Reducing poverty: India well ahead of Pakistan: World Bank-IMF report
ISLAMABAD (April 09 2008): A new World Bank-IMF report said that India is well ahead of Pakistan in reducing poverty and all South Asian nations are required to do more to keep GDP growth rate at least at 7 percent to achieve millennium development goals (MDGs).
The report, which was launched here at WB office on Tuesday, warned that most countries in South Asia will fall short on the MDGs, a set of globally agreed development goals with due date of 2015.
Much of the world is set to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015, prospects are gravest for the goals of reducing child and maternal mortality, with serious shortfalls also likely in primary school completion, nutrition and sanitation goals. The Global Monitoring Report: MDGs and the Environment-agenda for inclusive and sustainable development stresses the link between environment and development and calls for urgent action on climate change. Pakistan loses around 4 percent of the GDP due to environmental degradation.
"India is doing well on poverty reduction because of its about 9 percent growth for the past some years. Poverty reduction has been less in Pakistan," said Zia Qureshi, the lead author of the report. However, he remained silent on the Pakistan's poverty estimates in which it was claimed that the number of people living below poverty line had been decreased from 34 percent to 24 percent.
Progress towards the MDGs differs drastically across countries, regions, and income groups, according to the report. While most of the poverty reduction between 1990 and 2004 took place in East Asia and Pacific, South Asia would contribute the most to global poverty reduction in the next decade.
However, South Asia will not reach the goal of halving malnutrition rates. In fact, South Asia has the world's highest incidence of child malnutrition. India's malnutrition rate is double than the African average.
The report opines that donors must expedite aid delivery in line with commitments. Sizeable shortfalls loom in the current official development assistance (ODA). Qureshi said ODA comprises just only 8 percent of the aid inflows coming into the developing countries.
Though the overall aid landscape is expanding, ODA-estimated at US $103.7 billion in 2007-has stalled. To meet the G-8 promises to increase aid by $50 billion by 2010, the ODA size must have expanded, said the report.
In 2007, gross concessional flows from multilateral development banks crossed $12 billion, a 10.3 percent increase driven by the International Development Association (IDA). While Asia continued to receive almost half of these flows, Africa received 45 percent in 2007, up from 37 percent in 2000.
The rise in food prices poses a challenge to developing countries. But at the same time, this provides an opportunity as well. The developing as well as the developed countries should liberalise agriculture trade. In the last three years, the world average wheat price has increased by 180 percent. Similar increases are also being witnessed in the prices of rice, other grains and pulses etc.
"This year action on the MDGs, I am particularly concerned about the risks of failing to meet the goal of reducing hunger and malnutrition, the forgotten MDG," said Robert B. Zoellick, the WB president.
As the report shows, reducing malnutrition has a multiplier effect, contributing to success in other MDGs including maternal health, infant mortality and education, he added in written statement.
The growth momentum will have to be sustained and broadened in developing countries in the face of financial turmoil. Developing countries' growth will ease to 6.7 percent, but persistent financial market turmoil and knock-on-effects on growth pose a significant downside risks.
The number of people living on under $1/day in the developing world declined by 278 million between 1990 and 2004, and a stunning 150 million in the last five years of that period.
Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]
