UN report warns poverty goals likely to be missed

The infant death rate for African Americans in Washington DC is higher than that in the cities of the Indian state of Kerala, the United Nations has warned as part of a damning review of poverty and inequality around the world.

Published ahead of next week''s summit in New York to review progress in meeting goals to halve extreme poverty by 2015, the UN''s human development report says: US health indicators are far below those that might be expected on the basis of national wealth.

The report, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), says the outcome is due partly to persistent and extreme disparities between people from different social and ethnic groups, as shown by recent images of poor black people stranded in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

The findings reflect a new focus by the UN upon differences within countries as well as between countries, as policymakers try to think of new ways to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs), agreed in 2000.

India and China, which have both enjoyed sustained economic growth, face worrying challenges. There are worrying indications that social progress is starting to lag behind economic performance, with the slowdown in the rate of reduction in child deaths a special concern.

The UN notes that China spends 5 per cent of its GDP on health, but public spending now amounts to less than 2 per cent of GDP.

The erosion of public funding, it says, has resulted in a mismatch between need and provision, with per capita spending in urban areas 3.5 times that in rural areas.

Between 70 and 80 per cent of the rural population have no health insurance. Children living in the poorest parts of rural China face far greater health risks, and the gap is widening. The mortality rate for under-five-year-olds ranges from 8 per 1,000 in Beijing (comparable to the US), to 60 in the poorest parts of Gui zhou (comparable to Namibia).

一、参考译文

联合国警告说，美国首都华盛顿特区非裔美国人的婴儿死亡率高于印度喀拉拉邦各城市。该警告是联合国评估世界各地贫穷和不平等现象报告的一部分，联合国对这些现象表示强烈不满。

这份报告指出：“美国的健康指标远远低于根据国家富裕程度所预期的水平。”此前联合国曾制定目标，希望到2015年将极端贫困人口减半。下周联合国将在纽约召开峰会，回顾实现这一目标的进展。在峰会前，联合国发表了这份人类发展报告。

联合国开发计划署(UNDP)发布的这份报告表示，这种结果部分是由于不同的社会群体和族裔群体之间存在着“持久的”和“极端的”不平等。最近美国新奥尔良的贫穷黑人因飓风卡特里娜受困的景象就表明了这一点。

该报告的结论反映了联合国在贫困问题上的新的关注焦点：不仅关注国家之间的不平等，而且也关注国家内部的不平等。目前，各国的政策制定者试图想出新方法，以实现2000年达成的千年发展目标(MDGs)。

印度和中国经济持续增长，但也面临令人担忧的挑战。联合国的这份报告说：“有令人担心的迹象表明，社会发展正开始落后于经济表现，儿童死亡率下降速度放缓尤为令人担心。”

联合国指出，中国花费国内生产总值的5%用于健康医疗，但公共支出目前占国内生产总值的比例不足2%.