The World Summit for Social Development reflected international community s vision to creating a just and equitable world for all. The five year review of the implementation of the Outcome of the Summit at the 24th Special Session of the General Assembly in Geneva this June indicated that since Copenhagen existing inequalities within and among countries have been further aggravated, poverty has deepened, social exclusion and social disintegration have increased. Recent statistics indicate that world wide 1.6 billion people are worse off than they were 15 years ago. Among 4.4 billion people living in developing countries, three fifths lack access to basic sanitation, one third have no access to clean drinking water and one fifth no access to even moderate medicare. The Secretary General s report to the Millennium Summit confirms this abysmal state of social indicators.
Poverty is the worst violator of human dignity and human rights.
About 3000 years ago Aristotle had observed poverty is a parent of revolution and crime . More recently Alfred Marshal in his famous Principles of Economics stated that a study of causes of poverty is the study of the causes of the degradation of large part of mankind . Mr. President, At Copenhagen the international community had recognized that broad based and sustained economic growth was a pre-requisite to eradicate poverty and promote development. Regrettably, the prevailing international environment constrains the ability of most of the developing countries to create conditions for a broad based and sustained economic growth in an increasingly integrating world economy. The realization of the target agreed at the Social Summit would require mobilization of adequate resources for social spending during the next decade.