New York, June 30, 2020.- Cuba participated today in the Virtual high-level meeting for the launching of the Alliance for Poverty Eradication, an initiative promoted by the Nigerian President of the 74 session of the General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande.
Ambassador Ana Silvia Rodríguez Abascal, Deputy Permanent Representative and Chargé d´Affaires a.i. to the United Nations, who participated in the event, expressed that Cuba firmly believes that the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest challenge facing humanity, and its elimination is a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development.
Therefore, she explained, it is necessary the creation of opportunities and rights for all, to exercise basic human dimensions such as education, health, employment, safety and social assistance, food and nutrition, legal guarantees, access to culture, sports and recreation, among others, all of which guarantees not only material satisfactions but also integral human development.
In the Cuban case, added the top diplomat, different levels of monetary income do not deprive Cubans of access to services in the above-mentioned areas, ensuring universal and free access to social services such as education and health for all, while many others are highly subsidized.
Cuba currently ranks the second country in the world with the lowest value in the Multidimensional Poverty Index; according to the Oxford University´s initiative of the same name. The island also stands as the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean that has eliminated severe child malnutrition according to the UNICEF, and the fifth country among the first 14 that have managed to steadily reduce the index of hunger and malnutrition for several years, according to the Global Food Policy Report, she claimed.
The high official, also expressed that South-South cooperation makes a significant contribution to the collective endeavors to address eradication of poverty, including in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Cubaminrex- Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations)