« Peace, to have meaning for many who have known only suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health, and education, as well as freedom and human dignity »
Ralph Bunch, undersecretary-general of the United Nations from 1959 to 1971 and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.
Text engraved in the ground at United Nations Plaza in New York, cited by Jean Ziegler in “Empire de la honte” 2005
The fight against poverty is a strategic priority for the international community, as one of the « Millennium Development Goals » (MDGs).
In a global context, the human and economic challenges raised by the persistence of massive poverty concern as much the North as the South. All over the world, the fight against poverty is part of the combat against humiliation, the reduction of inequalites, and the activation of fundamental rights, which are at the heart of the dynamics of democracy and peace.
In every respect, the fulfilment of its commitments to the fight against poverty is, for all signatory states, a moral and political obligation, an obligation in particular to free up all necessary means.
All observers are agreed that the current financial mobilization is not enough. The general secretary of the UN has emphasized the shocking nature of this penury, in a context in which there is a permanent increase in military spending.
On the one hand more than 1000 billion dollars devoted to military budgets in all countries; on the other, the financial needs of the fight against poverty, estimated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNPD) at 80 billion dollars a year over 10 years, which would enable all human beings to have access to drinking water, food, education and basic health services.
With regard to these figures, the conversion of military spending to human development investments constitutes a credible financial prospect aimed at meeting the objectives of the fight against poverty.
In both the North and the South, given accumulated surpluses, a first phase of reduction in military spending could be initiated without adversely affecting defense capacities.
In the North and in the South, plans to convert military budgets would open the way, without further financial efforts, for redirecting budgetary allocations for the benefit of public policies of combat against poverty, precarity and expulsion.
In both the North and the South, these increased means should favour notably the setting-up of structural innovations, particularly the extension of social protection plans to include all workers, and the mobilization of young people to help fight poverty and exclusion.
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