Vatican City, Feb 9, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Speaking to a special United Nations commission on world economic and social development, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N. told the group that redoubled efforts are needed to seriously reduce poverty levels worldwide and meet the U.N.’s own self-instated goals.
Archbishop Migliore took part yesterday in the 44th session of the Commission for Social Development of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The commission is meeting in New York to review the results of the first "Decade for the Eradication of Poverty," a U.N. initiative which spans the years 1997 to 2006.
The Vatican observer opened his address by pointing out that although between 1981 and 2001 the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty declined from 40 to 21 percent, "that still leaves far too many countries and peoples living with high levels of poverty."
He likewise said that despite "encouraging progress being made in poverty reduction in several Asian countries, the global picture is mixed, with sub-Saharan Africa having made little or no progress in reducing the incidence of poverty in the 1990s.”
“If these trends continue,” the Archbishop said, “only eight African countries will halve extreme poverty by 2015."