UN struggles to keep up-to-date

Reality has been moving too fast for United Nations data to keep pace, according to a new report on achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific region.

The UN says health insurance, pension and social protection measures need to be developed.  It reveals it is difficult to offer a fully up-to-date report.

Only one in five unemployed and underemployed people in Asia has access to unemployment benefits.  Only one third of elderly people receive pensions, according to the report.

Hundreds of millions of people in the area live on less than 80 pence a day and lack clean water and sanitation. The GDP in the area is just above 50%, which is virtually the same as it was in 1820.

Concerns

The report calls for stronger regional cooperation. Rich countries in the region such as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are encouraged to increase both domestic demand and expenditure in order to make the area “the new engine of the world”.

Ajay Chhibber, regional director for the United Nations Development Programme has already raised concerns that growth in the last decade has been highly unequal.

He blamed imbalances such as western over consumption and Asian overspending. "There's been too much focus on economic growth, and not enough on how that growth is being distributed,” he said.

Minar Pimple, regional director of the UN Millennium Campaign in Asia and the Pacific Region said: "Reducing inequalities through more equal distribution of the growth is the only way to have long-term sustainable poverty eradication.”