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Mr. Chair,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the onset I align Pakistan with the statement made by Egypt on behalf of G77 and China.
Mr. Chair,
No wonder eradication of poverty appears as Goal No. 1 in sustainable development agenda as many other goals stem from it.
For example poverty is the root cause of hunger (Goal 2), poor health and education (Goal 3&4), clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), decent work and economic growth (Goal 8), and even environment.
We believe eradication of poverty is the single biggest challenge that the world has been facing for the last many decades.
However we have seen decline in world poverty but still it is still worrisome that 783 million people in the world live below poverty line.
Mr. Chair,
Poverty is born out of political, economic, social and historical factors. The problem gets even worse in an irrational international political and economic order amidst unbalanced development.
Once Nelson Mandela said, “Like slavery, like apartheid, poverty is not natural, it is manmade and can be overcome by actions of human beings.”
Poverty eradication requires not only national endeavours from developing countries, but also joint efforts from the international community.
Developing countries need to work out poverty reduction strategies in light of their own situation and change the state of underdevelopment through self-reliance and hard work.
Mr. Chair,
In Pakistan we have taken a number of initiative such as establishment of Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), which focused on eliminating poverty in Pakistan and is one of the largest establishments spending on the poor.
PPAF facilitates public-private partnerships that have a mutual goal to achieve social and economic change in Pakistan by addressing the multi-dimensional issues of poverty.
Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is another initiative, whose vision is eradication of poverty and elevating the status of marginalized and under privileged sections of society, especially women, through establishment of comprehensive social protection net.
BISP is dedicated to fight poverty by employing multiple social protection instruments designed to bring a sustainable positive change in the lives of persistently excluded and deprived families.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan has recently announced that provision of 05 million housing especially to the low-income groups and regularization of irregular housing (katchi-abadis) is a priority of the present government.
The 05 million housing project, besides addressing housing issues would be a force multiplier in generating economic activities through creation of jobs and providing a boost to allied sectors of construction and eradication of poverty.
Mr. Chair,
We consider financial inclusion, a prerequisite for optimal economic growth and financial stability. It is essential for pulling people out of poverty and achieving economic and development goals.
Pakistan’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy was launched in May 2015. It has been developed through an intensive consultative process.
It aims to provide broad based access of financial services enabling access to credit, formal savings, insurance, and payments. This will facilitate financial wellbeing of the masses.
Mr. Chair,
We onsider, developed countries are duty-bound to render more assistance to their developing counterparts, making good their commitments on financial aid, technology transfer on mutually agreed terms, debt relief and market access in particular to eradicate poverty.
We believe that the achievement of sustainable development and the eradication of poverty also hinge on the ability and readiness of countries to fulfil official development assistance (ODA) commitments and use ODA effectively.
International organizations must play a greater role in the global campaign against poverty, pressing for implementation of follow-up actions of relevant international conferences and exploring new ways to better support the global efforts on poverty reduction.
We consider inter-agency, system-wide plan of action for poverty eradication coordinating the efforts of the United Nations system in its advisory and programmatic support to Member States very important.
We look forward to the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2018–2027) and hope that it will maintain the momentum generated by the implementation of the Second Decade and will support the implementation of internationally agreed development goals related to poverty eradication, including the Sustainable Development Goals and their objective of leaving no one behind.
Mr. Chair,
We believe achievement of poverty eradication is a global good and entails responsibility on each and every individual of the world.
I thank you.