Most rural families remain trapped in poverty, which remains pervasive despite the country's impressive growth
BANGKOK (AlertNet) – East Timor may be enjoying double-digit economic growth but most rural people remain stuck in a poverty trap, an independent U.N. human rights expert says.
The richest Timorese enjoy almost 180 times the wealth of the poorest, added Magdalena Sepulveda, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
“While the country has witnessed a recent decline of income poverty to an estimated 41 percent in 2009, poverty ... remains pervasive and widespread,” she said in a statement after a six-day visit.
“Of the 75 per cent of the population living in rural areas, the majority remains entrenched in intergenerational cycles of poverty.”
Of East Timor’s projected 2012 budget of $1.8 billion, 6.3 percent of expenditures will go to education, less than 3 percent to health and about 1 percent to agriculture, compared to nearly 50 per cent to infrastructure.
The U.N. expert cautioned against this approach, noting “economies with higher levels of social spending enjoy higher levels of economic growth, as healthy and educated people make more productive workers”.
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