for a group of fifty-four developing countries that suffered a decline in
their income during that period.^49 Within this economic environment,
low-income countries, representing 40 percent of the world popula-
tion, stand among the most excluded, receiving barely 3 cents of every
dollar of wealth created worldwide.^50
The little headway that has been achieved in the fight against
poverty remains disappointing. Entire regions – Sub-Saharan Africa,
Latin America, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe – are home to a
greater number of citizens living on less than $1 a day than in 1980.^51
The situation in Sub-Saharan Africa has deteriorated to such a degree
that its per capita GDP fell by $200 between 1974 and 2000.^52
The standard of living in Central Asia is now comparable to that of
the least advanced countries. On the other hand, in places where
extreme poverty has actually diminished, the benefits of growth have
been shared in extremely unequal ways. In China, for instance, the
recent economic boom has considerably broadened the gap between
the country’s coastal and rural regions. Ultimately, economic success
seems to depend far less on individual talents and skills than on geo-
graphic or ethnic origins, and gender. Gender stands out as a particu-
larly decisive ground for discrimination, given that women constitute
the vast majority among vulnerable groups such as refugees, unregis-
tered workers, the poor, and the hungry.
The problem of poverty in wealthy nations is, of course, less severe
than in the developing countries. The North is nevertheless charac-
terized by very acute economic disparities. In countries as different as
the United States, Italy, and Sweden, income gaps expanded between
1980 and 1990.^53 In the United States, the richest 1 percent of the
population has seen its share of national income increase steadily over
the last decades. In 2000 that share was 17 percent, a level that had
(^49) UNDP,Human Development Report 2003: Millennium Development Goals:
A Compact among Nations to End Human Poverty, New York, Oxford
50 University Press, 2003, p. 34.
UNCTAD, “UNCTAD XI Press Room: Trade and Poverty,” Geneva, 2003
51 (www.unctadxi.org/templates/Page____508.aspx).
52 World Bank,World Bank Development Indicators 2004,p.3.
United Nations Foundation, “Many African Economies Worse off Than after
Decolonization,” New York, UN Wire, May 27, 2004 (www.unwire.org/
UNWire/20040602/449_24458.asp).
(^53) World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization,A Fair
Globalization, p. 43, Figure 16.
Two tales of globalization 71