Poverty rife in Arab world: UN report.

Byline: Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief

Manama: Two in five Arabs live in poverty as a widespread lack of basic elements of human security, such as access to clean water, freedom from hunger, democracy and a robust rule of law, is denying citizens of Arab countries the ability to fulfil their potential, a UN-sponsored report has said.

"One in five people in the Arab region lives below the internationally recognised poverty threshold of $2 a day as poverty and hunger persist in the Arab region despite its comparative affluence. However, a significantly larger proportion of Arabs in countries studied by the report, however, lives under nationally determined poverty lines and still cannot afford bare necessities," said the Arab Human Development Report 2009: Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries.

"Large segments of the population in low-income countries face basic deprivation, reflected in inadequate access to safe water and a high incidence of underweight children, with the number of undernourished people in the region rising from almost 20 million in 1990-1992 to 25.5 million in 2002-2004."

The report, which draws on contributions from more than 100 Arab scholars, said that human security, a pre-requisite for human development, was being undermined by unjust political, social, and economic systems, a scramble for power and resources among fragmented social groups and, in some cases and the impact of external military intrusion.

The ability of more than 330 million people in the Arab world to make progress in human development, lead stable lives and fulfil their potential can be achieved only if the sources of insecurity, environmental degradation, discrimination, unemployment, poverty, and hunger are addressed, the report said.

The report released in Manama on Tuesday identified a series of measures to improve human security that include guarantees on universal basic rights and freedoms, especially for women, better protection for the environment, the tackling of poverty and hunger, the expansion of access to affordable health services and ending occupation and military interventions that have caused human suffering and erase decades of economic development.

"The rights of women can be safeguarded by changing laws and attitudes that entrench gender-based discrimination.

Grim reading

25.5m under-nourished people in region

1 in 5 in region earns less than $2 a day

330m population in the Arab region

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