The 2005 Human Development Report reveals that the poverty rate in Egypt remains high. Mona El-Fiqi reports Egypt's rank in human development moved one step forward this year from 120 in 2004 to 119 out of the 177 countries included in the 2005 Human Development Report. The report, which also includes a poverty index, placed Egypt in the 55th position among the 103 developing countries included in the survey. At that position, Egypt's poverty rate has hit 30.9 per cent of the population. This is the outcome despite all governmental and non-governmental efforts to raise citizens' standard of living. Egypt is not alone in this . Dozens of other developing countries fared the same if not worse. "A child born in Zambia today has less chance of surviving past age 30 than a child born in 1840 in England," noted the report. Nor is the situation likely to improve. "There is a real danger that the next 10 years, like the last 15 years, will deliver less for human development than has been promised." the report said. The Human Development Report which looks at the pace of human development among developed as well as developing countries has been issued annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 1990. "International cooperation at a crossroads. Aid, Trade and Security in an Unequal World", is the title of the 2005 report. Five years ago, at the start of the new millennium, the world's governments united to make a remarkable promise to the victims of global poverty. They signed the Millennium Declaration which provides a bold vision rooted in a shared commitment to universal human rights and social justice, and also a clear timetable for the achievement of intended goals. These targets -- the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- include halving extreme poverty, reducing child deaths, providing all the world's children with an education, rolling back infectious disease, and forging a new global partnership to deliver results. The deadline for delivery is 2015. In September 2005, the world's governments will gather again at the United Nations to review developments since they signed the Millennium Declaration and will chart a course for the next ten years leading to 2015. "This is the moment to prove that the Millennium Declaration is not just a paper promise, but a commitment to change," the report says. According to the report, if the investments and the policies needed to achieve the MDGs are put in place today, there is still time to deliver on the promise of the millennium but time is running out. Moreover, the report illustrates the scale of the challenge facing the world at the beginning of the 10 year countdown to 2015 and focusses on what governments in rich countries can do to keep their side of the global partnership bargain. According to the report there are three pillars of cooperation, each in urgent need of renovation. The first is development assistance. "International aid is a key investment in human development." The second pillar is international trade. "Under the right conditions, trade can be a powerful catalyst for human development." the report explains. The Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001 provided the governments of wealthy countries with an opportunity to create those conditions. However, four years on, nothing of substance has been achieved. The trade policies of the First World continue to deny poor countries and poor people a fair share of global prosperity. The third pillar is security. Violent conflict destroys the lives of hundreds of millions of people. It is a source of systematic violations of human rights and a barrier to progress towards the MDGs. The report mentioned the most important gains in human development since the issuance of the first Human development report in 1990. On average, people in developing countries are healthier, better educated and less impoverished -- and they are more likely to live in a multi-party democracy. In figures, life expectancy in developing countries has increased by two years, there are three million fewer child deaths annually and 30 million fewer children out of school. More than 130 million have escaped extreme poverty. However figures also reveal that over a period of 13 years, there has been a deterioration of living standards. In 2003, 18 countries with a combined population of 460 million people registered lower scores on the human development index than in 1990- an unprecedented reversal. In the midst of an increasingly prosperous global economy, every year 10.7 million children do not live to see their fifth birthday and more than one billion people survive in abject poverty on less than $1 a day. And this has not been made better by global integration. Although the space between people and countries is shrinking rapidly as trade, technology and investment link all countries, in human development terms, the space between countries is widening. Inequalities persist in income and life opportunities. For example, the report cites that the world's richest 500 individuals have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million. In an attempt to illustrate the gravity of the situation, the report draws on a comparison with the Tsunami. It says that every hour more than 1,200 children die. This is equivalent to three tsunamis a month hitting children, the world's most vulnerable citizens. While the Tsunami was an unpredictable and largely unpreventable tragedy, poverty, the report says, can be prevented.
