RIYADH, 19 October 2004 — Saudi Arabia has made rapid strides in fighting poverty, according to a report issued by the United Nations Development Program. The report ranked Saudi Arabia 30th among 95 developing countries with its development indicator showing 15.8 percent.
The Kingdom is ranked 77th with a Human Development Index (HDI) value of 0.768 among 177 countries around the world in the Human Development Report (HDR) of the United Nations on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty released on Sunday.
The HDI focuses on three measurable dimensions of human development — living a long and healthy life, being educated and having a decent standard of living. Thus it combines measures of life expectancy, school enrolment, literacy and income.
The HDR 1997 introduced the HPI, which focuses on the proportion of people below a threshold level in basic dimensions of human development -- living a long and healthy life, having access to education, and a decent standard of living, much as the poverty headcount measures the proportion of people below a certain income level. The HPI-1 measures human poverty in developing countries.
El-Mostafa Benlamlih, UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative in the Kingdom said that “The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were agreed on at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 have emphasized the need for the international community to work together to halve poverty by the year 2015. This means removing hunger, stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS, fighting malaria and tuberculosis, ensuring that each and every child goes to schools and protecting our environment.”
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has been assigned the responsibility to monitor progress toward this ambitious target as well as supporting the efforts of developing countries to fight poverty and offer decent lives to their people.
“This is an international as well as a national responsibility. We need to build a national commitment to fighting poverty and creating an environment which is conducive to a pro-poor development,” added Benlamlih. Eradication of poverty in the Kingdom remains one of the most important local issues that came to the fore during the landmark visit of Crown Prince Abdullah to impoverished localities in the capital two years ago.
During his visit the crown prince acknowledged poverty as a problem that should engage the government’s attention and resources. Since then the Charitable Foundation for Poverty Alleviation was launched with an SR100 million capital to formulate a new strategy to eradicate poverty, by rehabilitating the poor families and turning them into productive families.
