I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development
Report.
A new report says an increase in development aid has improved health and
education levels in some of the world's poorest countries. But the United
Nations report says poverty rates in these countries are not improving overall.
Development aid has increased since 2002. Still, the report says
severe poverty continues to worsen, in part because of H.I.V./AIDS.
Environmental conditions also add to poverty. The report says climate change
already affects many low-lying and island nations, and more problems are likely
in the years to come.
The report does show some areas of progress, however, which it credits to
direct aid. For example, there are signs of improvement in many countries in
elementary education and adult-reading levels. Other social measures including
equality between males and females are also improving, but remain the lowest in
the world.
Many of the fifty countries rated as least developed have
had strong economic growth in recent years. More than half recorded average yearly
growth rates of four percent or more between 2000 and 2004. The report
notes the effects of economic reforms, and the gains that oil producing
countries have made from high oil prices.
But in eighteen of the least developed
countries, the economies shrank between 1990 and 2004. And seven of these nations also
saw a drop in their life expectancy, often because of AIDS.
For example, the life
expectancy of people in Lesotho
dropped sharply between 1990 and 2005. It fell from fifty-eight years to
thirty-six.
The report says that in many of the poorest countries, high birth rates are
reducing the effects of economic improvements. So is a lack of equality when it
comes to who gets resources.
The report is for a meeting this September of the U.N. General Assembly.
Delegates will discuss progress halfway through a ten-year Program of Action for
the Least Developed Countries.
Of the fifty, thirty-four are in Africa south of the Sahara. Fifteen are in
Asia and the Pacific. And one is in the Caribbean: Haiti. Anwarul Chowdhury, the
U.N. High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, called on the world
to continue to help them.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Brianna Blake. If
you would like to read and listen to all of our reports online, go to
voaspecialenglish.com I'm Shep O'Neal.
life expectancy : 平均壽命
（來源：VOA 英語點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）
