"extreme poverty" and "deprivation", since the region still has extreme deprivation. In 2002, at the $1-a-day measure, extreme poverty estimates revealed that almost 690 million Asian were poor. Using a more "generous" poverty threshold of US$2 a day, 1.9 billion Asians were poor, with South Asia home to the most.
As measured by FAO, 16% of the Asia and Pacific region was undernourished, but this comprised 64% of the world's undernourished population. Since 1995-1997, Asia and the Pacific have reduced overall the number and prevalence of undernourished people. However, recently the number of undernourished again increased. From 2001 to 2003, India had the most, 212 million, undernourished, followed by China with 150 million. The other Asia and Pacific countries together had 162 million undernourished (FAO, 2006c). Girls and women in poor households were included in the "hunger vulnerable" group. Poor maternal nutrition and health can be the hub of the vicious cycle that passes hunger from one generation to another, with reduced capacity among children with low birth weights to be productive adults (FAO, 2005b). Nutritional deficiency among women and children in South Asia is a major crisis in the making.
On average, two out of every three malnourished children in the world live in South and Southeast Asian countries (FAO, n.d.). Malnutrition and underweight prevalence in children under 5 years in developing ESAP countries is about 31%, compared with 28% for all developing countries. In Bangladesh, India and Nepal nearly 50% of children less than 5 years are underweight. The estimated deaths per 1000 live births of children younger than 5 years in 2002 was less than ten for Australia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore, and around 100 for India and Myan-mar. Gains in nutrition have not been equitable in the same country nor in the region, with many poor and landless not benefiting as much as the rest of the population. In some cases, the use of chemicals and irrigation often associated with the Green Revolution have had a negative effect on human health, through vector- and waterborne diseases, pollution of water supplies and direct exposure to pesticides.
Sanitation, access to potable water and nutrition could be improved for about three-quarters of people in urban areas and one-third of the people in rural Asia and some of the developing Pacific Island nations. Most countries in Asia improved their sources of drinking water, but about 1 billion people still did not have access to safe drinking water (WHO, 2004; WRI, 2005).
In recent times ESAP faced threats to human well-being from economic turmoil, epidemics, and ethnic and political conflicts. Notable were the East Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in early 2000, increasing HIV incidence, and currently, the highly pathogenic avian influenza. ESAP countries demonstrated resilience by coping or recovering from these crises to achieve well-being targets, but the effects remain.
The East Asian economic crisis threatened sustainable growth that undermined economic, health, food security and educational opportunities. In 1997/1998 millions of people fell below the poverty line and created concerns over labor rights. Women in low-paid labor were most severely affected (Jones, 1998; Heller, 1999). In 2003 a major threat came from the SARS outbreak. It affected the regional econ- |
|
omy and was contained within a year, illustrating the resiliency of the countries. Recently, HIV and avian influenza have been significant threats to human well-being, with both health risks and economic consequences.
In 2006 about 8.6 million people lived with HIV in Asia, including 960,000 people who became newly infected in 2005. In Oceania, about 7,100 people acquired HIV in 2006, bringing to 81,000 the number of people living with the virus, three-quarters of whom lived in Papua New Guinea (UNAIDS and WHO, 2006). Women comprised 13% of adults with HIV in East Asia, the Pacific, and South and Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, India, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Thailand, infection rates among women aged 15 to 24 were higher than among their male counterparts.
The human welfare effect of HIV and AIDS on economic output was likely to be felt hardest in the household. The economic impact was predicted to be severe where millions lived under US$1 a day. Two major causes for financial and material burden were a drastic increase in healthcare expenditures and severe reduction in income of patients and caregivers. In a rampant epidemic, local economic loss can accumulate and drag down national economic growth. Epidemics significantly affect the labor supply (ESCAP, 2003). The labor loss in agriculture from HIV and its economic burden on rural households affect rural economic viability and capacity to innovate. Another threat to human well-being has been the avian influenza epidemic, a human health crisis that could have adverse global economic effects.
Agricultural Livelihoods and Poverty
Across the region, far more poor lived in rural than urban areas (ADB, 2004). Gender-differentiated poverty and poverty among children were frequently observed and often cited. Asia and the Pacific has nearly two-thirds of the world's poor, and two-thirds of the region's poor are women. Poverty is particularly acute for rural women (ADB, 2004). The proportion of the poor in the region varied by country and within countries. In all countries, the major groups of rural poor were the landless, marginal farmers, tenants and indigenous people. The region's less favored areas were home to about 40% of the rural poor. They were rainfed farmers, forest dwellers, highlanders and indigenous peoples. Agriculture productivity was low in upland areas, where ethnic minority groups dominated (IFAD, 2002a).
In South Asia rice farming, arid and rainfed mixed farming demonstrate extensive poverty. In East Asia and the Pacific there is extensive poverty in upland intensive mixed, pastoral and arid farming. In pastoral and arid farming, drought brings on poverty. In all farming systems economic alternatives to farming that are undertaken include off-farm work.
Alternative Systems to Access Food
Most of the developing countries in the region have a large population dependent on agriculture; the region also has many food-deficit, low-income countries. The region is home to many hungry people and rural poor. Farming systems include off-farm work as a livelihood strategy. Hence, the government and external agencies such as the UN and nongovernment organizations deployed programs to im- |