Thank you for the opportunity to address this Civil Society
Forum, organized on the occasion of the 44th Session of the
Commission for Social Development. Allow me also to congratulate
the Forum’s on this important meeting to discuss “A Decade of
Poverty: ways forward.” Although the global figures show
important progress in reducing poverty, it has been far from
even. Between 1990 and 2001, about 118 million persons escaped
extreme poverty, a significant achievement. Much of this global
reduction in poverty, however, has resulted largely from strong
growth performance in East and South Asia, and particularly of
two large countries, China and India. In contrast, far too many
countries actually have been experiencing disappointing advances
or even increasing poverty, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Furthermore, as we stressed last year in our report The
Inequality Predicament, a majority of countries in both the
industrial and the developing world are experiencing widening
income inequality. Poverty’s debil