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Holy See Proposes 3 Keys to Eradicate Poverty
The Holy See called on the international community to fulfill its promises in the eradication of poverty worldwide and presented three decisive objectives to achieve it. In the case of the neediest countries, the Holy See emphasized that “the conditions of trade must be improved, aid to development must be doubled, and the cancellation of debt must be promoted.”
The Vatican’s position was expressed on Thursday by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, when addressing the 44th session of the Commission for Social Development of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, which is meeting to review the results of the first “Decade for the Eradication of Poverty,” a U.N. initiative covering the period 1997-2006. The archbishop reaffirmed the Holy See’s commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, to reduce the levels of poverty of the world poorest countries by half by the year 2015. The papal representative said that although the percentage of the world population that lives in conditions of abject poverty decreased, between 1981 and 2001, from 40% to 21%, “that still leaves far too many countries and peoples living with high levels of poverty.”
In particular, Archbishop Migliore pointed out that in “sub-Saharan Africa” “little or no progress” was made “in reducing the incidence of poverty in the 1990s. If these trends continue, only eight African countries will halve extreme poverty by 2015.” On the other hand, the archbishop noted, “‘the number of Africans now living on less than $1 a day has recently doubled since 1980, from 165 million to 315 million.’”
The Holy See called on the international community to fulfill its promises in the eradication of poverty worldwide and presented three decisive objectives to achieve it. In the case of the neediest countries, the Holy See emphasized that “the conditions of trade must be improved, aid to development must be doubled, and the cancellation of debt must be promoted.”
The Vatican’s position was expressed on Thursday by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, when addressing the 44th session of the Commission for Social Development of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, which is meeting to review the results of the first “Decade for the Eradication of Poverty,” a U.N. initiative covering the period 1997-2006. The archbishop reaffirmed the Holy See’s commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, to reduce the levels of poverty of the world poorest countries by half by the year 2015. The papal representative said that although the percentage of the world population that lives in conditions of abject poverty decreased, between 1981 and 2001, from 40% to 21%, “that still leaves far too many countries and peoples living with high levels of poverty.”
In particular, Archbishop Migliore pointed out that in “sub-Saharan Africa” “little or no progress” was made “in reducing the incidence of poverty in the 1990s. If these trends continue, only eight African countries will halve extreme poverty by 2015.” On the other hand, the archbishop noted, “‘the number of Africans now living on less than $1 a day has recently doubled since 1980, from 165 million to 315 million.’”