Global Context

Global Context

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS END OF POVERTY 2015

 

Inclusive Development – Poverty to Sustainability
20% RICHEST PEOPLE CONSUME 76.6%
20% POOREST PEOPLE CONSUME 1.5%
MIDLE 60% CONSUME 21.9%
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon UNHQ

08 March 2012, Excerpts of Secy. Gen. Report on Achievements & Challenges:

 

Achievements

  1. First, the World Bank has announced that preliminary estimates indicate that the global target of cutting by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty was achieved in 2010.

    In addition, the number of people living in extreme poverty has also declined in all regions of the world, including in Africa where challenges are greatest.

  2. Second, this week a joint UNICEF/WHO report announced that the world has met the MDG target of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
  3. Third, the world has made progress in driving down tuberculosis, with 40 per cent fewer deaths compared to 1990, and global malaria deaths have declined by nearly a third over the past decade.
  4. Fourth, we now see near parity in primary education between girls and boys.
  5. Fifth, we have achieved the MDG target of significantly improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers – ten years in advance of the 2020 deadline.

    These are major achievements.

Challenges

  1. The global figures mask massive disparities between and within regions and countries.

    Only 61 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa have access to improved sources of water, while the level in most other regions is 90 per cent or higher.

  2. Only 61 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa have access to improved sources of water, while the level in most other regions is 90 per cent or higher.

    Furthermore, with 2.5 billion people lacking improved sanitation, the world is unlikely to meet the MDG sanitation target. Lack of sanitation is also a major obstacle to girls’ school attendance.

  3. Many people who have escaped extreme poverty are still vulnerable. Their incomes have not risen sufficiently to protect them from shocks. Hunger remains a global challenge.
  4. Hundreds of millions of children are undernourished. Stunting affects almost 200 million children worldwide. And the absolute numbers of people living in slums continues to grow.

    We know that national ownership and leadership are central to success. We know that well-directed financing brings development dividends. We know that innovations – in technology, medicine, social policy and service delivery – can bring dramatic change.

    And we know that partnerships work.

    Every Woman Every Child is now a global movement, set to save 16 million lives. We plan to make a similar impact with Sustainable Energy for All and the Scale Up Nutrition program.

    Our new partnerships facility will harness public and private partnerships to achieve the MDGs and support sustainable development. Working together, governments, the United Nations family, the private sector and civil society can succeed in tackling the greatest challenges.

    As the 2015 deadline is fast approaching, we must be united and steadfast in our resolve to accelerate progress and achieve the MDGs. This is my commitment to build the future we want.

     

    Thank You.

 

Share of World’s Private Consumptions

 

Major initiatives by the countries:

 

Brazil

Brazil’s Lemon Bank has signed distribution partnerships with seven local banks, under which agreement, the seven banks will be able to use Lemon’s network of non-bank distribution partners such as drugstores and supermarkets to distribute loans to their clients. Signatories to the agreement are banks BIB, RS Crédito Financiamento e Investimento, Pine, Máxima, BVA, Bomsucesso and Morada. Lemon Bank is the only bank in Brazil to operate exclusively through distribution partners. The bank operates a similar distribution agreement with local banks BMG, BGN, BMC and the Brazilian unit of GE Money. The partnership model represents an alternative to credit access for Brazil’s 45 million people above 18 who do not have a bank account.

 

Brazil: Banking correspondents

 

Banking correspondents (BCs) are a full-service retail channel that Brazil’s banks have developed using technology (POS devices and communications networks) and business arrangements with grocery stores, drugstores, gas stations, other retailers, the postal company, and the lottery outlet chain. The BCs offer many services, including deposits, withdrawals, bill payments, new account openings, money transfers, insurance, airtime top-up and government benefit and pension receipts. Forty-one percent of Brazil’s adult population does not have a bank account.

 

The largest operators of BCs are:

 

Caixa Economica (state-owned, 14,000 BCs)

Banco Postal, run by Banco Bradesco (private, mostly postal outlets, 7,900 BCs).

Banco Popular, owned by Banco do Brasil (state-owned, 6,200 BCs)

Lemon Bank (private, 3,500 BCs)

These BCs now serve every municipality in Brazil, including remote places reachable only by many hours of travel in a boat or plane. Since 2000, when the model first emerged, these banks have together opened about 8 million new current accounts, largely for people that did not have bank accounts earlier.

 

South Africa

With around 45 million people, the number represented majority of adult black people, 13 million (2002) adults did not have any access to basic financial services. The Government had a clear commitment to the social and economic development of all South Africans, specifically the poor and marginalized of society.

Public private partnership was established to use existing distribution networks of banks, government and other bodies. Thus was born the MZANSI account, a National Bank Account (NBA) product that caters for the needs of the “un-banked” population of South Africa. It was envisaged that NBA will attract 4 million potential customers over period of 5 years. In its first year of operation itself, it has garnered nearly two million accounts.

 

Some of the features of the MZANSI Account:

 

The product is:

  • Card based
  • Limited to the services it will provide to the potential customer
  • Launched at a very affordable price

 

Mexico

Mexico has given the local unit of the world’s biggest retailer the go-ahead to provide consumer banking services. Wal-Mart de Mexico is planning to win customers at branches it will set up at its 576 stores. Wal-Mart, Mexico’s largest retailer by sales, will compete against some of the biggest multinational banks, including Citigroup and HSBC Holdings, which regulators say lend too little and charge too much in interest and fees. Mexican authorities say they hope Wal-Mart, i

 

Nigeria

Nigeria: Oceanic Bank International Plc says it has removed bottlenecks associated with opening savings accounts in Nigeria with its new product: “Oceanic Easy Save Account“. According to the bank with this product a customer could just walk into any branch of Oceanic Bank without any identification, passport photograph or initial deposit and open an account. With this, the bank has seemed succeeded in removing bottlenecks associated with savings as its officials will take the customer’s passport photographs on the spot and ensure they get free ATM card. The maximum process period has been put at ten minutes. The product basically is meant to make savings easier for Nigerians and ultimately to encourage savings culture among Nigerians.

 

The Easy Save account not only saves time, it also offers convenience and security of knowing that the customer has an account with the bank without any deposit and that all that is required is for the account to be funded within 60 days of opening. The new account is designed as a product that is accessible to all people within the economy to act basically as a stress-free account with minimal account opening documentation requirements.

 

Inclusive Growth for All