According to many indicators, poverty has decreased overthe last 30 years.
Obviously, it all depends on the definition of poverty and on the way poverty
lines are being defined but, since 1960, the occurrence of major famines has
all but disappeared, life expectancy has substantially increased, infant mortality
has declined, so has the adult illiteracy rate (UNDP, 1996). According to
some experts, more people have escaped from poverty in the last 50 years
than in the last 500 years. Why then should there be such a concern for poverty
alleviation?