1 bln people lifted out of extreme poverty in 20 years: UNCTAD

Mukhisa Kituyi, secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), announced on Monday that one billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty in 20 years around the world.

In his report for the 14th UNCTAD scheduled for March 2016 in Peru, Kituyi noted that the proportion of people living in destitution has been halved, hundreds of millions have joined the middle class, and a number of developing countries have become major engines of growth both for their region and the global economy.

"The last 25 years have set the stage for the final push in the eradication of extreme poverty within a generation," Kituyi said. "They taught us that we can expand the boundaries of what we think is possible."

Despite "the tremendous progress achieved," Kituyi said, "poverty and inequality, both between and within nations, remain a pervasive challenge".

He underlined that the new global consensus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals "raises the bar and demands unprecedented actions and efforts".

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require resource mobilization on an unparalleled scale, he stressed.

"Developing countries alone will need to invest 3.3 to 4.5 trillion dollars per year in basic infrastructure, food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, health and education," leaving "a gap of 2.5 trillion dollars annually in real terms", he added.

Called "From Decisions to Actions", the report builds on lessons learned from impressive developmental advances in past decades and proposes detailed courses of action that tackle aspirations as yet unmet in order to deliver sustainable prosperity for all within the 15-year lifespan of the new Sustainable Development Goals. Endit