Poverty reduction not reaching very poor - report

from Reuters South Africa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Developing countries have made much progress in reducing poverty and hunger but have not been as successful in reaching the poorest of the poor, according to a new report released on Tuesday.

The International Food Policy Research Institute report, which used household survey data from 20 developing countries, found that poverty reduction has been slower for people living on less than 50 cents per day, most of them in Africa.

The report distinguishes between people who live on between 75 U.S. cents and $1 a day; those who live on 50 to 75 cents a day and the 'ultra poor' who live on less than 50 cents a day.

It said 162 million people could be classified as ultra poor and if they were concentrated in a single country they would make up the seventh most populous nation after China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan.

"It is staggering in today's world that so many people are living on less than 50 cents a day," Ruth Vargas Hill, co-author of the report, told Reuters.

"Global progress in reducing ultra poverty has been that much slower than progress in reducing poverty among the poor who live on more than 50 cents a day," she added.

Hill said anti-poverty groups need to become better at targeting the poorest of the poor, adding:

"When we look at who these people are, we find they are living in remote areas, they have much less education and fewer assets than the poor who live on more than 50 cents."

She said those people were less able to take advantage of available opportunities for improving their incomes and that even microfinance programs, created to lend the poor small amounts, were not reaching the very poor.

The report finds progress in reducing poverty was mainly due to economic growth in China and India, where poverty levels have declined. For people just below the $1-a-day level it has fallen faster than for people living below 50 cents per day.

"Economic growth is definitely part of the answer, but what the findings show is just the presence of high economic growth is not enough to reach the poorest of the poor," Hill said, adding, "In many cases there needs to be specific action taken to enable them to participate in growth."

The report can be found on www.ifpri.org