This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
The United Nations Population Fund has released a new study onthe condition of the world’s population. The main idea of the reportis poverty and its relationship to population issues. It says thatseveral steps need to be taken immediately to reduce poverty by halfby the year two-thousand-fifteen.
The first is to improve health care systems. In the world’spoorest countries, people are expected to live just forty-nineyears. One in ten children do not reach their first birthday. Thestudy says that poor health and poverty are linked.
The report also says that women are affected most by poor healthcare systems, especially pregnant women. It says that betterreproductive health can reduce poverty and build economic growth.The report says family planning and helping women avoid unwantedpregnancies are also ways to reduce poverty.
The study says that when given a choice, poor people indeveloping countries have fewer children than their parents did.Smaller families have fewer expenses and more chances to increasetheir earnings and savings.
Since nineteen-seventy, developing countries with lower birthrates and slower population growth have had faster economic growth.They have had higher productivity, more savings and more investment.
The report also notes that poor people are more at risk for theinfection that causes AIDS. This is because they lack the knowledgeand power to protect themselves against the disease.
The report says that investing in education, especially forwomen, can also reduce poverty. Educated women have more choices inlife and are more likely to send their children to school. The studyfound that the right to an education has improved over the past tenyears. However, poor people in many developing countries are stillless likely to attend school. The report urges governments to changethis and make sure all citizens learn to read and write.
The U-N study also says that women and men should be treatedequally. This means that legal and human rights for women should bestrengthened, as well as their ability to earn money and speak outsocially and politically.The U-N report says that half the world’spopulation live on less than two dollars a day. One-thousand-millionpeople live on less than one dollar a day.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss.