UNIS/INF/58
11 February 2005
Empowering the Poor Is Most Effective in Combating Poverty
United Nations Under-Secretary-General Urges the International Community to Focus on the Least Developed Countries
(Re-issued as received.)
UNITED NATIONS, 10 February -- Addressing the 43rd session of the Commission for Social Development today on the Eradication of Poverty, at the Economic and Social Council, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, Anwarul K. Chowdhury urged the international community to live up to the promises they made in 2001. “Three years ago, in Brussels, the international community came together to adopt a comprehensive programme of action for the Least Developed Countries. The donor countries committed to reverse the declining trend of official development assistance to the LDCs,” he said. “To help eradicate poverty, the Brussels Programme of Action must be implemented,” he added.
“In the process of globalization,” Mr. Chowdhury said, “more and more people get marginalized. Empowerment is most effective in combating poverty, once it reaches the community level. It gives people an opportunity to help themselves.”
Referring to the upcoming Millennium Summit in 2005, he said that to make any significant progress to the Millennium Development Goals, the world, when talking about the poorest, will need to focus on the constraints of the 50 Least Developed Countries. “It is only then that Goal 1 of the Millennium Development Goals, Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger, will be achieved.”
For further information, please contact: Nosh Nalavala, Media Officer, United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (917) 367-2471, e-mail: nalavala@un.org. Website: http://www.un.org/ohrlls/
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