GLOBALISATION AND THE NEO-LIBERAL OFFENSIVE/23income levels. It formulated a human poverty Index that looks at
more than just monetary criteria.
The criteria used are:
- the percentage of people at risk of death before the age of 4 0;
- the adult Illiteracy rate;
- services made available by all sectors of the economy. To
determine the quality of these services, three factors are
examined: the proportion of people lacking access to clean
water supplies; those lacking access to healthcare services; the
proportion of children under the age of five suffering from mal
nutrition (p. 15).
Once formulated, the UNDP applied these criteria to a list of 78
Third World countries with reliable data. In spite of obvious
monetary poverty, some countries are able to cushion the effects of
this poverty by guaranteeing access to a number of services. 'At the
head of the list are Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Chile, Singapore and
Costa Rica, In that order. These countries have managed to reduce
human poverty to an HPI of less than 10 per cent. In other words,
thanks to these countries' specific efforts, less than 10 per cent of
their population suffers from human poverty' (p. 22). According to
this system of classification, Cuba - In spite of the US blockade - comes
second, rising 39 points from Its standing In a list of Third World
countries evaluated according to another UNDP Index, the Human
Development Index (HDI).
THE FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY AND THE OPPRESSION
OF WOMEN
The femlnlsatlon of poverty becomes apparent when one sees the
UNDP estimate that women account for 70 per cent of the 1.3 billion
people recognised as living below the threshold of absolute poverty.
Workforce participation Is Indeed a key factor, but women also
have to bear the burden of the household's and family's well-being.
Structural adjustment programmes and their array of social spending
cuts hit women harder than men. Women struggle dally to make up
for the difference between decreasing Incomes and Increasing prices.
Paying for medicine, food and school Is now a virtual Impossibility for
a large number of women and their children. Where opportunities