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AGENDA 21, CHAPTER 3



COMBATING POVERTY




NOTE:	This is a final, advanced version of a chapter of Agenda 21, as 
adopted by the Plenary in Rio de Janeiro, on June 14, 1992.  
This document will be further edited, translated into the 
official languages, and published by the United Nations for the 
General Assembly this autumn.





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PROGRAMME AREA

Enabling the poor to achieve sustainable livelihoods

Basis for action

3.1.	Poverty is a complex multidimensional problem with origins in both 
the national and international domains.  No uniform solution can be found 
for global application. Rather, country-specific programmes to tackle 
poverty and international efforts supporting national efforts, as well as 
the parallel process of creating a supportive international environment, 
are crucial for a solution to this problem.  The eradication of poverty and 
hunger, greater equity in income distribution and human resource 
development remain major challenges everywhere.  The struggle against 
poverty is the shared responsibility of all countries.

3.2.	While managing resources sustainably, an environmental policy that 
focuses mainly on the conservation and protection of resources must take 
due account of those who depend on the resources for their livelihoods.  
Otherwise it could have an adverse impact both on poverty and on chances 
for long-term success in resource and environmental conservation.  Equally, 
a development policy that focuses mainly on increasing the production of 
goods without addressing the sustainability of the resources on which 
production is based will sooner or later run into declining productivity, 
which could also have an adverse impact on poverty.  A specific 
anti-poverty strategy is therefore one of the basic conditions for ensuring 
sustainable development.  An effective strategy for tackling the problems 
of poverty, development and environment simultaneously should begin by 
focusing on resources, production and people and should cover demographic 
issues, enhanced health care and education, the rights of women, the role 
of youth and of indigenous people and local communities and a democratic 
participation process in association with improved governance.

3.3.	Integral to such action is, together with international support, the 
promotion of economic growth in developing countries that is both sustained 
and sustainable and direct action in eradicating poverty by strengthening 
employment and income-generating programmes.

Objectives

3.4.	The long-term objective of enabling all people to achieve sustainable 
livelihoods should provide an integrating factor that allows policies to 
address issues of development, sustainable resource management and poverty 
eradication simultaneously.  The objectives of this programme area are:

	(a)	To provide all persons urgently with the opportunity to earn a 
sustainable livelihood;

	(b)	To implement policies and strategies that promote adequate levels 
of funding and focus on integrated human development policies, including 
income generation, increased local control of resources, local 
institution-strengthening and capacity-building and greater involvement of 
non-governmental organizations and local levels of government as delivery 
mechanisms;

	(c)	To develop for all poverty-stricken areas integrated strategies 
and programmes of sound and sustainable management of the environment, 
resource mobilization, poverty eradication and alleviation, employment and 
income generation;

	(d)	To create a focus in national development plans and budgets on 
investment in human capital, with special policies and programmes directed 
at rural areas, the urban poor, women and children.

Activities

3.5.  Activities that will contribute to the integrated promotion of 
sustainable livelihoods and environmental protection cover a variety of 
sectoral interventions involving a range of actors, from local to global, 
and are essential at every level, especially the community and local 
levels.  Enabling actions will be necessary at the national and 
international levels, taking full account of regional and subregional 
conditions to support a locally driven and country-specific approach.  In 
general design, the programmes should:

	(a)	Focus on the empowerment of local and community groups through the 
principle of delegating authority, accountability and resources to the most 
appropriate level to ensure that the programme will be geographically and 
ecologically specific;

	(b)	Contain immediate measures to enable those groups to alleviate 
poverty and to develop sustainability;

	(c)	Contain a long-term strategy aimed at establishing the best 
possible conditions for sustainable local, regional and national 
development that would eliminate poverty and reduce the inequalities 
between various population groups.  It should assist the most disadvantaged 
groups - in particular, women, children and youth within those groups -and 
refugees.  The groups will include poor smallholders, pastoralists, 
artisans, fishing communities, landless people, indigenous communities, 
migrants and the urban informal sector.

3.6.  The focus here is on specific cross-cutting measures - in particular, 
in the areas of basic education, primary/maternal health care, and the 
advancement of women.

(a)	Empowering communities

3.7.  Sustainable development must be achieved at every level of society.  
Peoples' organizations, women's groups and non-governmental organizations 
are important sources of innovation and action at the local level and have 
a strong interest and proven ability to promote sustainable livelihoods.  
Governments, in cooperation with appropriate international and 
non-governmental organizations, should support a community-driven approach 
to sustainability, which would include, inter alia:

	(a)	Empowering women through full participation in decision-making;

	(b)	Respecting the cultural integrity and the rights of indigenous 
people and their communities;

	(c)	Promoting or establishing grass-roots mechanisms to allow for the 
sharing of experience and knowledge between communities;

	(d)	Giving communities a large measure of participation in the 
sustainable management and protection of the local natural resources in 
order to enhance their productive capacity;

	(e)	Establishing a network of community-based learning centres for 
capacity-building and sustainable development.

(b)	Management-related activities

3.8.  Governments, with the assistance of and in cooperation with 
appropriate international, non-governmental and local community 
organizations, should establish measures that will directly or indirectly:

	(a)	Generate remunerative employment and productive occupational 
opportunities compatible with country-specific factor endowments, on a 
scale sufficient to take care of prospective increases in the labour force 
and to cover backlogs;


	(b)	With international support, where necessary, develop adequate 
infrastructure, marketing systems, technology systems, credit systems and 
the like and the human resources needed to support the above actions and to 
achieve a widening of options for resource-poor people.  High priority 
should be given to basic education and professional training;

	(c)	Provide substantial increases in economically efficient resource 
productivity and measures to ensure that the local population benefits in 
adequate measure from resource use;

	(d)	Empower community organizations and people to enable them to 
achieve sustainable livelihoods;

	(e)	Set up an effective primary health care and maternal health care 
system accessible to all;

	(f)	Consider strengthening/developing legal frameworks for land 
management, access to land resources and land ownership - in particular, 
for women - and for the protection of tenants;

	(g)	Rehabilitate degraded resources, to the extent practicable, and 
introduce policy measures to promote sustainable use of resources for basic 
human needs;

	(h)	Establish new community-based mechanisms and strengthen existing 
mechanisms to enable communities to gain sustained access to resources 
needed by the poor to overcome their poverty;

	(i)	Implement mechanisms for popular participation - particularly by 
poor people, especially women - in local community groups, to promote 
sustainable development;

	(j)	Implement, as a matter of urgency, in accordance with 
country-specific conditions and legal systems, measures to ensure that 
women and men have the same right to decide freely and responsibly on the 
number and spacing of their children and have access to the information, 
education and means, as appropriate, to enable them to exercise this right 
in keeping with their freedom, dignity and personally held values, taking 
into account ethical and cultural considerations.  Governments should take 
active steps to implement programmes to establish and strengthen preventive 
and curative health facilities, which include women-centred, women-managed, 
safe and effective reproductive health care and affordable, accessible 
services, as appropriate, for the responsible planning of family size, in 
keeping with freedom, dignity and personally held values, taking into 
account ethical and cultural considerations.  Programmes should focus on 
providing comprehensive health care, including pre-natal care, education 
and information on health and responsible parenthood and should provide the 
opportunity for all women to breast-feed fully, at least during the first 
four months post-partum.  Programmes should fully support women's 
productive and reproductive roles and well-being, with special attention to 
the need for providing equal and improved health care for all children and 
the need to reduce the risk of maternal and child mortality and sickness;

	(k)	Adopt integrated policies aiming at sustainability in the 
management of urban centres;

	(l)	Undertake activities aimed at the promotion of food security and, 
where appropriate, food self-sufficiency within the context of sustainable 
agriculture;

	(m)	Support research on and integration of traditional methods of 
production that have been shown to be environmentally sustainable;


	(n)	Actively seek to recognize and integrate informal-sector 
activities into the economy by removing regulations and hindrances that 
discriminate against activities in those sectors;

	(o)	Consider making available lines of credit and other facilities for 
the informal sector and improved access to land for the landless poor so 
that they can acquire the means of production and reliable access to 
natural resources.  In many instances special considerations for women are 
required.  Strict feasibility appraisals are needed for borrowers to avoid 
debt crises;

	(p)	Provide the poor with access to fresh water and sanitation;

	(q)	Provide the poor with access to primary education.

(c)	Data, information and evaluation

3.9.  Governments should improve the collection of information on target 
groups and target areas in order to facilitate the design of focused 
programmes and activities, consistent with the target-group needs and 
aspirations.  Evaluation of such programmes should be gender-specific, 
since women are a particularly disadvantaged group.

(d)	International and regional cooperation and coordination

3.10.  The United Nations system, through its relevant organs, 
organizations and bodies, in cooperation with Member States and with 
appropriate international and non-governmental organizations, should make 
poverty alleviation a major priority and should: 

	(a)	Assist Governments, when requested, in the formulation and 
implementation of national action programmes on poverty alleviation and 
sustainable development. Action-oriented activities of relevance to the 
above objectives, such as poverty eradication, projects and programmes 
supplemented where relevant by food aid, and support and special emphasis 
on employment and income generation, should be given particular attention 
in this regard;

	(b)	Promote technical cooperation among developing countries for 
poverty eradication activities;

	(c)	Strengthen existing structures in the United Nations system for 
coordination of action relating to poverty eradication, including the 
establishment of a focal point for information exchange and the formulation 
and implementation of replicable pilot projects to combat poverty;

	(d)	In the follow-up of the implementation of Agenda 21, give high 
priority to the review of the progress made in eradicating poverty;
	(e)	Examine the international economic framework, including resource 
flows and structural adjustment programmes, to ensure that social and 
environmental concerns are addressed, and in this connection, conduct a 
review of the policies of international organizations, bodies and agencies, 
including financial institutions, to ensure the continued provision of 
basic services to the poor and needy;

	(f)	Promote international cooperation to address the root causes of 
poverty.  The development process will not gather momentum if developing 
countries are weighted down by external indebtedness, if development 
finance is inadequate, if barriers restrict access to markets and if 
commodity prices and the terms of trade in developing countries remain 
depressed.

Means of implementation

(a)	Financing and cost evaluation

3.11.  The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual 
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be 
about $30 billion including about $15 billion from the international 
community on grant or concessional terms.  These are indicative and order 
of magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by governments.  
This estimate overlaps estimates in other parts of Agenda 21.  Actual costs 
and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional, will depend 
upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes governments decide 
upon for implementation.

(b)	Capacity-building

3.12.  National capacity-building for implementation of the above 
activities is crucial and should be given high priority.  It is 
particularly important to focus capacity-building at the local community 
level in order to support a community-driven approach to sustainability and 
to establish and strengthen mechanisms to allow sharing of experience and 
knowledge between community groups at national and international levels.  
Requirements for such activities are considerable and are related to the 
various relevant sectors of Agenda 21 calling for requisite international, 
financial and technological support.

A21: Combating Poverty (Ch. 3), Advance CopyPage 1




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