them need to be chosen if the urban poor are to be
adequately housed. Caution needs to be exercised to ensure that, in whatever
form housing subsidy is provided, it is directed strictly to the poor. The
recommendations adopted at the forthcoming United Nations Conference on Human
Settlements (Habitat II), scheduled for 1996, will have relevance to
Governments in this regard.
46. Solutions to indoor air pollution are more difficult to find. While
technologies to use energy more efficiently and mitigate adverse health
effects are available, their use requires financial resources that the poor do
not have. The ultimate solution thus lies in measures to raise the income of
the poor quickly or to reduce the cost of alternative technologies drastically
- solar stoves, more efficient and less polluting conventional stoves, using
biomass as fuel. To deal effectively with the growing waste problems,
emphasis needs to be placed on waste prevention, minimization and re-use. In
this area there is not only need for more stringent environmental laws, there
is also room for economic instruments and, of course, many forms of local
action. Hazardous toxic materials may have to be banned outright.
(e) Population policies
47. Long-term poverty eradication also requires the implementation of
appropriate population policies. Because of demographic dynamics, population
growth cannot be slowed down rapidly, which underscores the urgency of
implementing the recommendations of the International Conference on Population
and Development 13/ by ensuring the full participation of the intended
beneficiaries, particularly women, in the design and implementation of quality
reproductive health services, including family planning. Poverty eradication
measures, if successful in raising the levels of income, education and health
of the poor, will themselves serve to slow down population growth and will
thus enhance the effectiveness of population policies.
D. Socio-political empowerment of the poor
1. Fuller participation of the poor and the role of
non-governmental organizations
48. There is a growing realization that the economic matrix of poverty and
the possibilities for change are intimately linked to the structures of
political and social systems in countries with a high incidence of absolute
poverty. Poor people are poorly educated, imperfectly aware of how their own
political systems and institutions work, and are unorganized. By definition
they lack economic leverage and even in democratic societies are unable to
translate their voting power into political power, which is necessary for
steering socio-economic change in their favour. Vested interest groups are
often successful in resisting the introduction of measures intended to combat
poverty, unless and until a major crisis occurs which catalyses
socio-political reform.
49. The measures outlined above would have a greater chance of
implementation if the poor participated more fully in local and national
politics and socio-economic institutions. A decentralization of political
authority to the provincial and local levels would greatly enhance the
opportunities for participation of the poor. Even in a democratic society the
poor need some enabling measures in order to participate effectively. They
need to be organized and trained in how to claim their legal rights
effectively. Much of the enabling work can be accomplished by those
non-governmental organizations that are willing to operate in an independent,
professional, transparent and accountable manner. Non-governmental
organizations can also perform advocacy functions on behalf of the poor at the
national and provincial levels, but only if they have established a clear
legitimacy to speak for their constituencies. The ultimate aim of
non-governmental organizations, however, should be promotional and
educational, with a view to enabling the poor to organize themselves.
50. The direct involvement of the poor in local development organizations
can often enhance their effectiveness. Such organizations can take many
forms - producer cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, savings and credit
cooperatives, training organizations and self-help organizations engaged in
building small-scale irrigation facilities, health centres, small-scale local
water supply facilities, school buildings etc. Care should be taken to ensure
that the activities of self-help local organizations are geared to benefit and
not to exploit the poor.
2. Empowerment of women
51. Social and legal reforms are needed in many developing countries to
enhance the participation of women in socio-political and economic
institutions. In many countries they are denied many rights, either by law or
tradition. For instance, they are often denied the right to participate in
such organizations as cooperatives and credit institutions. They are often
denied the right to own land and other property, and a high proportion of them
are denied access to education. Such deprivations make it difficult for poor
women to lift themselves out of poverty. Many Governments have taken remedial
action, but most Governments need to do more to enable women to enjoy the same
rights as men. Administrative and legal reforms and changes in customs and
attitudes are likely to be achieved through greater democratization,
sensitization of the general public to the potential contribution of women to
socio-economic development, and - most importantly - through the education of
women, which is one of the most important means of empowering them.
Ultimately it is education that will enable women to claim their legitimate
rights. It is also an area in which there is likely to be less opposition to
governmental action from traditionalists opposed to social change. The
education of women will also have an immense influence on population growth.
To combat poverty, measures to provide poor women with access to productive
assets, including credit, ought to be accorded especially high priority. The
forthcoming Fourth World Conference on Women is expected to provide guidelines
and priorities for action in favour of women.
3. Action in favour of indigenous peoples
52. Among the poor, indigenous peoples constitute a special group because
they live largely outside of mainstream society. Their number is estimated at
some 300 million. 14/ Most indigenous communities experience encroachment on
their lands and natural resources by outsiders. They often lack clear land
ownership rights or suffer from constant violation of their statutory rights.
Recent World Bank studies of indigenous peoples, particularly in Latin
America, reveal that they fall in the category of the poorest and most
destitute, with the highest rates of infant mortality, childhood malnutrition
and the lowest rates of literacy and schooling. One World Bank study states
"that historically indigenous lands have been appropriated by outsiders, and
indigenous labour has been utilized for indentured or low-paid work in mines
and on ranches and plantations". 15/
53. Of late, a large number of indigenous organizations have emerged and are
reaffirming their rights, cultural values and identities. Their platforms are
based on combating negative attitudes towards indigenous peoples;
participation in local decision-making and development policies; preserving
their languages and cultures; and, most importantly, maintaining control over
indigenous lands and natural resources. Increasingly, indigenous
organizations are also asking for a larger share of national development
budgets for their constituencies and are approaching international agencies to
provide financial support and technical assistance for their development
projects.
54. Emphasis needs to be placed on granting indigenous peoples secure
property rights which are necessary for their economic well-being and its
sustainability. Secure property rights need to be accompanied by human
capital formation in terms of better schooling, training and health services
and by employment- generation schemes to reduce their dependence on the
informal sector. In order for them to realize their socio-economic
objectives, whether integration into mainstream society or preservation of
indigenous cultures, indigenous peoples should be enabled to participate
actively in the formulation and implementation of development projects meant
for them by their national governments and/or the international community. It
is hoped that during the International Decade for Indigenous People which
commenced in 1994, the international community will strive to restore to
indigenous people their legitimate rights and ratify ILO Convention No. 169
concerning indigenous and tribal peoples.
4. Measures for other special groups
55. In all countries there will be some groups of people, such as the
physically disabled, the mentally handicapped, the aged, orphans and abandoned
children, who will not benefit adequately, if at all, from employment-creating
measures. The only possibility for these groups of people to attain adequate
standards of living will be social assistance designed to meet their needs.
IV. SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY ERADICATION
A. Sustainable development of high-potential land
56. In order to improve agricultural productivity, which is necessary for
overall economic growth, raising export earnings and enhancing food security,
and to take the pressure off marginal land, greater attention needs to be paid
to high-potential agricultural land. Under optimal conditions and through
intensive cultivation, such areas as the central plains of India, the fertile
plains and savannah belt of Africa, and the high savannah and Pacific lowland
plains of Central and South America could produce enough food to meet the
demand of growing populations. High-potential areas can generally sustain
intensive crop production, as long as exploitation does not exceed the
regenerative capacity of the soil. Agricultural productivity can be further
increased through agricultural research, including safe biotechnology. The
ecological challenge in high-potential areas is to implement land, water and
other input management that will ensure that increased agricultural
productivity does not cause land degradation in the long term. To that end it
will be necessary to remove incentive regimes that encourage intensive and
inefficient use of water and chemical inputs, to control their use by user
charges, to adopt appropriate cultivation methods to prevent soil erosion, and
to ensure that the construction of irrigation facilities meets ecological
requirements. The incipient consumer movements in the industrial countries to
favour agricultural products that are produced in a socially and
environmentally sustainable manner may induce a change in the mode of
agricultural production.
57. Some 250 million of the very poor people of the world live in areas of
high-potential land. However, the benefits from increased agricultural
production and productivity do not necessarily trickle down to reduce either
inequality or absolute poverty levels in rural areas. Labour created by
agricultural modernization can be retained in the high-potential areas by a
combination of greater access to land and the creation of productive
employment through the development and/or expansion of agro-industries, animal
husbandry and non-farm rural industries.
B. Sustainable development of low-potential land
58. Although the growth of agricultural production will have to rely on the
intensification of agriculture on high-potential land, investment in
low-potential land will also be necessary, both to alleviate rural poverty and
to prevent further degradation of land. Low-potential lands are generally dry
lands, often subject to drought and desertification, mountain ecosystems and
saline lands. Hundreds of millions of poor people live on such land and need
assistance in changing their mode of farming.
59. Land degradation in marginal areas has occurred not necessarily because
of the influx of growing numbers of the poor but primarily because the poor
have not been provided with the infrastructure and inputs necessary to move
beyond subsistence farming and herding, which deplete soil fertility. It is
well known that the type of farming that is economically and ecologically
sustainable on marginal land consists of intensive cultivation of tree and
bush crops, and not field crops. Poor farmers should therefore be helped to
switch from subsistence field crops to sustainable commercial farming of tree
and bush crops. This type of farming requires irrigation facilities, better
transportation and marketing services, and more capital, but it has the
potential of raising the incomes of the poor and providing plant cover to the
land, thus preventing further degradation. Sustainability will also require
more investment in agricultural research and extension services for marginal
lands and the institution of property rights, if they do not exist, taking
into account traditional and/or customary rights, including communal shifting
or migratory land-use rights. A certain amount of traditional food crops can
still be grown on marginal lands through new techniques akin to agro-forestry.
In drought-prone areas it will be necessary to establish alternative
livelihood projects through investment in the development of non-farm
productive activities. Promoting the sustainable use of drylands in a manner
that ensures a decent living for those who depend on them is essential. In
order to avoid further degradation of marginal lands, developing countries and
the international community must implement urgently the provisions of the
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries
Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in
Africa. 16/
C. Rehabilitation of degraded land
60. In view of the constraints on increasing cropland in most developing
countries, the prevention of further degradation needs to be supplemented by
measures to rehabilitate the already degraded land, both in high-potential and
low-potential areas. Although not much has been accomplished so far in the
way of rehabilitation, efforts have been initiated in a number of developing
countries. Depending on the extent and nature of the degradation, however,
rehabilitation using currently known techniques can be very costly.
Furthermore, investments in rehabilitation activities have opportunity costs,
one of which is foregone investments in irrigation, transportation and
marketing facilities, especially in marginal lands. Prospective investments
in the rehabilitation of degraded land should therefore be assessed against
this alternative.
D. Reforestation and afforestation
61. Afforestation and reforestation are badly needed in many developing
countries in order to meet local needs for fuelwood and for the restoration of
degraded watersheds so as to increase water supply for agriculture and other
uses. Intensification of agricultural production in high-potential areas will
make it unnecessary to clear more forests and will free marginal land from
agriculture, which then can be reforested. Switching from field crops to tree
and bush crops in the marginal areas would, at once, amount to reforestation
and afforestation. Reforestation offers not only environmentally positive
benefits but also economic benefits. In view of the growing scarcity of wood
resources for industry, plantation forestry is also an economically viable
option. Afforestation programmes would quickly provide gainful employment to
the poor and in the medium and long term increase the supply of fuelwood,
industrial wood and water supply as well as increase the earth's supply of
carbon sinks.
V. RESOURCE MOBILIZATION FOR POVERTY ERADICATION: NATIONAL
EFFORTS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
A. National efforts
62. The implementation of the strategies outlined above will call for
additional budgetary resources and a reallocation of governmental spending.
The budgetary burden will increase in the short and medium terms in connection
with the extension of economic and social infrastructures to the rural areas
and the unserviced urban periphery and inner-city slums where the poor are
living. It will also increase to the extent that it will be necessary to
create government work programmes and to subsidize the food and housing needs
of the poor. Adoption of environmentally sustainable technologies and
practices will further add to the short-term budgetary burden.
63. In the context of the structural adjustments that are being gradually
carried out by developing countries, there is little or no room for an
increase in income and profit taxation. It may be possible to generate some
additional revenues through increased taxation of luxuries. Increased
indirect taxation of necessities would hurt the poor most severely. In the
short and medium terms perhaps the most effective measure to increase
government revenue would be to broaden the tax base through a reduction or
elimination of exemptions, concessions, and tax holidays and to strengthen tax
administration and collection. In the longer term, the generation of
additional revenues will depend on the pace of economic growth.
64. Increased emphasis will have to be placed on the reallocation of
government spending. Increased efforts are also needed to achieve, through
appropriate charges and taxation, greater cost recovery from public investment
in economic and social infrastructure that contributes directly to
productivity, income and the appreciation of real estate. User charges on
secondary and tertiary education, preventive health care, water supplies,
electricity and so on, based on the ability to pay, will also help to increase
government revenues. In all these areas user charges should be so designed as
to achieve a satisfactory measure of cross-subsidization, with the burden
falling initially on the non-poor. As a general principle, when it comes to
essential services for the poor, access ought to take precedence over
cost-recovery.
65. Enlisting the full participation of the poor in the design, planning and
implementation of anti-poverty programmes and projects will help indirectly by
lightening the government budgetary burden. Administrative costs will be
minimized, and increases in financial outlays contained. Even greater
expenditure savings may be possible through the reduction of unproductive
government expenditures, such as untargeted subsidies, military expenditures
and "white elephant" investment projects. Moreover, the initial budgetary
burden would be expected to decline as the employment and incomes of the poor
rise and direct poverty mitigation measures are phased out.
B. International cooperation
66. While the major responsibility for eradicating poverty rests with the
developing countries themselves, international cooperation is indispensable in
order to supplement efforts at the domestic level. Perhaps the most effective
area of international cooperation is international trade. Developing
countries need expanding markets for their exports in the developed countries
in order to carry out poverty eradication measures aimed at increasing
productive employment both in urban and rural areas. Some major areas of
immediate interest to the developing countries would be trade liberalization
in agricultural goods, especially processed agricultural goods, textiles, and
other labour-intensive light manufactures. These are primarily the areas in
which small-sized enterprises, in both the urban and rural non-farm sectors,
have the greatest comparative advantage. It has been estimated that
liberalizing trade in agricultural commodities would yield an annual gain of
$22 billion to developing countries and formerly centrally planned economies,
and liberalizing trade in textiles would benefit developing countries to the
tune of $50 billion a year, nearly equal to the total flow of foreign
assistance. 17/
67. Technical assistance and the transfer of environmentally sound
technologies deserve greater attention. Increasing the training component of
technical assistance will help to develop human resources. In most countries
technical assistance will be needed at various levels - training personnel to
prepare poverty eradication projects, training people in various skills,
training personnel to carry out area-specific agricultural research with a
view to introducing technological innovation in agriculture, such as
high-yield and drought-resistant seeds, training farmers to manage water
resources efficiently, training micro-enterprises to market their export
products and so on. To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of technical
assistance, its mode of provision and its quality call for radical reform.
Since developing countries are largely dependent on imports for their
technology needs, sustainable development practices remain dependent on the
transfer of environmentally sound technologies at affordable cost. Technical
assistance must therefore be supplemented by the transfer of state-of-the-art
environmentally sound technologies.
68. With regard to finance, bilateral official development assistance (ODA)
should focus more on poverty eradication. It would be more effective if
targeted to investment in agricultural infrastructure meant to serve
microfarmers and in employment creation for non-farm agricultural workers and
urban workers. An increase in ODA is indispensable, especially in the short
and medium terms if Governments are to build the necessary physical and social
infrastructures.
69. The multilateral agencies and organizations of the United Nations system
are all committed to poverty eradication but are constrained by lack of
resources. Adequate funding of their programmes would greatly speed up
poverty eradication.
70. For the highly indebted developing countries, where debt service
represents a large proportion of government budgets and/or export earnings,
debt relief, including debt forgiveness, will need to be an important
component of external finance mobilized by the donor community to support
programmes of poverty reduction.
VI. REVIEW OF PROGRESS ACHIEVED: MAIN POLICY THRUSTS
AND EXPERIENCES
A. Country experiences in combating poverty
71. This section is based on the experiences of 13 developed countries,
8 developing countries and 3 countries in transition which submitted
information on their national efforts to combat poverty to the preparatory
process for the World Social Summit. Because of the limited country and
regional coverage, the subsections on the developing countries and the
countries in transition provide only a limited perspective of their current
and/or planned efforts to combat poverty.
1. Developed countries 18/
72. Generally, in the developed countries the poverty problem is one of
relative poverty. It is characterized by social exclusion, not by a severe
absence of the basic necessities of life. Underlying it is the lack of income
necessary to purchase the socially defined "basket of goods and services"
adequate to ensure "social insertion".
73. The problem of social exclusion is essentially chronic, but its
incidence is correlated with economic cycles. One major contributory factor
is prolonged unemployment, especially of youth, owing either to structural
changes, including automation, or recession. A second factor is the
increasing proportion of the aged. A third factor is discriminatory practices
which affect women and minority groups, including ethnic minorities,
immigrants, refugees and indigenous peoples in some countries. Women
generally have a higher poverty risk than men. They enjoy less security of
job tenure, earn less than men on average, and have lower pension entitlements
and old-age benefits. Particularly affected are single women and single
mothers. In some countries ethnic minorities of both sexes are among the most
socially disadvantaged and socially and economically marginalized. Some
countries have significant magnitudes of localized stubborn poverty in
economically weak rural and urban areas. In several developed countries, the
shortage of public housing has emerged as a particularly serious problem, as
evidenced by growing numbers of homeless people or people without adequate
housing. Social exclusion is reflected in shattered self-confidence,
alienation, mental problems, crimes against individuals and society, outbursts
of localized violence, and other social ills.
74. Developed countries, by and large, have relatively high levels of social
protection, which, however, seem to be inadequate to cope with the problems of
social exclusion. The degree of concern about the problem varies from country
to country, as do efforts to resolve it. Major proposed solutions, some
combinations of which are actually in place in individual countries, include
the improvement of labour market practices; greater emphasis to vocational
training and links between business and training institutions; reform or
strengthening of social protection measures; means testing to enhance the
effectiveness of social security schemes; special programmes targeted to
pockets of urban and rural poverty; guaranteed minimum incomes; severing the
link between social protection spending and economic cycles; eliminating
discrimination against women and minority groups; and specific programmes for
specific groups of the disadvantaged - the disabled, the handicapped, single
parents, old widows, needy children and indigenous peoples.
75. For eradication of poverty in the developing world, developed countries
have generally indicated the need for improving the socio-economic policy
framework; making development people-centred, with emphasis on meeting basic
needs and building human resources; expansion of productive employment through
the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises; greater democracy and
decentralization of political authority, accompanied by special actions to
deal with the particularly poor and vulnerable; encouragement of grass-roots
participation; and involvement of women in the development process on an equal
footing with men.
76. In view of the widening gap between the world's rich and poor, the
Government of Denmark sees the need to persuade the wealthy nations to
redistribute resources to the poorest in the world in order to help achieve
common global goals - the meeting of basic needs and the prevention of
environmental degradation. Along the same line, Italy favours the extension
of cooperation to developing countries through technical and financial
assistance in areas related to human development - to help establish local
production companies for the purpose of utilizing the labour of the weakest
sections of the population; to help implement WHO and UNICEF guidelines on
health and social protection; to help implement the UNESCO recommendation on
basic education, literacy, vocational training and awareness of local
cultures; and to facilitate real participation of the people in choosing
solutions to their priority problems and carrying out their activities. As a
key measure for tackling the poverty problem at the international level,
Liechtenstein advocates a system of social security understood as global
welfare, with emphasis on combating hunger world wide. The Government of
Finland sees the need for structuring the world economy more justly to take
account of the needs of the poorest countries and for creating conditions at
the national level for poor people to help themselves out of poverty. The
Government of Sweden supports the view that the "peace dividend" be channelled
to developing countries for social development and that States should serve as
the guarantor of human rights, civil liberties and basic economic stability.
Some countries have stressed the need to reduce protectionism in
industrialized countries and for further trade liberalization and debt
reduction.
2. Developing countries 19/
77. Four countries (India, Indonesia, Mauritius and Pakistan) reported that
during the 1980s, their poverty situation improved as a result of strong
economic growth, assisted by poverty alleviation measures. Iraq reported that
since the imposition of the international economic embargo, its poverty
situation had deteriorated, owing to the deterioration of the economic
situation in general, but did not elaborate on its poverty alleviation
programme aside from mentioning that poverty alleviation is linked to the
lifting of the embargo. All the reporting countries, and particularly the
larger ones, recognize that large numbers of their citizens continue to live
below the poverty line. They stressed the view that while broad-based
economic growth would continue to be important for poverty eradication in the
long run, it would be equally important for the Government to take direct
action to improve the lot of the poor and prevent environmental degradation.
Emphasis is invariably placed on both economic policy reform and social policy
reform. According to the Government of Cuba, on the basis of the Cuban
experience, it is possible to achieve social development before achieving full
economic development and the former can promote the latter.
78. One major common policy goal of these countries is to accelerate
productivity growth along with creative employment. To that end, with varying
degrees of emphasis, they proposed the need for accelerating economic growth
through appropriate policy reforms; modifying the structures of production,
with greater emphasis on efficient labour-intensive activities; promoting the
development of local enterprises; providing financial support and
infrastructural facilities; increasing vocational training; revamping training
systems to induce greater flexibility and responsiveness to labour market
trends; and better distributing manpower through improved market information.
A second common policy goal that was strongly emphasized is faster development
of human resources, with an emphasis on expanding primary education, primary
health care and sanitation, including safe drinking water. The provision of
adequate housing and nutrition also figures prominently in country programmes.
A third common feature of proposed action is emphasis on the need for fuller
participation of the poor generally - and of women, in particular - in the
implementation of governmental programmes and projects meant for the poor.
Fuller participation of beneficiaries in anti-poverty projects is seen as an
efficient way to speed up the implementation of those programmes while keeping
the government budgetary burden light. Another common concern of the
countries is the promotion of equity - interregional, rural/urban and gender -
in the provision of social services. The provision of reproductive health
care and family planning was emphasized by India and Indonesia, and a balance
between access of all to social facilities and cost recovery, by Zimbabwe.
79. Generally, the country programmes are formulated within the framework of
sustainable development. In the past two years national environmental action
plans were completed in India, Mauritius and Pakistan. Zimbabwe initiated
measures to reduce land degradation through a land acquisition act which calls
for a review of the existing land resettlement programme to ensure that it
benefits the poor. In addition, manufacturing activities have been introduced
in rural areas so as to take pressure off the land. In Pakistan, explicit
steps have been taken to strengthen environmental management - for example,
new ordinances have been passed that mandate higher environmental quality
standards and decentralized responsibility for pollution control. In India,
new national policies have been adopted to combat industrial pollution through
strengthened regulations and fiscal incentives.
80. Some countries have specified targets in the social sphere. For
instance, the eighth development plan of India aims at achieving universal
primary education and health care by the year 2000. Mauritius, where primary
enrolment has reached 98 per cent, is aiming for 100 per cent enrolment with
appropriate provisions for handicapped children. Zimbabwe has set a goal of
housing for all by the year 2000, reduction of child and infant mortality by
32 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively, by the year 2000, and access to
education facilities to all children. Indonesia aims at reducing the number
of the absolute poor by 12 million, or 6 per cent of the current population,
during its second long-term development plan, launched in 1993. China aims at
meeting the following targets by the year 2000: adequate supply of safe
drinking water for all; elimination of illiteracy among young and middle-aged
people; and prevention and elimination of local diseases.
3. Countries in transition 20/
81. All the countries in transition are facing poverty problems arising from
the process of transition to market economies, which is characterized by a
slowing-down of economic activities and decline in incomes. The privatization
of State-owned enterprises has triggered an increase in unemployment. As a
consequence, large numbers of people have been driven below the poverty line.
In Croatia and Yugoslavia, the problem has been aggravated by destruction of
the economy by civil war. In all three countries, it has become impossible to
continue to provide social services at the levels achieved earlier and to meet
the needs of refugees and the victims of war. The Government of all three
countries have formulated new economic recovery programmes to rekindle growth
and social programmes to protect the most vulnerable groups, but they are not
optimistic about rapid economic and social recovery. Yugoslavia has reported
that, at present, the international sanctions on it present a severe handicap
to recovery.
4. Non-governmental organizations
82. Information was received from two non-governmental organizations, SIRF
from Nigeria and ACEnet from the United States. The former has initiated a
poverty alleviation programme which aims at providing credit through a
revolving fund to needy women and youths who want to engage in sustainable
projects and ventures, particularly small-scale trading. The organization has
pointed out that its activities are severely constrained by lack of funds.
The latter's objective is to enable people with low incomes in the Appalachian
region successfully to enter the economic mainstream by, inter alia,
organizing cooperative ventures among small firms to produce for niche
markets, mobilizing financial resources on behalf of the region from outside,
creating learning clusters in conjunction with other communities in the
country, providing transitional support for people moving from welfare to
work, and developing production and leadership skills.
B. Recent developments and experiences in international
cooperation
1. Intergovernmental processes
83. Since the beginning of the decade a broad consensus has been emerging on
the need for poverty eradication as a priority social objective and as a
necessary condition for sustainable development in the intergovernmental
processes of the United Nations system. In 1990 the World Summit for Children
declared that the world had the means and the knowledge to protect the lives
and diminish the sufferings of children and to promote the full development of
their human potential, and it committed itself, inter alia, to work for a
global attack on poverty which would have immediate benefits for children's
welfare. The International Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations
Development Decade, 1991-2000, 21/ identified poverty eradication as the
number one priority for the Decade and called on Member States to make every
effort to meet four agreed goals during the decade: elimination of starvation
and death caused by famine; substantial reduction of malnutrition and
mortality among children; tangible reduction of chronic hunger; and
elimination of major nutritional diseases.
84. In 1992 the Agenda for Peace linked economic growth to social stability,
and social stability to broad-based socio-economic and political participation
of people. It called for the empowerment of the unorganized, the poor and the
marginalized. 22/ Concern about poverty eradication received much attention
at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Principle 5
of the Rio Declaration called on States and peoples to cooperate in the
essential task of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for
sustainable development. 23/ Agenda 21, which devoted an entire chapter to
issues relating to poverty eradication, called for a specific anti-poverty
strategy as one of the basic conditions for ensuring sustainable
development. 24/ The International Conference on Nutrition declared that
globally there was enough food for all and that inequitable access was the
main problem. It recommended that policies and programmes be directed towards
those most in need and that priority be given to the implementation of
people-centred policies and programmes that would increase access to and
control of resources by the rural and urban poor and would raise their
productive capacity and increase and strengthen their capacity to care for
themselves. 11/
85. In 1993, the World Conference on Human Rights affirmed that extreme
poverty and social exclusion constituted a violation of human rights. It
declared that the existence of widespread poverty inhibited the full and
effective enjoyment of human rights and that its immediate and eventual
elimination must remain a high priority for the international community. 25/
The General Assembly, which had proclaimed 1993 as International Year for the
World's Indigenous Peoples, 26/ with a view to strengthening international
cooperation for the solution of the problems faced by indigenous communities
in areas such as human rights, the environment, development, and education and
health, proclaimed the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples,
commencing in 1994. 27/ It also designated 1996 as International Year for
the Eradication of Poverty. 28/ Preparation for the Year is expected to
concentrate on establishing effective links among the measures to implement
poverty eradication strategies contained in recent and anticipated
international agreements and reports.
86. In 1994, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Convention to
Combat Desertification recommended that the national programmes of affected
country parties include, inter alia, provisions to promote alternative
livelihoods and to improve national economic environments with a view to
strengthening programmes aimed at the eradication of poverty and at ensuring
food security, sustainable management of natural resources and sustainable
agricultural practices. 16/ The Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and Development, in which poverty is a recurring
theme, has established linkages between population growth, poverty,
development and environment and has elaborated in great detail on the
rationale and modalities for slowing down population growth and eradicating
poverty, which it has called the major challenge of development efforts. The
report of the Secretary-General on an agenda for development (A/49/665), which
may undergo revision before it is adopted by the General Assembly, states,
inter alia, that the first goal of development must be to end poverty and
satisfy the priority needs of all people in a way that can be productively
sustained over future generations and calls on all countries to agree on a
global compact to eliminate poverty over a specified period of time.
87. While the above constitute the major and most recent international
efforts at combating poverty, some major efforts that go further back in time
but remain relevant might also deserve a mention. Perhaps the first
international reaction to the weak impact of the "trickle-down" approach on
poverty alleviation was the convening in 1976 of the World Employment
Conference which, at the initiative of the ILO, adopted the "basic needs"
strategy, emphasizing productive employment creation as a solution to poverty
eradication. This concept lingers on and is still relevant today. In 1978,
the International Conference on Primary Health Care declared, inter alia, that
a main social target of the world community should be the attainment by all
peoples of the world by the year 2000 of a level of health that will permit
them to lead a socially and economically productive life. Health care for the
poor remains a priority concern. In 1980, the General Assembly proclaimed the
period 1981-1990 as the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation
Decade, 29/ calling on Member States to assume a commitment to bring about a
substantial improvement in the standards and levels of services in drinking
water supply and sanitation by the year 1990. While much was accomplished in
those areas in the decade, much more remains to be done.
88. In 1988 at the request of the General Assembly, Habitat, in
collaboration with other United Nations organizations, formulated a Global
Strategy for Shelter to the year 2000. The strategy focuses mainly on
low-income population groups and is based on an "enabling approach". The
objective is to assist the large numbers of the homeless and those living in
poor shelter and unhealthy neighbourhoods, whether in urban slums and squatter
areas or in poor rural areas, to meet their housing needs. Both the principle
underlying the strategy and its objectives are still relevant. There has been
little progress in ensuring adequate housing for the poor, and therefore the
challenge facing the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements
(Habitat II) in 1996 and the international community is formidable.
89. A similar consensus on poverty eradication emerged in the preparatory
processes for the World Social Summit and the Fourth World Conference on
Women, both scheduled for 1995. Poverty eradication constitutes one of the
three core issues of the Social Summit, and poverty and its burden on women
are among the major issues of the World Conference.
90. The efforts of the intergovernmental processes of the United Nations
system over the past several years have resulted in a variety of
action-oriented plans, particularly in the social sectors, for the eradication
of poverty. The plans comprise detailed policies and measures that are
broadly convergent or complementary. Some of them also include time-bound
targets in priority areas. Their implementation would go a long way towards
eradicating poverty. To facilitate their effective implementation, it may be
necessary to assemble, with full participation of all concerned entities of
the United Nations system, all the pieces in a single, integrated operational
framework with clear-cut priorities, time-bound targets in line with those set
by the World Summit for Social Development in the most crucial areas, and
well-defined responsibilities for national and international efforts.
2. Organizations of the United Nations system
91. The specialized agencies and organizations of the United Nations system
whose mandates cover the economic and social sectors have increasingly called
for greater efforts at combating poverty, and several of them have explored
new approaches to that end. As far back as 1976 the ILO adopted its basic
needs strategy of development to cope with the rising incidence of poverty.
In the wake of structural adjustments and the consequent increase in the
incidence of poverty in several developing countries, in 1987 UNICEF proposed
"adjustment with a human face" to protect vulnerable groups in society during
the transition to sustained growth. Reacting to the adverse consequences of
structural adjustment on poverty in Africa, in 1989 the Economic Commission
for Africa (ECA) expressed the view that orthodox adjustment programmes were
ignoring basic structural factors which had to be taken into account if
economic growth and socio-economic transformation were to be achieved. It
proposed an alternative framework - namely, adjustment with transformation,
having the goal of transforming the African economy from primarily an exchange
economy to a human-centred production economy. In 1989, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) proposed the concept of "high-quality growth", calling for
equitable growth with particular attention to the plight of the poor and the
vulnerable and to environmental protection.
92. The United Nations development community has continued to press for
development strategies that feature poverty reduction, with increasing
importance in the past few years given to broad-based participation and
environmental sustainability. For instance, in 1990, the World Bank proposed
a strategy of "poverty-reducing growth", emphasizing among other things
broad-based economic growth which would generate opportunities for the poor,
along with improved access to education, health care and the other social
services necessary for the poor to take advantage of those opportunities. In
the same year, the Committee for Development Planning observed that persistent
poverty was the product of inappropriate structures and poor policies and
that, in the past, anti-poverty programmes had largely been symbolic. It
proposed an "enabling" set of measures aimed at enabling the poor to help
themselves out of poverty. Since 1990, UNDP has suggested that growth is
necessary but not sufficient for human freedom of choice and human
development. It has consistently emphasized the need for human development
and poverty eradication as necessary conditions for sustainable growth and
environmental protection. In 1992, IFAD proposed a "new development paradigm"
which propounds an approach to poverty alleviation not just as a mechanism to
get the poor to cross a given threshold of income or consumption but one that
is conducive to sustained increase in productivity and integration of the poor
in the process of growth. The work of UNCTAD's Standing Committee on Poverty
Alleviation is focused on the need to expand international trade as a means of
poverty reduction.
93. The broadly common major elements of the foregoing strategies include
the following: a macroeconomic policy conducive to broad-based growth; access
of the poor to productive resources, particularly land and credit; adequate
rural and urban infrastructures; human resources development, with an emphasis
on education and training, health and sanitation, including safe drinking
water; social safety nets to protect the vulnerable during structural
adjustments; an enabling democratic environment favourable to fuller
participation in the process of socio-economic development by the poor,
including women; appropriate population policies; environmentally sustainable
use of resources with poverty eradication itself seen as a necessary condition
for the sustainable use of resources, particularly land; and a favourable and
supportive international economic environment.
94. It is well known that the following agencies and organizations have long
espoused and worked towards achieving, among other things, these goals:
UNESCO, eradication of illiteracy, equal educational opportunities for all and
job training for adults; WHO, universal access to health care, including
sanitation and safe drinking water; UNICEF, adequate nutrition and health care
for children; UNFPA, rapid demographic transition through the provision of
reproductive health care and family planning services; Habitat, adequate
shelter and related services for the poor; FAO, rural development, including
afforestation and reforestation and agro-industries; UNIDO, rural
industrialization, including agro-industries, transfer of appropriate
technology and promotion of small- and medium-sector enterprises in
manufacturing; IFAD, assistance to poor farmers; ILO, support for small
enterprises and employment-intensive technologies accessible to the poor;
UNDP, capacity-building; World Bank, expansion of opportunities by opening up
markets, financial and technical assistance, and policy guidance. All these
endeavours are clearly complementary and fit in neatly with the broader
strategies mentioned above and with the objectives of sustainable development.
95. The development strategies proposed by the United Nations development
community in recent years are convergent on the need for greater efforts at
poverty eradication. All of them emphasize enabling measures and are in
agreement that, while economic growth will continue to be important, the
trickle-down approach will not be sufficient for poverty eradication and
sustainable development. They are increasingly incorporating elements of
environmental sustainability and bottom-up approaches to development into
their work.
C. Organizations outside the United Nations system
1. Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development
96. OECD addresses the poverty issue implicitly rather than explicitly. Its
mandate includes provision of support to developing countries in the building
of broad-based indigenous human and institutional capacities necessary to
bring those countries and their peoples out of poverty. In the context of
development cooperation, it emphasizes three broad goals: broad-based and
environmentally sustainable growth; participatory development; and the slowing
down of population growth.
97. Based on the poverty and development debate of the past two decades, the
organization has identified the following as key issues for growth and equity:
reorientation of economic strategy from a capital-intensive State-based
strategy to a small-producer market-based strategy; correction of policy
distortions; redesign of the provision of public services to enhance equity;
empowerment of women; land-tenure arrangements; and population control. It
recognizes that the integration of environmental concerns into development
projects and programmes, while increasing benefits, will often result in
increased costs requiring the mobilization of additional financial resources
and technological transfers from donors.
98. OECD has become particularly interested in supporting the strengthening
of broader participation of all people in the development process, through
empowerment based on democratic principles, local participation at the grass-
roots level, and the decentralization of decision-making; and in encouraging
equal access of women to education, health and training. Participatory
approaches can be assisted, inter alia, by the provision of support for
decentralization programmes to the local government level and for enabling the
participation of all groups at that level; by sensitizing recipient-country
decision makers and aid agency staff to participatory approaches, and by
responsive government.
2. European Community
99. The European Community has reported that, at the end of 1992, more than
50 million of its citizens were living in poverty and 17 million workers were
unemployed. Both poverty and unemployment have grown since 1980. Poverty is
therefore a major concern. Action to fight poverty and social exclusion is
mainly the responsibility of the member States. However, within the
constraints of its powers and resources, EC has regularly contributed to
whatever initiatives member States have taken to ensure that all citizens play
an active part in building the Community.
100. Since 1975, the Community has launched three successive framework
programmes to combat poverty and social exclusion. In September 1993, the
Commission of EC proposed a new programme to combat social exclusion and
promote solidarity; it has yet to be adopted by the Council of Ministers. The
Commission also endeavoured to develop a set of more ambitious and coherent
initiatives, such as a recommendation on the right of all citizens to
sufficient resources to live in human dignity. It was adopted by the Council
of Ministers on 24 June 1992. A solemn declaration on the rights of excluded
people is being finalized.
101. The Commission now supports and cooperates with a large number of
non-governmental organizations in fighting poverty. This support is largely
channelled through the European federations, or platforms, of non-governmental
organizations. In addition, the Commission consults with social partners
(employers and trade unions), anti-poverty non-governmental organizations and
the European Platform for Family Organizations on specific social exclusion
issues and initiatives.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
102. The major conclusions of the present report are the following:
(a) A broad consensus has emerged over the years on the urgency of
addressing the elusive and persistent problem of poverty and its deleterious
implications for environmental integrity. This consensus is mirrored in the
policy proposals of the United Nations agencies and organizations with
mandates in the economic and social sectors. What is needed now is
thorough-going and systematic action to implement their recommendations in a
reasonable time-frame, taking into account the targets set at the World Social
Summit;
(b) While economic growth will continue to be important, both to raise
the general standard of living and to combat poverty in the long run in
developing countries, reliance cannot be placed on growth that is based solely
on market forces, either to combat poverty or to ensure environmental
sustainability. There is an urgent need to implement an explicit
poverty-reducing growth strategy that incorporates measures to ensure
environmental sustainability;
(c) Just as measures to combat poverty need to be environmentally sound,
the eradication of poverty is a necessary condition for sustainable
development. The eradication of poverty is also essential for long-term
socio-political stability - itself a precondition for sustained socio-economic
development. People must be prevented from overexploiting and thus degrading
natural resources out of sheer desperation to survive;
(d) The persistence of mass poverty is a reflection of socio-political
structures and socio-economic policies and measures which have failed to
redistribute the benefits of growth to high proportions of the population and
prevented them from participating productively in the development of their
countries. Efforts to eliminate poverty, therefore, should not be viewed as
acts of charity towards the poor but rather as a compelling economic necessity
to mobilize the productive potential of the poor for the benefit of the poor
themselves and of society generally;
(e) In order to eradicate poverty and achieve environmental
sustainability, it will be necessary to shift from traditional top-down
approaches to development, which often amount to the imposition of a social
welfare system, as seen by a few, on the entire society, to bottom-up
approaches. This calls for the full participation of all citizens in
socio-political processes and in the planning and implementation of
socio-economic development programmes. Full participation of all will require
the creation of an enabling political environment, decentralization of
decision-making to the local level, and explicit measures to empower the poor
in general and women in particular, so that they may be able to include their
socio-economic priorities in national, regional and local development plans
and participate fully in the implementation of those plans;
(f) In developing countries the success of even the most promising
strategies to eradicate poverty and safeguard environmental integrity will
depend crucially on the extent of international cooperation, especially in
terms of international trade, transfer of environmentally sound technologies,
and financial and technical support;
(g) Governments should implement, as a matter of urgency, the
recommendations contained in chapter II, "Eradication of poverty" of the
Programme of Action adopted at the World Summit for Social Development; 30/
(h) In the future the Commission on Sustainable Development may wish to
restrict its attention to the linkages between poverty and the natural
environment, including those identified by the Social Summit. Some possible
themes could be:
(i) Protection of the health of the urban poor from environmental
stress;
(ii) Promotion of opportunities for small farmers and other poor
agricultural, forestry and fishery workers on terms that respect
sustainable development;
(iii) Environmental protection and resource management in resource-poor
and environmentally fragile regions, in particular marginal lands
where large numbers of the poor are located;
(iv) Afforestation and reforestation for environmental protection and for
meeting the fuelwood needs of the poor;
(v) Promotion of non-farm rural industries to provide productive
employment to the poor so as to relieve the pressure on marginal
lands and halt deforestation;
(vi) Development of sanitary sewage disposal facilities for the poor so
as to prevent water pollution.
Notes
1/ Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992, vol. I, Resolutions Adopted by
the Conference (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and
corrigendum), resolution 1, annex II.
2/ World Development Report, 1992 (Washington, D.C., World Bank, 1992),
p. 30.
3/ U. Simonis and others, Poverty, Environment and Development (Berlin,
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, 1992), p. 4.
4/ Ibid., p. 15.
5/ WHO, Draft Report of the Commission on Health and Environment, 1991,
p. 31.
6/ World Development Report ..., p. 29.
7/ IFAD, The State of World Rural Poverty (Rome, 1992), p. xx.
8/ World Travel and Tourism Council, Travel and Tourism's Economic
Perspective (Brussels, 1995), pp. 4-8.
9/ See report of the World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien,
5-9 March 1990 (E/ICEF/1990/L.4).
10/ See UNIDO/IOD.255.
11/ See Report of the International Conference on Nutrition, Rome,
5-11 December 1992 (Rome, FAO, 1992).
12/ General Assembly resolution 42/191 of 11 December 1987.
13/ See Report of the International Conference on Population and
Development, Cairo, 3-13 September 1994 (A/CONF.171/13 and Add.1).
14/ S. Davis and others, "Promoting the development of indigenous people
in Latin America", Finance and Development (March 1994), p. 38.
15/ S. Davis and others, loc. cit., p. 38.
16/ See A/AC.241/27.
17/ Human Development Report, 1994 (New York, Oxford University Press,
1994), pp. 66-67.
18/ Austria, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Liechtenstein, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
19/ China, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mauritius, Pakistan and
Zimbabwe.
20/ Croatia, Latvia and Yugoslavia.
21/ General Assembly resolution 45/199 of 21 December 1990.
22/ General Assembly resolution 47/120 of 18 December 1992.
23/ Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992, vol. I, Resolutions Adopted by
the Conference (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and
corrigendum), resolution 1, annex I.
24/ Ibid., annex II.
25/ See A/CONF.157/24 (part I).
26/ General Assembly resolution 45/164.
27/ General Assembly resolution 48/163.
28/ General Assembly resolution 48/183.
29/ General Assembly resolution 35/18.
30/ To be issued as document A/CONF.166/9.
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