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| To leave half of humanity living in poverty is expensive and will be more and more as time passes |
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| A seminar held in Kingston (Jamaica), in March 2008, has led outstanding Latin American researchers to review the multiple costs of poverty in the Caribbean, and more especially to present options available to the international community to cope with a phenomenon that affects nearly one in two people around the world. |
 To leave people living in poverty costs more than to develop public policies to help them out. This was the underlying idea of a seminar on the cost of poverty in the Caribbean, organized by the International Institute for Social, Political and Economic Change (IISPEC), Kingston, Jamaica, from 17 to 19 March 2008. The meeting, supported by UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences programme, has provided an unprecedented opportunity to take all necessary measures on the consequences that almost half the world’s population lives below the poverty line. For two days, multiple speakers, including eminent researchers from Latin America have scrutinized poverty and its different aspects.
After presenting the situation in the Caribbean, a region particularly affected by poverty, the overall cost of which represents a profound denial of human rights was revealed, as well as the social, economic, environmental and psychological costs, which always lead to the same findings: poverty is expensive.
Arnold K. Ventura, member of the cabinet of the Prime Minister of Jamaica, recalled the solidarity effort required at all levels and the need to include the poorest in finding solutions for themselves, by putting access to science and technology at the centre of his analysis. The meeting was also an occasion to present the action undertaken by UNESCO to make its contribution through international efforts in the fight against poverty, notably by the support that the Organization provides to its Member States in reviewing and discussing the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) in the light of human rights.
At the opening session, Pierre Sané, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences said that poverty is the denial of the most fundamental of human rights, challenging the participants with the question:“Can we talk about global development when globalization seems to be the source of inequality?” In this year of commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he found that one of the
major challenges of the 21st century is to realize the right of every person that prevails on the social and international level, an order in which the rights and freedom is set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized, as cited in Article 28.
According to him, the inequality caused by poverty is indeed a real challenge, thereby depriving millions of men, women and children of their dignity, recognized as a right for all members of the humanity since 1948. Calling upon the international community to mobilize themselves for “global justice”, he recalled the levers that constitute investment, reform, national and international policies, and called for a change in the basic rules to give globalization a human face.
Download the final report of the seminar [PDF]
More information on the seminar on the IISPEC website ...
For further information, please contact:
Chifa Tekaya, c.tekaya@unesco.org
Photo: Children from a poor neighbourhood in Quito (Ecuador) © Flickr/iNyar
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