Can the widening gap between the rich & poor be reduced?

 “Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times, that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils. Poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.….While poverty exists there is no true freedom. Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Make poverty history. Then we can all stand with our heads held high.” Nelson Mandela.

The continent hardest hit by poverty is Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of overall and infant mortality on the planet, the shortest life expectancy (average life expectancy has declined from 50 to 46 since 1990), the lowest per capita income, and fastest rate of population increase. Whereas in the developed world less than one in 100 children die before age five, in most of sub-Saharan Africa that number is one in 10, and in 14 countries it is one in five. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people living on less than $1 a day has increased since 1990. While under nourishment decreased worldwide in the 1990s, it increased in Africa.

More then 1 billion people still live below the extreme poverty line of $1 a day, and 20,000 die from poverty each day. More then 3 billion, more then half of humanity, live in poverty, with less then $2 per day. Over 1 billion people have no access to health care. Out of the population of the developing countries 66% have no toilets, nor even latrines.

In the developing world, 866 million people are illiterate. 2 billion have no link to a electricity network. Some 80% of the world’s population have no access to basic forms of telecommunications. There are more telephone lines in Manhattan than in whole of sub-Saharan Africa and half the human race have never used the telephone.

Two-thirds of the world’s population of those living in absolute poverty are under the age of 15 years old and 70% are women and girls. A World Bank study estimated that it would take 70 years to double the daily income of every African living on one dollar a day. Will it really take more than three generations to enable every African to earn the paltry sum of two dollars a day ?

Some of the causes of poverty are unserviceable debt, under-investment in science and technology, unjust trade rules, the onslaught of diseases, ethnic conflicts, corruption, high level of unemployment, and the lack of infrastructure and education. The world is in for a rough ride if we remain complacent.

The speakers will expand on the needs of the world’s poorest and advance a framework of action and investment for development .