VOA标准英语2014--One Billion at Risk of Extreme Poverty 大约十亿人面临极端贫困风险

 

One Billion at Risk of Extreme Poverty 大约十亿人面临极端贫困风险

Climbing out of extreme poverty -- and staying there – can be very difficult. A new report warns up to one billion people are at risk of extreme poverty by 2030 unless more is done to support them in hard times.

Unemployment, poor health, high food prices, conflict and natural disasters – these are some of the things that can drive people below the poverty line of $1.25 a day.

The Overseas Development Institute and the Chronic¹ Poverty Advisory² Network have released the Third Chronic Poverty Report.  Network Director Andrew Shepard -- the lead author -- warns of poverty’s “revolving door.”

“People fall into poverty as well as escape it. And once they’ve escaped it they can fall back in again.”

He said there are three legs of poverty that must be addressed.

“You can be poor the whole of your life, chronically³ poor. And policies, generally speaking, don’t deal very well with that. You can become poor. You can be impoverished⁴. Policies are beginning to address that a little bit better than they did 10 years ago, but there’s still a long way to go on that, especially in Africa, and actually also in Asia. And then once you escape poverty, you need to keep on in an upward trajectory⁵. You need to keep on moving away from poverty because you can easily fall back in again,” he said.

It’s estimated there were 1.2 billion people in extreme poverty in 2010. That’s a decline of 700 million since 1990. Shepard says that’s good news, but the trend may not continue.

“People who are chronically poor, they’re poor over their lifetimes for reasons and those reasons can be quite hard to tackle. For example, they might be discriminated⁶ against. And some countries now have good policies against discrimination, buy many countries don’t yet or they don’t implement⁷ them.”

Shepard said that the most frequent cause for falling back below the poverty line is ill health.

The report recommended three approaches to – what it calls -- zero poverty.

“The first of these is providing some sort of cash relief, if you like -- cash transfers or an employment guarantee. Something which provides a safety net. The second thing is a massive investment in education because education works to help people out of poverty – to keep them going in the right direction. And education, of course, works to sustain peoples’ escapes out of poverty provided that you can get them up to a high enough level,” he said.

Primary and secondary education levels are a must, he said.

The third step to reduce poverty is called “pro poorest economic growth.”

Shepard said, “You need jobs, of course. And those jobs can be agricultural, non-agricultural, but jobs also need to be decent. They need to pay some kind of minimum wage. That can be underpinned⁸ by an employment guarantee. And you need health and safety provisions.”

The report called on all countries to have universal health coverage⁹ and good disaster risk management to deal with the weather extremes of climate change.

It also said international aid “will continue to be extremely important in low-income countries.” However, it adds, “few donors¹⁰ have displayed real interest in tackling chronic poverty.”

“The report does an analysis, which shows that there are about 44 countries which spend a total of less than $500 per person per year. That’s on everything. And the report also indicates that quite a few of those countries – I think it was 19 – won’t be doing very much better by 2030,” he said.

Shepard said countries also can find more money to help tackle poverty by doing a better job of collecting taxes.

He said some of the success stories in reducing poverty in recent years include China, Vietnam, Brazil, Ethiopia, Nepal and Bangladesh.

The issue of chronic poverty is expected to be addressed as the international community decides how to replace the Millennium¹¹ Development Goals. They come due next year. 

Last October, the World Bank reported the number of people living in extreme poverty had declined sharply in the past three decades. But it warned about 400-million children continue to live in “abysmal conditions.” 

 

Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the goal of ending poverty -- and boosting shared prosperity -- can be achieved, but only if nations “work together with new urgency.”  Those efforts, he said, must include education and health care for children.

1 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

2 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

3 chronically   

ad.长期地

参考例句：

• Similarly, any pigment nevus that is chronically irritated should be excised. 同样，凡是经常受慢性刺激的各种色素痣切勿予以切除。
• People chronically exposed to chlorine develop some degree of tolerance. 人长期接触氯气可以产生某种程度的耐受性。

4 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

6 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

7 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

8 underpinned   

v.用砖石结构等从下面支撑（墙等）( underpin的过去式和过去分词 )；加固（墙等）的基础；为（论据、主张等）打下基础；加强

参考例句：

• The report is underpinned by extensive research. 这份报告以广泛的研究为基础。
• The statue of Diana was underpinned with charred piles. Diana雕像是建造在炭化了的木桩上的。 来自辞典例句

9 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

10 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。