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Poverty in ASEAN

According to World Bank, nearly 10 percent of world population is living under

indigent life conditions. The extremely poor conditions are defined as 1.90 dollars or less per

one day. (The World Bank, 2016) However, extreme poverty has been decreased rapidly since

1990 from 35 percent due to the successful strategies mostly in Asia. Poverty is addressed to

be global issue that challenges all nations. (Yosephine, 2016) As well as ASEAN, one strong

association in the Asian region, which has been dealing with poverty for a long time. ASEAN

Millennium Development Goals has shown the potential of positive growth, which we can

expect the ongoing progress.

Still South Asia has experienced the condition of poverty for a long time. Especially

in South East Asia, as ASEAN is formed for helping each others in the region of 11 nations.

They share several physical features and history together. Eventually, ASEAN citizens are

almost getting away from the extreme poverty conditions as 1.90 dollars per day, but some of

them still are considered or consider poor. The great cause behind the problem is inequality

between each parts of the countries. The resource management is not associated with the

growth rate of population leading to not enough sanitary, healthcare, education, and

opportunities equally to all of the people. The unfair distribution created the prolonged term

of poverty. Fortunately, the issue has been addressed in global region and specified for each

nation. From the UN committee in 2000, the world leaders brought up Millennium

Development Goals or MDGs as a standard for enhancement the living conditions and

stabilizing the problems that directly affects people.(MillenniumProject,2016) The goals are

set separately into 8 major categories: 1. Halve the extreme poverty (less than 1 dollars a day)

and hunger 2. Ensure that every boys and girls is able to finish primary school 3. Eliminate
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all gender disparity in all level of education system 4. Reduce two-third of under-five child

mortality rate. 5. Reduce three-quarters of maternal mortality ratio. 6. Reduce and try to

reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. 7. Sustain and reserve the loss of environmental resources.

8. Decreasing in debt and raising remote area development.

In ASEAN nations, MDGs provide a guideline for the problem solving along with

developing of the entire countries. In Malaysia and Thailand, most of the indicators are

achieved, but some issues need to be addressed more like HIV in Malaysia and environment

in Thailand. However, only few countries achieve or on the track, there are some poor

countries with several off-track indicators. For overall condition, the poverty have been

decline for the previous decade, no one longer live with 1.25 dollars a day. (Jakarta Post,

2016)

From the indicators, Vietnam can be called as one of the most successful followers of

MDGS. The first indicators of poverty and hunger has been addressed steadily. The poverty

rate has decreased 50 percent from the beginning in 1990 to only 20 percent for the entire

country. It is one of the most impressive result and following on track as other indicators have

been focused in order to raise the living conditions to the level of global standard. However,

some indicators are quite low and still further away from the succession. Most of the issues is

staying around the rural area of Vietnam, as the government difficulty giving help. HIV/AIDS

rate had decline properly from good education and hygiene. Disparities of ethnic groups

occur in rural part of the country, but the most important issue is poor resources management

and reservation in many areas. (United Nation, 2012)

In Laos, progress towards meeting MDGs are processed steadily in the last 15 years.

The result is quite appreciated, however, the first goal on reducing the poverty has been

declined, but the overall poverty condition does not meet the expect position. The growth in
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economic situation hasnt solve the problem in overall country. Disparities and inequality are

still occur in many regions of Laos due to difficulty in access to the areas. The investment in

road infrastructure is on the track of national development, but the in many regions, roads

have not been built successfully and efficiently. To stabilize the issue, the experts suggest to

use profit from other resource sections to support other remote part of economic and

development. Laos should issue the disparities in order to dissolve the gaps between rural and

urban regions. However, Laos is successfully achieve other goals of MDGs with high rate of

potential which are mostly closed to the target from the committee in 2015. (UNPD, 2015)

Poverty is the pain of human which ruins millions of people around the world. It

bothers any place where faces with unequally and it occurs in most part of this planet.

Poverty is inevitable conditions, but it is able to solve. South East Asia region is no exception

even though it, full of resources and people, it has huge impact of disparities and leads to

poverty and inequality among their citizens. However, the world leaders are paying attention

to the issue closely as well as the SEA leaders who continue solving the condition. With

common goals MDGs, the nation easily follows the plan with great process that has benefit to

its own people. The progress has been shown clearly throughout ASEAN nations where

poverty is greatly declined. It is effective and benefit programs that should be continue in

order to stabilize the global equality and improve life conditions of the ones who lack of

opportunities. The world will be better without poverty.

1031 words

The World Bank (2016). Poverty Overview. Retrieved from

http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview
Yosephine, L. (2016). ASEAN succeeds in reducing poverty rate, says expert. Retrieved from
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/25/asean-succeeds-in-reducing-
poverty-rate-says-expert.html
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ASEAN Ministers Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (AMRDPE).

Retrieved from http://asean.org/asean-socio-cultural/asean-ministers-meeting-on-
rural-development-and-poverty-eradication-amrdpe/
Biodiversity Information Sharing Service. (2010). Poverty: A social challenge that must be
addressed. Retrieved from http://chm.aseanbiodiversity.org/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=142&
United Nations (2015). The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015. Retrieved from
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev
%20(July%201).pdf
UNPD (2015). Report of the ASEAN Regional Assessment of MDG Achiement and Post-
2015 Development Priorities. Retrieved from
http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/sites/default/files/regions/report_asean_regiona
l_assesment_of_mdg_achievement_and_post2015_development_priorities.pdf
MillenniumProject (2006). What are they?. Retrieved from
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/
ASIASOCIETY.ORG (n.d.). Introduction to Southeast Asia. Retrieved from
http://asiasociety.org/education/introduction-southeast-asia
United Nations (2012). Vietnam and the MDGs. Retrieved from
http://www.un.org.vn/en/what-we-do-mainmenu-203/mdgs/viet-nam-and-mdgs-
mainmenu-49.html