E/CN.4/1999/48
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which in turn comprises three variables: the percentage of persons without
access to drinking water, of persons without access to health services, and of
children aged under five who are underweight.
46.
Human rights and sustainable human development are interdependent and
mutually reinforcing. Development is unsustainable where the rule of law and
equity do not exist; where ethnic, religious or sexual discrimination are
rampant; where there are restrictions on free speech, free association and the
media; or where large numbers of people live in abject and degrading poverty.
Similarly, human rights are enhanced when gender equity or poverty reduction
programmes empower people to become aware of and claim their rights.
47.
UNDP is developing a human rights-based framework in its anti-poverty
pro-sustainable human development work. For this purpose, several strategies
have particular relevance for human rights, such as targeting disadvantaged or
excluded groups (women, children, minorities, migrant workers, people with
HIV/AIDS), promoting partnerships with NGOs and civil society organizations,
addressing governance issues and strengthening human rights national
institutions.
48.
Governance has been defined by UNDP as the exercise of economic,
political and administrative authority to manage a country's affairs at all
levels. Good governance is, among other things, participatory, transparent
and accountable. It is also effective, equitable, and promotes the rule of
law. Good governance ensures that political, social and economic priorities
are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and
the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of
development resources.
B.
World Bank
49.
The World Bank defines extreme poverty as those living on US$ 1 or less
per day. According to the World Bank, the incidence of poverty in developing
countries and in countries with economies in transition fell slightly from
30 per cent in 1987 to 29.5 per cent in 1993. But the absolute number of the
world’s poor rose from 1.23 billion to 1.31 billion during the same year. The
overwhelming majority of people living on $1 a day or less are located in
sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and China, but there are many tens of millions
also in Latin America, the Caribbean and Western Asia. There is also
considerable poverty in developed countries and in countries with economies in
transition.
50.
In addition, the World Bank estimated in 1998 that more than 3 billion
people in the developing world still struggle in grinding poverty, and the
number continues to grow. Every year nearly 8 million children die from
diseases caused by dirty water and poisoned air; 50 million children are
mentally or physically damaged because of inadequate nutrition, and
130 million - 80 per cent of them girls - are denied a chance to go to school.
Today, 150 million children under the age of five are gravely malnourished;
another 260 million suffer from anaemia or other vitamin or mineral
deficiencies. According to the Bank, in 1998 11 million children will die