DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Reports Show Some Conditions Worsening

DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Reports Show Some Conditions Worsening in Developing World
By Jill Moss¹

Broadcast: Monday, December 20, 2004

This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report.

Some new reports about conditions in developing countries offer little to celebrate.

Carol Bellamy of UNICEF says half of the more than two thousand million children in the world "are growing up hungry and unhealthy." The United Nations Children's Fund says the biggest threats are poverty, war and HIV/AIDS.

The UNICEF report defines² child poverty as the lack of at least one of seven services needed to survive, grow and develop. These are shelter, food, safe water, health care, clean living conditions, education and information. UNICEF and British researchers found that at least seven hundred million children lacked two or more of these services.

The report also says almost half of all people killed in war since nineteen ninety have been children. And, in some African countries, the spread of AIDS has meant high child death rates and shorter life expectancy³.

UNICEF noted⁴ progress made under the Convention⁵ on the Rights of the Child, a nineteen eighty-nine international treaty. But it says these gains are threatened in several areas. In fact, it says child poverty has also risen in some developed countries.

Carol Bellamy, the head of UNICEF, says too many governments are making choices that "hurt childhood."

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported that at least five million children each year die because of hunger and poor nutrition. The F.A.O. says there were eight hundred fifty-two million hungry people in the world between two thousand and two thousand two. That number was up eighteen million from five years before. The F.A.O. says hunger costs developing countries thousands of millions of dollars a year in lost productivity⁶ and national earnings⁷.

Low wages were a subject for the International Labor⁸ Organization. This U.N. agency says half of all workers earn less than two dollars a day. The percentage is lower than in nineteen ninety. Still, the number of people is estimated at a record one thousand four hundred million.

Foreign aid might help with jobs. Yet the group Oxfam International reported that the aid budgets of wealthy nations are half what they were in nineteen sixty.

Next year, Britain will lead both the Group of Eight major industrial nations and the European Union. The government has promised to make the fight against world poverty one of its main goals.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen.

1 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

2 defines   

规定( define的第三人称单数 )； 使明确； 精确地解释； 画出…的线条

参考例句：

• This name defines us all. 这个名字造就了我们。 来自演讲部分
• The range of incomes over which this happens defines the 'poverty trap'. 发生在这种情况的收入范围，称为“贫困陷阱。”

3 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 convention   

n.惯例，习俗，常规，会议，大会

参考例句：

• How many delegates have checked in at the convention?大会已有多少代表报到？
• He sets at naught every convention of society.他轻视所有的社会习俗。

6 productivity   

n.生产力，生产率，多产

参考例句：

• Farmers are introducing in novations which increase the productivity.农民们正引进提高生产力的新方法。
• The workers try to put up productivity.工人设法提高生产率。

7 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。