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(Date Posted:18/04/2008 13:04:10)
Mauritian Vice-Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Rama Sithanen, said on Friday that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) cannot afford to lose the battle against poverty. Addressing the conference on poverty and development that began at the Swami Vivekananda Hall in Port-Louis, the minister painted a rather gloomy picture of the situation which, he said, calls for greater efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to halve poverty by 2015". "With a 3% average economic growth rate over the last decade, our chances of breaking the poverty cycle are very slim," he said. He said that 45% of the population within the SADC were living in poverty, and that in addition, due to the lack of revenues, millions of people must overcome diseases and are facing all sorts of disasters. Sithanen also said millions of children lacked access to education. SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Augusto Salomao, on his part, said the nature of poverty in the region required concerted actions at the regional level, which implies concentration on new targets and approaches. "We must favour the poor in our strategies and assist where they are mainly in the informal sector. They are also farmers or employed in farms. Most of them are youths and women who live in rural areas or in the city suburbs," he said. The consultative conference, which is being attended by about 400 delegates from the 14 members countries of the SADC, ends on Saturday On Sunday, SADC heads of states will address the theme of poverty and development at the same venue.
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