People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
United Nations Development Programme: Eradication of Poverty
From developing nations to long-established developed nations, poverty is an issue the whole world faces. As the United Nations, we each have a voice in this topic and experiences to contribute. In order to eradicate it, we must understand what it is. The definition of poverty is up to interpretation and can be subjective in terms of the standard of living in a country. It is not the idea of poverty that is to be eliminated but the lack of opportunity for certain classes to climb. Certain aspects of a society may be the root cause of the put down of a class of people— transportation, health services, communication, education, etc. Depending on the country, having these available to any common citizen may eradicate poverty, allowing anyone to climb the ladder towards comfortable living.
The People’s Republic of Algeria has faced recent challenges with poverty. We still work on this today; however, through government decisions, we have greatly reduced our poverty levels. In 1995, our poverty levels were at 14.1%, but by 2011, this decreased to 5.5%. These changes are mainly due to Algerian government decisions. Algeria created the Finance Bill 2016 which allocated funds towards education (15.9%), health (7.9%) and employment assistance (4.7%). As a result, Algeria’s literacy rate for fifteen and above has increased by 30% since 1990. Though beneficial, this is still not enough. Algeria’s wealth gap is incredibly high between the wealthy and the poor. This is mainly due to our high unemployment rates. Though education is easier to come by and health treatment more accessible, this does not help with the lack of available jobs. The Algerian government has offered programs to financially assist the jobless as well as job opportunities through youth agencies. One million people became employed as a result, but this is only a small dent.
Algeria fully supports any effort to assist those in poverty. However, Algeria would like to see a detailed resolution for eradicating poverty in countries because providing a general outline such as more accessible education will only help a select few. With our previous experiences, the Algerian government understands the complexity of each country and their specific needs to eradicate their own forms of poverty. We’d like to see multiple resolutions passed so that all countries may be included or one specific resolution divided up for groups of similar countries. Algeria would recommend more active governments in the cases of their poorer citizens, providing agencies for citizens to work and increased support towards all people’s progression through funds or public education.
- Annika Santos
