News
 

Statement by Ms. Flavia Pansieri, the UNDP Resident Representative in Yemen On the Launch of the Human Development Report 2005 and the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
“Today is the International day for the Eradication of Poverty. It is therefore a very opportune moment for the launch of the UNDP Human Development Report 2005 (HDR), because poverty has a major impact in preventing progress in human development. Poverty affects people in its various forms, from income poverty, to poverty of opportunities, and robs them of the chance to lead a fruitful and fulfilling life.

Halving poverty is the first of the eight Millennium development Goals (MDG) and the HDR 2005  is very much focused on the slow pace of movement towards MDGs and the need for reducing inequality and disparity both within and across countries. The IDEP is focused on achieving the MDGs, through empowering the poorest of the poor.  The theme of the day and the theme of the HDR, therefore, coincide in seeing poverty as the biggest challenge in development.

The UN Secretary General in his address on the occasion of IDEP states: “The theme underscores the fact that poverty can be reduced only if we reach out to the poorest of the poor, including those often excluded from the development process. Only through partnership with them, and by taking steps to tackle inequality, can we eradicate poverty in all its dimensions.” 

Mr, Kemal Dervis, the new Administrator of UNDP similarly stresses that: “If we are to end the cycle of extreme poverty, we need to ensure that the poor, especially women who make up the majority of the poorest of the poor, are empowered to take charge of their development as both participants in the development process that shapes their destinies, and as beneficiaries of development outcomes.”

The HDR deals with topics of relevance to Yemen, in all the four dimensions it covers, namely:
a) The slowing pace of progress on human development and MDGs;
b) The inadequacy of aid flows for enabling developing countries to reach the MDGs;
c) The burden the current global trading system imposes on the ability of poor countries to work themselves out of poverty through export of commodities and labour; and
d) The cause and effect relationship between poor development outcomes and civil conflict.

The HDR reviews progress in moving towards MDGs and concludes that the rate of improvement is not sufficient to reach the targets by 2015. What is worse, progress has been uneven between and within countries, with huge disparities persisting in most countries. The extent of disparities, in addition to the high human cost in terms of lost lives and opportunities, has exacerbated conflict and in turn been reinforced by conflict induced distortions on resource use. In Yemen too, progress has been slowing down over time and wide regional and gender disparities persist.

The report correctly highlights the importance of reducing inequality in order to increase the impact of economic growth on poverty by ensuring that the benefits of growth do indeed reach the poor. In Yemen, we are facing a particularly difficult combination of factors, with the growth rate itself having declined over the past 3-4 years. The nature of the growth process has also been such that it has not created many jobs, at a time when population continues to grow rapidly.

The government of Yemen is fully aware of the challenges that remain ahead and it has issued an MDGR in 2003 and PRSP progress report in 2005 highlighting openly these constraints.. These reports detail the gap between intentions and results on the ground. The MDGR states that Yemen is unlikely to reach most MDGs based on recent rates of progress.  The PRSP progress report shows that the PRS target on the growth rate will not be reached. The increase in allocations to basic social services to the desired ratio of GDP is also not being attained, despite substantial increases in nominal allocations to both health and education.

There is, however, sufficient time left to 2015 for Yemen to achieve the MDGs, through a combination of revised policies and practices at home and a much more supportive engagement of the international community.

At home, the growth process has to become more rapid and more employment intensive and wide social disparities have to be addressed. As the HDR points out, national averages can mask major gaps amongst different areas, sexes and socio-economic groups, and in line with the message of IDEP for this year, there is merit for extra attention to those who are furthest away from the target. 

At an international level, more aid has to be committed for longer periods and with fewer conditions and greater predicatability. Yemen received under $13 per capita in ODA resources in 2003, way below the average $33 per capita received by LDCs. Hence, even moving towards the international average would more than double the amount of aid Yemen receives. There are some encouraging signs that both the volume and predictability of aid has improved since 2004, with more donors adopting multi-year time frames for their cooperation.

But ODA alone is clearly not the solution. It has to be combined with better targeted and transparent allocations to priority sectors from the national budget. And it needs to be supported by a policy framework that promotes private sector engagement and its contribution to economic growth.

Limitations on movement of labour have been particularly costly for Yemen, and moves to ease temporary movements of labour would be most helpful in absorbing an ever increasing pool of surplus labour, as well as providing the country with remittances which can fuel domestic economic activity and thus increase the pool of national resources that could potentially be applied to improving social services.

Social and political tensions affect the use of public resources and increase regional disparities. Many countries emerging from conflict fall prey to it again within five years. Fortunately, this has not been the case in Yemen. Yet,  with only 1.3% of GDP allocated to public health expenditures, while military expenditure accounts for over 7% of GDP, Yemen is investing precious resources away from development. The perceived lack of security in Yemen has limited the contribution of the tourism sector and expansion of oil exploration. An improvement on this front should help by allowing expansion of tourism in particular and of other economic opportunities.

The UN is committed to helping Yemen change direction and achieve the MDGs. To this end, the Millennium Project and the UN system in Yemen, have already supported the Government in drawing up an MDG Needs Assessment Report that details some of the policy changes and the required additional funding needed if Yemen is to achieve the MDGs. The UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) currently under preparation is very much focused on dealing with critical constraints in the way of achieving the MDGs by 2015, in support of the MDG based Third Plan for Development and Poverty Reduction of Yemen for 2006-2010.

In conclusion, let me deal with the issue of Yemen’s ranking on the Human Development Index (HDI). Unfortunately, Yemen now ranks 151 out of the 177 countries included in the ranking. However, one should note that Yemen has managed to increase the value of its HDI for every year that a value has been calculated including 2003, indicating positive movement over time. However, the pace of improvement in HDI has declined from an average annual rate of 2.2% in the 1990-1995 period to 1.6% between 95 and 2000 and to only 1.3% per year from 2000 to 2003. The gradual decline in the GDP per capita growth rate experienced in recent years is one of the factors responsible for this deceleration, but the progress on social indicators has also slowed down, especially with respect to a number of health related indicators since 1997. Clearly more concerted attention to the quality of growth and provision of health services can go some way towards arresting this trend and putting Yemen on a path of upward mobility in the human development arena.