Poverty reduction efforts may slacken due to global economic crisis
- UNDP RCC chief
By Gamini Warushamana
[email protected]
Chief of the Policies and Programs of the UNDP Regional Centre
Colombo (UNDP RCC), Omar Norman said that the poverty reduction efforts
in the region may slow down due to the present global economic crisis.
In the next 3-4 years most countries will have to spend money on
controlling shocks and not on poverty reduction. Only after that they
will focus on poverty reduction he told a book launch in Colombo
recently.
Introducing the book "Poverty Reduction that Works: Scaling up
Development Success", Norman said that global economy is at present
facing uncertainty, insecurity and instability. This situation has been
created by a series of shocks. All countries are attempting to identify
measures to handle the crisis at a controllable level and investing
money and thinking policies.
External shocks are not controllable by individual countries. Most of
the countries in the region are in a similar situation and attempts are
being made to manage shocks, he said.
Introducing the book, he said, "today we will not discuss macro
policies. In this book we discuss about some identified groups of people
and about efforts they made to reduce their poverty. These projects are
direct interventions with huge efforts".
The book has compiled 20 outstanding and replicable examples of
poverty reduction programs in 15 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin
America.
"The power of these examples is that they provide practical solutions
to policy makers. The projects analysed in the book show possibilities
of how governments and civil society can help poor communities. The
current strains of energy and food prices on the poor reinforce the need
for such solutions, Norman said.
The report covers a diverse range of issues, including cash transfer
experience of Latin American countries, micro insurance, health
insurance for the poor, socio economic empowerment of women, housing and
tourism.
The Gemidiriya project in Sri Lanka is among the 20 case studies and
other successful programs selected in this book include Community Voice
Card (India), bringing information and communication technology to rural
and disadvantaged communities (China), Socio-economic development in
communes faced with extreme difficulties (Vietnam), income generation
for vulnerable groups (Bangladesh) and health insurance for the poor in
the Philippines.
The UNDP launched this campaign to promote local poverty initiatives
in 2007 and decided to review existing good practices.
These 20 successful projects have been selected from 100 case studies
from more than 20 countries spanning Asia, Africa and Latin America. |
