The UN says poverty can be eradicated early into the next century

UN says poverty rose under Tories

Under the Conservatives, claims the Human Development Report 1997, poverty rose by half between 1979 and 1991 to 14.6 per cent of the population. Relative to other industrialised countries, there was a significantly higher proportion of children and the elderly living in poverty.

But the report also says that Britain has been more successful than most in converting its per capita income into "human development"- measured by whether people enjoy a long and healthy life, are educated and have a decent standard of living. In these terms, Britain ranks 15th globally.

Life expectancy in Britain stands at 76.7 years, well above the industrial countries average of 74.1. Education standards are also high, with a 99 per cent literacy rate among adults and 86 per cent of young people enrolled in full-time education.

The report, commissioned by the UN Development Programme, claims that poverty around the world has been reduced more in the last 50 years than in the previous 500 years. At the same time, it examines some worrying statistics, including:

• 1.3 billion people around the world live on less than £1 per day;
• 800 million people around the world do not receive adequate nutrition;
• one-fifth of the population of developing countries will not live beyond the age of 40;
• 93 per cent of the 23 million people with AIDS or the HIV virus live in developing countries;
• one-third of the peoples of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union live in poverty

The report argues that the cost of eradicating poverty is just one per cent of global income. And it emphasises that achieving this within the first two decades of the next century is a "feasible and affordable goal."