Africa: Poverty Eradication Efforts Take Center-Stage at Meeting of Experts

By Peter Omondi

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia--- Experts meeting at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa have expressed concern over “significant, but uneven progress on poverty reduction”. The experts concur that even this uneven progress may now be threatened by the overlapping global crises of food and energy, financial and economic, and climate change.

The meeting, whose focus is “Poverty Eradication” is being held from 15-17 September 2010, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as part of the preparations for the 49th session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD), which is scheduled to take place in New York from 2 to 11 February 2011.

Organised by the Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in collaboration with the Economic Development and NEPAD Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the meeting aims to allow a robust exchange of ideas among independent experts, government officials, representatives from the United Nations system, regional development banks and civil society.

According to the organizers, this interaction, which will focus on shaping policies and strategies, will contribute to the global debate on how countries and their development partners can speed up progress towards reducing extreme poverty and hunger, as well as attaining the other MDGs by 2015.

Estimates by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) suggest that between 47 and 84 million people remained poor or were driven into poverty in developing countries and economies in transition than would have been the case had growth continued at pre-crisis levels.

According to World Bank estimates, the economic and financial crisis has driven 7 to 10 million more people in Africa into poverty and 30,000 to 50,000 more children have died before their first birthday as a result of the crisis. The experts also note that the number of people living in hunger rose from 873 million in 2004-06 to 1.02 billion people during 2009 – the highest level ever. This increase in hunger, say the experts, is largely a result of high food prices and the global financial and economic crisis.