Asia-Pacific makes big gains against poverty, lags on hunger and child deaths — UN
UN News
February 19, 2012

NEW YORK — Countries in the Asia-Pacific region have made big gains against poverty and advancing toward other development goals, but need to redouble efforts if they are to meet globally agreed targets to reduce hunger and child and maternal mortality, the United Nations reported over the weekend.

The region has already reached the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the incidence of poverty, reducing the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 per day from 50 to 22 percent between 1990 and 2009, according to the latest UN regional assessment.

The region has also achieved some other MDG indicators ahead of the 2015 deadline, states the report, published by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the UN Development Program (UNDP).

These include promoting gender equality in education, reducing HIV prevalence, stopping the spread of tuberculosis, increasing forest cover, reducing consumption of ozone-depleting substances and halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water.

At the same time, the report states that while strong economic dynamism has driven regional success in reducing poverty, many countries continue to lose “shocking” numbers of children before their fifth birthday and thousands of mothers die unnecessarily while giving birth. More than three million children below the age of five died in 2010 alone.

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