Aid to rural poor needed to stem migrant crisis, UN says
Fixing the migrant crisis requires rich nations to invest in rural areas and agriculture in the world's poorest countries, the UN said Wednesday. "There can be no sustainable solution to the migration crisis without a poverty eradication-oriented strategy to transforming rural economies" in least-developed countries (LDCs), the head of the UN's Conference on Trade and Development, Mukhisa Kituyi, said in a statement. The UNCTAD's annual report on the 48 economies categorised as LDCs detailed the extent of rural poverty afflicting many areas, including incomes languishing as low as $0.10 (0.09 euros) per day in parts of Africa. The report said that raising those incomes, and improving economic prospects more generally for the rural poor could help contain unsustainable migration flows because it would force less people to leave their home areas to find work. UNCTAD urged donor nations to honour a long-standing commitment to give 0.7 percent of their gross national income to international development and ensure that significant funds were channelled to rural and agricultural development. Since the LDC category was established 40 years ago, only four countries have broken out of the status: Botswana, Cape Verde, Maldives and Samoa. Of the world's 48 remaining LDCs, 34 are in Africa, nine are in Asia, with Haiti and four small Pacific island nations rounding out the group.
