It is said that the poor will be with us always. But between 1990 and 2007, Jamaica has managed to reduce, by more than half, the number of persons living below the poverty line.

Jamaica is a signatory to the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals. One of the objectives is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.

The country's specific target was to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and whose income is less than one dollar a day by 2015.

"We have already more than halved the proportion of people living below the poverty line from over one in four in 1990 to one in 10 in 2007," read a section of the first draft of the National Report to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) annual ministerial review to be held in Geneva later this year.

Draft overview

But all is not well.

"An overview of our performance in relation to the Millennium Development Goals tells much of our story: where we have succeeded, where our success is not necessarily significant at our level of development, where we are failing and why, and our solutions," the draft document said.

The report was perused recently at a national consultative workshop at the Oxford Road offices of the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

The overview of the report was done by social development consultant Jenny Jones. It is to be finalised for submission.

The draft report, which deals with international development goals and commitments to public health, noted that "while one in 12 persons was food-poor in 1990, now it is one in 35".

The document also stated that undernutrition of children below five years of age has declined substantially from one in 12 children in 1990 to one in 45 today.

As a matter of fact, the document pointed out that obesity among young children is now cause for concern.

Distribution of income

While there are fewer people living below the poverty line, distribution of income remains a problem.

"We are not satisfied that the level of inequality has not moved. As in 1990, when the poorest quintile consumed only six per cent of national consumption while the wealthiest quintile consumed 46 per cent, so in 2007 these proportions were 6.8 per cent and 45 per cent respectively," read another section of the draft report.

The nation's children are also unequally affected by poverty, with an average of 22 per cent living below the poverty line, the report said. This was attributed to the fact that poor households often include many children.

"Equity has, therefore, become a renewed focus of the Government of Jamaica," the report said.

The report also stated that the country was very close to universal primary education as over 90 per cent of the nation's children are enrolled in primary school at the appropriate age.

Dr Sheila Campbell Forrester, chief medical officer in the Ministry of Health and Environment, read the notes of Health Minister Rudyard Spencer, who was absent.

Health gains

"Jamaica has made gains in those goals that relate to public health. Our comprehensive HIV-control programme has maintained adult HIV prevalence at 1.5 per cent for over a decade," read Campbell-Forrester.

She also said that the transmission of HIV from mother to child was reduced from 25 per cent to five per cent. The country also saw a reduction in its child mortality rate which declined from 32 per 1,000 live births to 25 per 1,000 live births.

However, infant mortality was steadfast at 19.8 per 1,000 live births.

At the same time, the country's maternal mortality rate declined from 110 per 100,000 in the year 2000 to 95 per 100,000.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com