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Author : E. Bragina
Senior Fellow, Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Doctor of Sciences (Economics)
POVERTY as a complicated economic and social
phenomenon with a frequently decisive political im-
pact has traveled a long road to arrive at the top of
international agenda. Poverty is a sign of inadequate
economic development and an unfair distribution
of the national income.
The scope of poverty differed from country to
country and from one historical epoch to another;
its qualitative assessments were changing accord-
ingly, yet at all times the poor paid the highest price
for social cataclysms.
All sorts of Utopias, frequently tagged as socialist because they promised universal equality, looked
easy to realize yet all attempts to translate them into reality invariably failed.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the per capita income in groups of countries was accepted
as a poverty index and an indication of the depth of an economic gap which separated them.
Numerous publications based on the studies conducted under the UN aegis in the South revealed
that poverty, in various forms, could be found all over the world. This social and economic phe-
nomenon lost clear geographical boundaries.
It is wrong to tie together terrorism on the rise in the world and poverty: the correlation is much
more complicated and highly ambiguous. In the last few decades, many countries learned from
their sad experience that persistent poverty which crushes souls and robs people of hope breeds
extremism, especially among the young. Terror is concrete and therefore attractive: it aims at alien
people with different faiths, ideas and way of life. Having splashed out beyond the national borders
it became a global headache alleviated, but not cured, by contracting the areas of massive poverty
and stemming its reproduction.
The growing number of jobless in the South is coupled with the rapidly increasing population.
The vast body of young workforce can be interpreted as a demographic dividend, of which much
has been written recently. To be tapped, its labor potential requires adequate education and ade-
quate employment.
The UNDP 2010 Report identified three priorities: improving data and analysis to inform debates;
providing an alternative to conventional approaches to studying development and increasing our
understanding of inequality, vulnerability and sustainability. The highly dynamical economic and
political situation in the world calls for a revision of the old conceptions yet we should scrutinize
the results before going forward.
On the 70th birthday of Gerhard Schroeder, I would like, on behalf of the Russian diplomats
who knew him and worked with him, to wish him and his family health and happiness.
Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»
Why the International Poverty Index Needs Readjustment