Poverty and International Development
Hunger, Poverty and Development Facts |
Progress Toward Poverty Reduction
- In the past 20 years, infant mortality rates worldwide have been reduced by 33 percent. The World Bank
- Health conditions across the globe have improved more during the past 50 years than in any period in all previous human history. Smallpox has been eradicated, and 3 million lives have been saved each year through USAID immunization programs. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
- The United Nations Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990) resulted in 1.3 billion people having access to safe drinking water sources, and 750 million people receiving sanitation for the first time. United Nations
- Over the past two decades investments in agricultural techniques by the United States and other donors have helped make it possible to feed an extra billion people in the world. USAID
- Bangladesh, a nation that was once a symbol of famine, has transformed its agricultural sector. Rice production, for example, is up nearly 70 percent since the mid-1970s. U. S. Department of State
There is Much Still To Be Done
- Approximately 800 million people in the developing world are chronically undernourished. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- Undernutrition, measles, diarrhea and dehydration remain the four leading causes in the death of 6 million children under the age of 5 each year. FAO, World Health Organization (WHO)
- An additional 3 million people in sub-Saharan Africa contracted HIV/AIDS in 2001, bringing the number of infected people in the region to 28.5 million. An estimated 11 million children have been orphaned by the disease. UNAIDS
- In 2000, 1.7 million people died due to tuberculosis. Another 1 million died due to malaria. Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria
- More than 100 million school-age children in the developing world are not enrolled in primary school. That's equal to more than a third of the population of the United States. United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
- In the developing world, 850 million people are illiterate; nearly two-thirds of these are women. UNDP
- Twelve million people die each year from lack of safe drinking water, including more than 3 million who die from waterborne diseases. World Bank
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