POVERTY: We're scoring some wins in poverty battle

Norman Gillespie
September 9, 2010
The fight is not futile, with new figures showing the poor are faring better.
'SOME people are rueing these floods but others are really thankful,'' a Benalla resident said after last weekend's deluge. He was referring to the devastation caused by the floods, but also reflecting the excitement felt by many at the end of the dry spell that has devastated parts of rural Victoria for most of the past decade.
Natural disasters, such as Victoria's floods, the earthquake in New Zealand and further abroad in Pakistan, cause great torment. Loved ones are injured or even die, homes are destroyed and lives are turned upside down. The psychological scars can cause long-term problems. The rebuilding is not just physical - it is often an equally difficult mental challenge.
The destruction in New Zealand and Victoria is lamentable, but it pales into insignificance compared with the devastation Pakistan is facing. Up to 20 million people are affected by the floods there. The equivalent of our total population has lost loved ones, homes, businesses, crops and, in many cases, their hopes for the future.
Yet amid the disaster, for some a new light is shining. Dan Toole, UNICEF's regional representative for south Asia, saw this when he visited the affected area in the midst of the crisis. ''One moment of hope - school has started in one camp and about 180 children are sitting and learning on the first day. The class includes many small girls who are in school for the first time.''
Crises bring great sadness, but they can also bring hope. We saw this in Aceh following the damage wrought by 2004's Boxing Day tsunami. After almost 30 years of a brutal civil conflict, Acehnese independence fighters were locked in a seemingly interminable struggle with the Indonesian military.
The tsunami brought great pain to many in Aceh, where more than 168,000 people died. But it also forged a path for an unlikely peace that still holds.
UNICEF's Progress for Children report, released this week, reveals that the situation for the world's children is improving although the statistics are still shocking.
In 1990, up to 30,000 children under five were dying every day due to the impacts of poverty. This is one of the most urgent crises facing humanity and to turn it around is one of our greatest challenges.
In 2000, the world signed up to the 15-year action plan to halve poverty and set up the Millennium Development Goals.
Australia has refocused its aid program around the goals and it is having a real impact. In East Timor in 1990, more than 180 of every 1000 children born would not see their fifth birthday. That number has now almost halved to 93.
It is an incredible achievement, but still means that almost one in 10 East Timorese children will not live to see their fifth birthday. By 2015, we want that figure to drop to 61, a goal that is far from reality. Things are getting better but we still have a lot more work to do.
As data improves, we are seeing, too, that the improving statistics also hide an important new understanding. The divide between the rich and poor in developing countries is growing.
Children from the poorest quintile in developing countries are more than twice as likely to die before reaching their fifth birthday.
More than 84 per cent of the 884 million people who lack access to clean drinking water are in rural areas, and children from rural areas and poorer families are less likely to attend school.
What we also now know is that a $1 million investment in reducing under-five mortality in poorer countries would avert at least 60 per cent of these deaths.
These statistics tell us that we need to better target our aid to the poorest and most underprivileged in poorer countries. With an equity-based approach, millions more lives can be saved. By providing simple and cost-effective interventions to the most vulnerable communities, it is possible to provide children, including girls, with education, immunisations against preventable diseases and access to clean water.
The 8 million children affected in the current flooding in Pakistan are among the poorest in the world. Their parents are mostly subsistence farmers or running small businesses, living hand to mouth.
As we deal with the crises in our communities here in Australia and new opportunities are born from them, the floods in Pakistan provide an opportunity, too. Once the acute needs of the people affected are met, we can look at the longer-term structural inequities and offer these people and their children a hand up to a better life.
The challenges to build a more equitable society in which we live by our commitments to the Child Rights Convention are great. Yet we can and are achieving them. A fairer world is not only possible - it is becoming a reality.

Norman Gillespie is the chief executive of UNICEF Australia.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/were-scoring-some-wins-in-poverty-battle-20100908-1519a.html