UN General Assembly
2000

In the area of development, the world has seen unprecedented economic progress in the past 55 years. Countries that were underdeveloped not very long ago have become dynamic centres of world economic activity. But there is another fact: the vast majority of our countries and peoples remain desperately poor. In his message to commemorate the World Day of Peace, His Holiness Pope John Paul II wrote, At the beginning of a new century, the one issue which most challenges our human and Christian consciences is the poverty of countless millions of men and women. According to the report (A/55/1) of the Secretary- General on the work of the Organization dated 20 30 August 2000, almost half of the world's population must content itself with living on less than $2 per person per day. So it is that 300 million Africans do not have even $1 a day on which to subsist. Furthermore, this poverty is being made worse, in particular by the rapid spread of AIDS, another scourge that has ravaged, brought suffering to, divided and decimated