Emerging World Statistics
“One of the greatest success stories of the last thirty years is the explosion of micro-loans. Millions of desperately poor people have received tiny loans of $75, $200, or $500 so they could start small business and thus provide a better living for their families. We now know that micro-loans produce stunning transformation in poor communities.”
Dr. Ron Sider
“By spending less on ourselves, we can transform the lives of neighbors who will die unless we care.”
Dr. Ron Sider
“Thirty thousand children die everyday of hunger and preventable diseases.”
Oxfam America, “Fast for a World Harvest”
“Thirteen million people die every year from infectious and parasitic diseases we know how to prevent. Infectious and parasitic diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, and tuberculosis.”
World Health Organization, www.who.int
“In addition to the 1.2 billion who live in almost absolute poverty, another 1.6 billion are very poor, living on two dollars or less a day. That means that a little less than half of the world’s people (2.8 billion) try to survive on two dollars a day or less.”
Christian Century, November 12, 1975
“Only 59 percent of India’s population of 1.05 billion people could read in 2002.”
World Bank, World Development Indicators 2003
“The World Health Organization estimates that each day 6,000 children in developing countries die because of lack of clean water and sanitation.”
World Health Organization, Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report
“The United State contains 5 percent of the world’s population but accounts for 22 percent of fossil fuel consumption, 24 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, and 33 percent of paper and plastic use. A child born in the United States will create thirteen times as much ecological damage over the course of his or her lifetime than a child born in Brazil. He or she will drain as many resources as thirty-five natives of India.”
The Center for the New American Dream, www.newdream.org
"Angola is on the richest developing nations. It is the second largest Sub-Saharan oil producer and the forth largest producer of diamonds in the world. But 78 percent of the rural population lives in poverty. One in three children dies before they are five. Angola earns 7 billion from oil producers, but a billion dollars goes missing every year, used by the president to buy friends or pay off critics. In 1999, the government spent 41 percent of its budget on “defense and public order”, but only 4.85 percent on education and 2.8 percent on health”
Oxfam, Angola’s Wealth
“The World Bank reported in 2002” “Poor countries with around 3 billion people have broken into the global market for manufactures and services. The new globalizers have experienced large-scale poverty reduction: during the 1990s the number of their people who were poor declined by 120 million.”
The World Bank
“One glaring problem is that at least a quarter of the world’s people lack the capital to participate in any major way in the global market. About 1 in 4 people in the world have almost no land, very little money, and virtually no education.”
United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report, 2002
“The richest 5% of the world’s people have incomes 114 times those of the poorest 5%.”
United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report, 2002
“Women constitute more than 70 percent of the world’s poorest citizens.”
United Nations
“Women and children are more likely to be poor and malnourished and less likely to receive medical services, clean water, sanitation, or other benefits.”
Michael Todaro, Development Economist
“The rich must live more simply that the poor my simply live.”
Dr. Charles Birch, 1974
“The richest 20% of the world’s people receive 86% of the world income, while the poorest 20% get only 1.3%.”
The Simpler Way, Global Economic Justice
“The World Bank stated bluntly: “No country has achieved significant improvement in child mortality and primary education without government involvement.” “Governments should do less where markets work and more where they don’t”
The World Bank
“Government should invest in education, health, nutrition, family planning, and poverty alleviation, building social physical, administrative, regulatory, and legal infrastructure.”
The World Bank
