NEW YORK — More than half of Asia's population — 1.8 billion people — live on less than $2 a day; more than 600 million of them try to survive on less than $1 a day.
With food prices now soaring, most of Asia's "working poor," who are already struggling on degraded lands, in sweatshops, on streets and at homes, risk further destitution. Yet the Asian Development Bank — an institution whose mission is to reduce poverty — last month approved a new corporate strategy (entitled "ADB Long Term Strategic Framework 2008-2020") that is ominously silent on the importance of employment and social protection for the poor.
A handful of influential ADB bureaucrats with large salaries, secured pensions, comprehensive health insurance, subsidized housing and education for their children have apparently decided that financing subsidized housing, health, nutrition and child protection programs is not a priority. Nor do they consider land reform, employment services or pensions for all Asians a priority.