E/CN.4/1999/48 page 32 121. The ideas of the poorest of the poor are therefore perfectly in order in the debates taking place in various international organizations (UNDP, the World Bank, IMF, UNHCHR, UNCTAD, WTO). Efforts to increase cooperation among various bodies should also be increased and continued, not only within the United Nations system, but also with other international and regional bodies and with and among NGOs. 122. Poverty eradication must therefore be consolidated as an absolute priority throughout the United Nations system, in the context of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006), to be carried out at both international and national levels. Development strategies must take fully into account the realization of human rights, the indicators provided for, and the full participation of the poorest people, in particular women, in drawing up and implementing appropriate national plans of action. 123. Combating poverty is feasible, but it costs about $80 billion a year, which implies important transfers of resources through international cooperation. Donor countries should urgently reverse the decline in their official development assistance to developing countries, which amounted to just 0.25 per cent of GDP in 1996. The General Assembly call upon developed countries to commit themselves to the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of GNP for overall development assistance should be emphasized, as well as the Assembly's call upon both developed and developing countries to allocate 20 per cent of their official development assistance and 20 per cent of their national budget, respectively, to basic social programmes. The 20/20 Initiative should include basic education, primary health care, including reproductive health and population programmes, nutrition programmes and safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as the institutional capacity for delivering those services. 124. At the national level, it is the Government's political will that is the key to success. Implementation of the human rights of the very poor is not necessarily expensive. The poor may be found in every country; even rich countries have two categories, namely, poor indigenous populations and poor migrants from developing countries - asylum seekers, undocumented (illegal) migrants, and refugees, political or otherwise. In every case, the right to civil status extends the right to life to thousands of children (girls in particular) who live in extreme poverty. This simple right saves their life, for it keeps them away from those who traffic in human beings. 125. Combating extreme poverty and implementing the rights of the poorest of the poor involves designing and funding a range of basic social services which reach out to the very poor, and ensuring respect for human rights, in particular within the judicial system and by the police. 126. Our age is characterized by globalization, and the technical revolution underway must comprise democratic and social aspects. The implementation of human rights and the eradication of extreme poverty will mark the first steps towards global progress. Economic globalization must be conceived as a balance between the free market and the role of the State, in particular as regards the provision of essential social services.